“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” (John 14:15-21)
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We are on the 6th Sunday of Easter, still in the context of the Last Supper. Jesus is taking leave of his disciples, and in that farewell he makes a precious promise: he will send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. The Gospel begins and ends speaking of love — “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” and “whoever loves me will be loved by my Father” — and between these two points lies all the richness of the promise of the Paraclete.
It is also a profoundly Eucharistic context. When Jesus says “you in me and I in you”, we cannot forget that all of this is happening at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist (even though the evangelist does not narrate it). And it follows on from last Sunday’s Gospel, in which Jesus affirmed his unity with the Father (“I and the Father are one”, “whoever sees me, sees the Father”). Today that same unity extends to the Holy Spirit: the entire Trinity appears in this promise.
We have chosen five points for this week’s meditation based on the podcast (https://youtu.be/0PPoBkZM-LA?si=UM53m9ThXRQPbWFh), which you can watch with subtitles in your language.
- Another Advocate
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate.” (Jn 14:16).
The liturgy translates this as “Advocate”, but the Greek term is Paraclete (Parákletos) — literally “the one who is called to be at one’s side” (from pará, beside, and kalein, to call). When the Fathers of the Church translated it into Latin, they used advocatus (ad-vocare, to call alongside), from which our word “advocate” comes. That is why the liturgical translation as “Advocate” also fits.
But the original Greek meaning is broader than the Latin legal one. The Paraclete is the one who is at your side to defend, yes, but also to console, intercede, correct, call you back to the right side. He is the one who says, “look, you are going the wrong way, come this way”. He is consoler in the full sense: the one who restores hope to those who are sad and fallen.
And note: Jesus says “another Advocate”. Because the first Advocate is he himself. Saint John, in his first Letter, says it explicitly: “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 Jn 2:1). This “other” whom Jesus promises is the Holy Spirit — distinct from him as a person, but one with him in divinity.
- The Spirit of truth
“The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept…” (Jn 14:17).
Jesus contrasts the Spirit of truth with the spirit of the world. Not the “world” in the sense of “God so loved the world” (Jn 3:16) — that “world” is the humanity God came to save. The “world” here is the fallen world, under the dominion of the Evil One, marked by the three concupiscences of which Saint John himself speaks: the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jn 2:16). It also recalls what Pope Francis used to call spiritual worldliness.
This world cannot receive the Spirit of truth because it lives in lies, in appearances, in double-speak. The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, leads to coherence — to the “yes, yes; no, no” of the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5:37). The question each of us has to ask in prayer is: by which spirit am I being led? Where am I being taken? By the spirit of the world or by the Holy Spirit?
And there is yet a second aspect. Last Sunday Jesus presented himself as “The Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). Today he promises the Spirit of Truth — the Spirit of Jesus himself. It is the same Spirit who makes the hearts of the disciples of Emmaus burn when they recognise that he is the Truth. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32).
- I will not leave you orphans
“I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you.” (Jn 14:18)
This is one of the most tender promises in the Gospel. Jesus is leaving, but he assures: you will not be left alone in the world. And the promise is fulfilled in two ways: in the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost — whom the Sequence of Pentecost calls Father of the poor — and in the presence of the Risen Christ himself, who remains with us in the Eucharist “…all days, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).
But it is important to note: the Spirit comes as “Father of the poor”. He comes for those who recognise themselves as needy, the anawim, the poor of Yahweh (cf. Zeph 2:3). Those who are proud, who are full of themselves, who are self-sufficient — they do not receive the consolation. The Spirit consoles those who weep: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mt 5:5). One must recognise oneself as orphan to receive the Father. One must recognise oneself as thirsty to receive the Living Water (cf. Jn 4:10-14).
- You know him — he will be in you
“You know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.” (Jn 14:17).
Here Jesus plays with two verb tenses: present and future. “You know him, because he remains…” (present) — because the Holy Spirit was already there, present in Jesus himself; and “and he will be in you” (future) — because the Spirit would come in another way at Pentecost, dwelling within each disciple.
It is the “already and not yet” so characteristic of Saint John. “We are already God’s children, but what we shall be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jn 3:2). The disciples already knew the Spirit through Jesus, but they would still receive from him a new outpouring — torrential, burning, in tongues of fire.
