John 3:16–18

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16–18 ESV – For God So Loved the World – “For God – Bible Gateway

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This is a verse so famous that even most Catholics can cite it chapter and verse. 😁

These three verses are so theological rich. They encapsulate Jesus’ role as savior and the reason that God the Father sent him. Showing also how our response has consequences that ultimately can not be ignored. That we need to respond to the love initiated by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It should be easy to dwell on verse 16 and respond in love. If only our egos didn’t rise in rebellion to this greatest good of all.

From the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible:

The earthly mission of Jesus is part of the heavenly plan of the Father, who displays the depth of his love through the sacrifice of his Son (Rom 5:8; 1 Jn 3:16; CCC 219). This verse marks a transition from the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1–15) to an extended monologue by either Jesus or the evangelist himself (3:16–21). eternal life: The expression refers both to the divine quality of new life in Christ as well as its duration. We receive this gift already on earth in the hope that we will possess it irrevocably in heaven (10:10; 1 Jn 5:13).[1]

Peter Kreeft comments on an important aspect of the Trinity:

That’s the nature of the Trinity. God is a Trinity because “God is love.” Love itself is Trinitarian: for love to happen, there must be a lover, a beloved, and a loving relationship between the two persons, whether human or divine. And in God, that relationship is so real that it is itself a third eternal person. If God were not a Trinity, God could not be self-giving love because there would be no other selves to give himself to until he created us. And that’s impossible because God’s eternal nature can’t be dependent on our existence.[2]

John Bergsma also amplifies this:

Love is the essence of the Trinity. The Trinity tells us that God is not a monopersonal individual who had only himself to love before creatures were made. Self-love is an imperfect form of love. Therefore, God would have needed creatures to love in order to achieve perfection of love. God would have been imperfect in himself.[3]

God is love is reality and not some abstract label we assign to the concept of God. This was revealed to us progressively through both Testaments of the Bible. Even the Greek philosophers that were open that there is one God who holds existence in himself, did not make the move to a God that loves us intensely. An impersonal God was what they found through natural philosophy.

Continuing with Dr. Bergsma:

In other words, the reason we exist is to enter into the life and love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. So it’s fitting that at the beginning of every Mass, the priest has the option of taking the trinitarian greeting of Paul and proclaiming it and inviting us into that mystery. Because that’s really what every Mass is. It isn’t just the recapitulation and representation of Calvary. It is certainly that. It isn’t just the celebration of the Eucharist…although it’s certainly that. Every single Mass is a trinitarian mystery, and we’re being invited into the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.[4]

This love requires a response of faith as noted in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture on this Gospel passage:

Having set forth Jesus’ teaching about eternal life, which his cross makes available and into which believers are born by the Spirit’s action, the Evangelist now penetrates to the heart of this Gospel’s message: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. The Father’s love for the world leads him to give his only Son, his all, for the world’s salvation. The world is under condemnation and in spiritual darkness on account of sin, but the Father does not want any to perish (see 2 Pet 3:9). Hence he gives his Son so that the world might be saved through him. The gift of salvation, which the Father offers us all through Jesus, is eternal life: a participation in the divine life of the Trinity. We accept this gift through faith in Jesus. Faith is yielding to the action of the Spirit, who first moves a person to assent to what God has revealed and to commit one’s whole life to God. As Jesus will later tell a crowd, faith is our consenting to and cooperating with God’s work in us: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (6:44).[5]

There are of a couple things that Catholics might bring to mind if asked about the central mystery of the Christian faith. The answer Catechism gives might surprise them.

234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith.” The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”[6]

There is good reason that John 3:16 gets quoted and is a favorite verse of many. In the second half of John 3:18, we don’t want to think about when our response to this Trinitarian love is less than adequate.

