Gospel: John 16:12-15  The Spirit will guide

In today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus is comfortable with an element of mystery. Speaking to the disciples before his arrest, Jesus is preparing them for the gift of the Spirit. The word he often uses is ‘Advocate’, meaning helper or comforter, indicating that the disciples will not be left to struggle on alone. We hear Jesus say that the complete truth is too much for the disciples now. The mystery of his life, death and Resurrection – and the implications they will have for his followers – all will become clearer in due course. The Spirit will guide them, he says.

Down through the years, the Church has attempted to put words on this great mystery of the Trinity. It was three hundred years after Jesus’ death before the Church spoke officially of God as One in Three Persons. A great deal has been written about the mystery since then. In recent times, C.S. Lewis described God as ‘a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost . . . a kind of dance’. As Jesus told the disciples, not everything is revealed at once. The Spirit is still at work among us, like a ‘dynamic activity’ or ‘dance’. The beauty of creation is constantly unfolding in front of our eyes. Thanks to the gift of science, we are discovering amazing things about our planet, our universe, our bodies and our minds. As humanity, as Church and as individuals our journey continues, with the Spirit gradually unveiling God’s message for our place and time. We don’t yet have all the answers about this beautiful life. Our task is to listen, and to be awake to the many ways God speaks to us and calls us into the life of God.

© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2021.  The Deep End: A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Luke.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2021.

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‘Circling around’ is all we can do. Our speaking of God is a search for similes, analogies and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. That’s the best human language can achieve. . . We are in the realm of beyond, of transcendence, of mystery.                                                         – Richard Rohr