Blaise Pascal, a French Mathematician, Physicist and a religious philosopher said,
“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”
In John 18:38, Pilate asked Jesus, “what is truth”? In our gospel today Jesus said to his disciples that he was going to ask the Father to give them another advocate to be with them forever, and this advocate is the spirit of truth. To know the truth and abide by the truth is doing the will of God and the truth is Jesus himself he makes it clear that if we love him, we should obey his commandments. Jesus also emphasized on the unity of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
(John 14:20).
The Spirit will guide us into all truths we know the advocate because we have seen him, but the world has not. We must therefore allow the Spirit of truth to work in us for the world to know him and receive him as well.
When the spirit of truth is with us the word that we present to the world will be filled with power and signs and wonders will follow and this is the manifestation of the Spirit of truth which will be at work in us. Philip filled with the Spirit went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. He did not do it with his own power but through the empowerment of the Spirit of truth the advocate.
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement:”.(John 16:7-8)
It is not our own power but the power of the Holy Spirit, when we work with him and allow him to work in us people will be liberated wherever we find ourselves.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
We must always be prepared, armed with the word of God and ready to proclaim Christ and the hope he brings to the whole of humanity. Brethren we can only know God through his word, be obedient to him and be fervent in prayer. We cannot give what we do not have therefore if we want to present Christ to the world, we must know him and the power of his resurrection. When we move with spirit, we will be able to present him to the world with courtesy, respect and with clear conscience.
It is not easy to present the truth to people who know nothing about it but one thing we must know is that it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong. If you are doing the right thing, never be worried because the advocate will never leave you, he will be with you till the end. We should go through this knowing that Christ himself, innocent though he was had died once for sins, died for the guilty in order to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death but in the spirit, he was raised to life.
No matter the problems you are facing he will turn it around, just live by the truth and obey him always. His word is very clear, he will never leave us comfortless because he is alive and by virtue of that we can face the future without fear. When we love Jesus, the spirit dwells in us, Jesus will dwell in us, we will see him at work in all that we do, and the truth will be proclaimed in every corner of the world. AMEN.
Fr. Josiah Myles Abadoo