St. John Chrysostom. Because however He says this, slothful men in the multitude of their sins, and excess of carelessness, abuse God’s mercy, and say, There is no hell, no punishment; God remits us all our sins. But let us remember, that there are two advents of Christ; one past, the other to come. The former was, not to judge but to pardon us: the latter will be, not to pardon but to judge us. It is of the former that He says, I have not come to judge the world. Because He is merciful, instead of judgment, He grants an internal remission of all sins by baptism; and even after baptism opens to us the door of repentance, which had He not done all had been lost; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) Afterwards, however, there follows something about the punishment of unbelievers, to warn us against flattering ourselves that we can sin with impunity. Of the unbeliever He says, ‘he is judged already.’—But first He says, He that believeth on Him is not judged. He who believeth, He says, not who enquires. But what if his life be impure? Paul very strongly declares that such are not believers: They confess, he says, that they know God, but in works deny Him. (Tit. 1:16) That is to say, Such will not be judged for their belief, but will receive a heavy punishment for their works, though unbelief will not be charged against them.[7]

St. John Paul II in Redemptor Hominis wrote:

Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer “fully reveals man to himself”. If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly “expressed” and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must “appropriate” and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he “gained so great a Redeemer”, and if God “gave his only Son ”in order that man “should not perish but have eternal life”.

… Unceasingly contemplating the whole of Christ’s mystery, the Church knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection.[8]

Sources

• The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979) | John Paul II
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A  ↩
3. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma  ↩
4. ibid  ↩
5. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
6. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩
7. St. John Chrysostom, Abp. of Constantinople, A.D.398. (Hom. xxviii. 1.)  ↩
8. Encylical letter “Redemptor Hominus”, Pope John Paul II, March 4, 1979  ↩

John 20:19–23

¹⁹  On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews,\❳ Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”²²  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

John 20:19–23 ESV – Bible Gateway

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For Pentecost, like the Ascension, the Gospel reading, in a sense, is trumped by the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles; which goes into more details. In this case our Gospel reading takes place on the night of the Resurrection when Jesus first meets with the majority of the Apostles in the upper room. For the Ascension, Jesus leaves the Apostles who are in a state of joy and our fully preparing themselves for the promise of the Holy Spirit spending time day and night in prayer.

This reading shows the Apostles in the midst of uncertainty and fear. They know something is going on and they have reports of Jesus’ return, but also knew their own precarious position regarding the authorities.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for this Gospel points out:

As he did in regard to Mary Magdalene, John provides insight into the spiritual disposition of Jesus’ disciples as they are gathered in Jerusalem. Mary came to Jesus’ tomb “while it was still dark” (20:1). The disciples are similarly gathered in the evening darkness, †signifying the absence of Christ the light and their own hopelessness. [1]

Peter Kreeft notes:

The disciples were cowering in fear behind locked doors because they thought, quite naturally, that those who had succeeded in killing Jesus would now come after them too. But Christ came through their locked doors, and he also comes through ours. For it’s not just keys but fear that locks our doors, especially the fear that God does not wholly love us and understand us and our weaknesses; that we cannot trust him completely. And pride, and the refusal to admit that we are in the wrong. But faith and love cast out fear. Even weak faith and love let him in. Open the door to him one inch, and he will come in a mile. [2]

Jesus appears amidst them and tells them “Peace be with you.” I think it is difficult to really envision this scene and the apostle’s reaction. The doors are locked to prevent intrusion and Jesus appears directly among them. They would be so very aware that the doors are locked. They truly were in need of that peace that Jesus was giving them in this circumstance. Plus what would they make of the fact that right after this Jesus shows them his hands and side, a demonstration of the wounds that still appear in his glorified body.