And there is the dimension of indwelling: “will be in you”. It is not the Spirit as an external force, like a wind passing by. It is the Spirit who dwells, who makes his home, who becomes a permanent inner presence. And this indwelling is also Eucharistic — when we receive Communion, the Lord enters into us; when we receive the Spirit, he makes his dwelling in us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 6:19).
- “I am in the Father, you in me, and I in you”
“On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you.” (Jn 14:20).
This is the Trinitarian heart of today’s Gospel. Last Sunday, Jesus affirmed his unity with the Father: “whoever sees me, sees the Father” (Jn 14:9). Today that same unity extends to the Holy Spirit and — even more — extends to us. We are invited to enter inside the Trinity.
This is the high dignity of the Christian: we are not called only to contemplate the Trinity from outside, but to dwell within the mystery of love that is God himself. The Father loves the Son and gives himself entirely to him. The Son gives himself back entirely to the Father. And this mutual love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit dwells in us, it is into that love that we are inserted.
That is why today’s Gospel begins and ends speaking of love: “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” and “whoever loves me will be loved by my Father”. The one who unites the Father and the Son is love. The one who unites us to Christ and to the Father is the same love — the Holy Spirit.
And this unity is not only inward. In the priestly prayer (cf. Jn 17), Jesus will pray: “that all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so that the world may believe”. Evangelisation is conditioned by unity. The first Christians knew this: “see how they love one another”, the pagans would say of the Christian communities. The witness of mutual love is what converts the world. When, in the midst of plagues, the pagans fled the cities and the Christians entered them to care for the sick, it was the love of the Holy Spirit that was speaking — and it was a very strong force of conversion.
Steps for Lectio Divina
Reading (lectio)
Take your Bible and read the Gospel of John 14:15-21 calmly. Read it once to know it. Read it a second time to let the words touch you. Read it a third time, underlining the word or sentence that most speaks to your heart today.
Meditation (Meditatio)
- Jesus promises another Advocate. In what area of my life do I most need this Advocate today? Where am I being accused, where do I feel alone, where do I need someone “at my side”, where do I need to be consoled?
- By which spirit have I let myself be led? By the Spirit of truth or by the spirit of the world? What worldliness still has space in my heart?
- “I will not leave you orphans.” Do I recognise myself as poor, needy, thirsty for the Spirit, or am I self-sufficient, full of myself?
- Am I aware that, through Baptism, the Holy Spirit dwells in me? Do I treat my body, my heart, my life as a temple of the Holy Spirit?
- How can I, this week, be a concrete sign of the unity of the Trinity among my own — in the family, at work, in the community — so that the world may believe?
Prayer (Oratio)
“Lord, first of all we thank you for the goodness of sending us another Advocate, the Consoler. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit in the grace of Baptism, in sanctifying grace, in the actual grace of every day. Thanks to the Spirit we remain in You, thanks to the Spirit we are one with the Father, as You are one with the Father. We thank you also for the Eucharist, in which you remain with us all days until the end of the world.”
“In these last weeks of the Easter Season, preparing for Pentecost, we ask you, Lord: open our heart to receive your Holy Spirit. Give us a true thirst for your Spirit. As the deer longs for streams of water, may our soul thirst for You, and full of that thirst may we come to Pentecost as to the fountain of waters to be satisfied. Send, Lord, your Spirit of truth.”
“And to you, Mary, most holy Virgin, we consecrate each one of us and all those who entrust themselves to our prayers. Intercede for us, that the Holy Spirit may descend upon each one as new wine, as living water.”
Hail Mary…
Contemplation (Contemplatio)
Stay in silence before the Lord. You don’t need to say anything. Let the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, pray within you. “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings” (Rom 8:26).
Action (Actio)
This week, choose a concrete gesture of unity — a reconciliation, a word of peace, care for someone who is alone. May this gesture be a sign of the Spirit who dwells in you, “so that the world may believe”.
See you next week!
Shalom!
Watch the podcast on this Sunday’s Gospel (https://youtu.be/0PPoBkZM-LA?si=UM53m9ThXRQPbWFh) by selecting the subtitles of your preference.
