THE HOLY SPIRIT AS OUR ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, Sixth Week of Eastertide

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138:1-3,7-8; Jn 16:5-11

The Holy Spirit as our Advocate

We have seen the role of the Holy Spirit as the principal witness with whom a Christian works to present Jesus Christ to others. As we have posited, the cutting edge for the Christian witness is love for God above all things and love of the other for God’s sake. We are to love others, not in a worldly manner, but with the same love with which the Father loved us in Jesus Christ. Hence, the Holy Spirit is given to us as an indwelling divine guest. He pours the love of God into our hearts daily so that we may love as God has shown us in Christ. Though our love suffers diminution due to our fallen human nature, Christian love is truly the divine love flowing through us as through a channel. The more we are open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and transparent with his love, the more effective our witnessing becomes. The Holy Spirit gives us new birth in love and makes that love a principle of our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is rooted in God, the Father of spirits. On this basis, Jesus explained to his disciples the importance of his going away. “Still, I must tell you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Our Lord’s going implied he has finished the redemptive work of man in principle. The Holy Spirit will not come to us without Jesus finishing his work, and we cannot be adopted as children of God. Thus, it is of great advantage for us that Jesus ends his earthly ministry. The Spirit is the principal witness to Jesus Christ. We have considered the role he plays in the work of evangelization in the previous reflection. Because he is the interior witness who shines the light of truth in the interior man, he is to convict the world and each person about sin by the interior light of truth which makes each person see his shortcomings and experience his reluctance to believe and fall in love with Jesus Christ. He would also show us how righteous Jesus Christ lived by the divine manifestations which he gives at the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ. By the same divine power exhibited by his presence and administration of Jesus’ merits on men, he frees souls from the stranglehold of evil and sin. “And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgment: about sin: proved by their refusal to believe in me; about who was in the right: proved by my going to the Father and your seeing me no more; about judgment: proved by the prince of this world being already condemned.”

Now, regarding his role as the Advocate, he is the one who dwells within us to nurture our spirits in the act of prayer and the art of living the spiritual life. This role is basically for us and our interaction with the Father; he helps us to receive what is due us from the heavenly court. While the risen Lord is our Advocate at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit is our Advocate within and intercedes in union with our spirits. There are two areas where our sins hinder his work with us. First, they make us unable to transmit the Father’s love to others. Second, they also prevent us from getting what we ask in prayer from the Father. Thus, the Spirit convicts us as he does the world. He also subjects us to purifying trials to make us purer and transparent to the love of the Father. An example of such a purifying trial is what St. Paul and Silas underwent in prison. Their sufferings and trials made the love of God touch many souls and brought them to conversion. The Holy Spirit presents our trials and sufferings patiently borne before the Father for the answers we pray for and the conversion of souls. “Sirs, what must we do to be saved? They told him, ‘Become a believer in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household too.” Through these purifications, he configures us into Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to open our hearts to your Holy Spirit who dwells within us, that we may be purified from every sin and affectation of evil, and bear more effective witness for your love in the world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BECOMING A DEPENDABLE FRIEND

Image
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 6:5-17; Ps 119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk 10:1-12 Making and being a Good Friend The usefulness of a faithful friend is the subject discussed in the passage of Sirach we are considering. From the qualities that make a good friend, we understand that faithfulness depends on the perfection we attain in the formative school of wisdom. The first lesson we learn in nature is faithfulness. The quality of faithfulness is so closely aligned with nature that we consider nature and faithfulness synonyms. The faithfulness of nature, and subsequently of wisdom, is hinted at when we read that wisdom stands at her post/gate daily to beckon the passers-by to turn in and partake of her table. Everything that God made participates in this faithfulness of wisdom in the sense that each remains faithful to his will without failing or leading our minds astray. First, Sirach admonishes us on friendliness to people in general: “A kindly turn of speech multiplies a ...
Read more

UNDERSTANDING OUR AFFLICTIONS

Image
ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 1:6-22; Ps 17:1-3,6-7; Lk 9:46-50 Salvation of the Just from the affliction of evil We have the beginning of Job in the first reading today. The reading has many hidden lessons we can learn to foster our relationship with God. The first that seems very obvious is the fact of Satan attending to God with the sons of God. By this, we must understand that every rational creature of God is among his sons. They all attend to God, from whom they receive life and sustenance. God sustains all his creatures in being, both material and immaterial creatures. They also ask God for permission to carry out a course of action. Nothing moves in the heavens and on earth without God knowing and permitting it. The attending of rational creatures is what we call prayer. The good and bad angels pray to God for permission to carry out actions or bring about ends that agree with his divine will. God usually hears or permits these prayers based on his divine justice in acco...
Read more

The offsprings of the Old man and the New Man

Image
Monday, fifth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Offsprings of Old man and New Man To be able to live the new life within the new Covenant in Jesus Christ, the old life must come to an end. The distinctive difference between the old man and the new man is the focus of desires. The old man and all who live by him have their desires focussed on the satisfaction of self. On the other hand, the new man and those living by him desires only to fulfil God's holy will. Thus, the old man and his offspring obey the law of sin and death. Living for self alone breeds sins, and sin causes death. So, the old man and all living by him are dead and harbingers of death to others. They are adept at manipulating the Law of God to perpetuate their interest and selfish desires. An example of this skill is the treatment the two old judges of Israel in Babylon meted out to Susanna, wife of Joachim, employing the Law of Moses as given in the first reading. “Two elderly men had ...
Read more