Returning to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture:

The presence of the wounds of crucifixion on the risen Jesus’ body is significant. They indicate that the body resurrected to glory is the same one that died on the cross (see Luke 24:39). Resurrection is not the return of a human being to ordinary mortal life but total transformation into a glorified mode of existence. As St. Paul wrote, the natural body is transfigured by the Holy Spirit into a glorified, “spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:44). The wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body reveal that he is forever fixed in the act of love in which he died. The love and sacrifice that he offered on the cross are forever present before the Father as “expiation for our sins, and … for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus’ wounds also signify that the victory of the resurrection comes only through the cross. Similarly, the Lamb in the book of Revelation bears the wound of his slaughter by which he accomplished the work of redemption (Rev 5:6, 9). In this way, St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing on the Venerable Bede, can speak of the wounds on Jesus’ resurrected body as “trophies” of his victory.[3]

Jesus shows them his wounds to show them that he can heal their wounds. That he would be healing and preparing them so that they in turn can heal and prepare others. Jesus makes this explicit when he repeats a blessing of peace on them and then tells them that he is passing on a mission to them given by his father. When Jesus breathes on them and institutes the sacrament of reconciliation, he is equipping them in the good news, the evangelium, for the forgiveness of sins. The very healing we all need the most. The shalom Jesus gives them, they in turn will give and pass onto to others who will find true peace in this sacrament. There is and will always be woundedness in the body of Christ, but there will also always be access to a remedy.

CCC 1462 Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular Church, has thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential discipline. Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the Pope, according to the law of the Church

In his book titled “The Life of Christ”, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen wrote:

“Then Our Lord breathed on them as He conferred some power of the Holy Spirit. When love is deep, it is always speechless or wordless; God’s love is so deep that it can be expressed humanly by a sigh or a breath. Now that the Apostles had learned to lisp the alphabet of Redemption, He breathed on them as a sign and an earnest of what was to come. It was but a cloud that would precede the plenteous rain; better still, it was the breath of the Spirit’s influence and a foretelling of the rushing wind of Pentecost. As He had breathed into Adam the breath of natural life, so now He breathed into His Apostles, the foundation of His Church, the breath of spiritual life. As man became the image of God in virtue of the soul that was breathed into him, so now they became the image of Christ as the power of the Spirit was breathed into them. The Greek word used to express His breathing on them is employed nowhere else in the New Testament; but it is the very word which the Greek translators of the Hebrew used to describe God’s breathing a living soul into Adam. Thus there was a new creation as the first fruit of the Redemption.…

“Three times the Holy Spirit is mentioned with some external sign; as a dove at Christ’s baptism betokening His innocence and Divine Sonship; as fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost as a sign of the Spirit’s power to convert the world; and as the breath of the Risen Christ with all of its regenerative power.”[4]

The mission that the Holy Spirit empowers is not for the Apostles and their descendants alone. We are also sent forth into the world to empower the spread of the good news.

St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote:

All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ, together with the Father’s and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us, … and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ’s sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity.[5]

Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C  ↩
3. aquinas54  ↩
4. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ (New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 1990), 420.  ↩
5. St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Jo. ev., 11, 11: PG 74, 561.  ↩

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV – Bible Gateway

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The Ascension is one occasion where the First Reading for the gives us the details since they do not reference it in any of the Gospels. It is the Acts of the Apostles that this event is told. The passage used is from the end of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus gives the disciples, and all of us, the Great Commission.

From the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for the Gospel of Matthew:

Placing the final scene in Galilee, Matthew brings the story full circle. This is where it all began, where Jesus grew into manhood (2:22–23), where the first apostles were recruited (4:18–22), and where the message of the kingdom first sounded forth (4:12–17). Readers have anticipated a return to Galilee since the prediction in 26:32 and the instructions given in verses 7 and 10. Galilee, the launching point for the Messiah’s mission to Israel, is now to become the take-off point for a mission to the whole world (v. 19).[1]

At the end of the 40 days Jesus stayed with them, they returned to “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.” (Acts 1:12)

It seems remarkable that it explicitly says some disciples (the eleven), that some doubted. Later on, after 40 days added to the years they spent with him, they are still asking questions as to restoring a political kingdom. (Acts 1:6)

More remarkable is how we still don’t fully answer this call to “make disciples of all nations” wanting to outsource it to others more capable.

From Peter Kreeft:

Christ explicitly connects our command to evangelize with his own authority. He says, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore,” go out and convert the world. Keep your eyes on me, he says, on my authority, not yours; not on your own fears and inadequacy, or other people’s resistance and rebellion, but on my authority, the authority of my truth and my love.[2]

John Bergsma makes this distinction:

Let us consider this catechetical mission a little more closely. The words of the Gospel do not say “teaching them all that I have commanded you,” but rather “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” It’s like the difference between a course in hydrodynamics and a course in swimming. You ought not to learn simply the theory of the buoyancy of bodies in water, but you must learn how to swim! We have sadly neglected this. With good intentions, we have taught many people about Christianity but not how to live the Christian life.[3]

There is such a gap between what we are called to do and what we do. Speaking from personal experience, this call is rather daunting when we have any inkling of the weight of it. The call overwhelmed some of the Prophets as I understand it now. A total change to their life that was not a call to personal comfort. We think first about the areas where we are lacking and can’t see that God can be exalted even in our weakness. Our brokenness is no barrier to this call. I am preaching to myself here because I am more willing to offer excuses than to offer myself more fully to Christ. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said, “You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.”

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible has these notes on this passage:

28:19 Go therefore: Christ’s commission to evangelize and catechize the world fulfills God’s covenant oath to Abraham that “all the nations” would be blessed (Gen 22:18; Gal 3:8). His outline for the Church’s mission is threefold: (1) Evangelizing all nations involves more than winning individuals; it entails the conversion of entire cultures. Every area of life must be brought under the Lordship of Christ and in line with the gospel. (2) The administration of the sacraments is essential to the Church’s mission and our response. Baptizing new converts is the first step in a long process of sanctification and participation in the life of the Church. (3) The transmission of all that Christ taught necessitates the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church to proclaim the gospel infallibly (cf. Jn 14:26). See note on Jn 16:13.

The Sacrament of Baptism incorporates Christians into the divine family of the Trinity as children of God (cf. Gal 3:26, 27). The single name of the Father, Son, and Spirit reveals the unity of God’s inner life and the oneness of his nature. This expression has become the normative baptismal formula for the Church (CCC [[849 (CCC)|849]], [[1122 (CCC)|1122]], [[1257 (CCC)|1257]]).[4]

Brant Pitre elaborates on the importance of the Ascension:

it is important to recall that the Ascension is a distinct event from the resurrection of Jesus. Sometimes these can get blurred in people’s minds. It is very important to remember that the resurrection is the reunification, the reunion, of Jesus’ body and soul into a new glorified state, and that happens on Easter Sunday. However, the Ascension, which takes place 40 days later, is, as the Catechism says, “the irreversible entry of Jesus’ humanity into divine glory.” So it’s a distinct event in terms of time, but also in terms of significance. And third and finally, as we will see in a minute—this is really important—the Ascension of Jesus is a bodily event. It’s not just the ascension of his soul into heaven—like our souls might go to heaven after we die—it’s the entry of his soul and his body into glory, as the catechism says in paragraph [[663 (CCC)|663]], Christ is “seated bodily at the right hand of the Father.” That’s what we mean when we say in the Apostle’s Creed, “he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”[5]

When Jesus gave us this mission, he knew how weak we were and that we would have to learn over and over we can do nothing without him. Our self-reliance will betray us time and time again. It is only when we fully see ourselves as unprofitable servants that we are opened up to glorifying him and making disciples. Here he reminds us he is with us “always, to the end of the age.” Else, where he reminds us that the Father loves us and the Holy Spirit has been sent to us as another advocate. We fail when we think we are all alone—nothing could be further from the truth—in fact, the Truth is seeking us.

From the Catechism:

CCC 659 “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” Christ’s body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. But during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus’ final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul “as to one untimely born,” in a last apparition that established him as an apostle.p[6]

Sources

• The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
• The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch  ↩
2. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A, Ascension  ↩
3. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma, Ascension  ↩
4. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament  ↩
5. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, Year A, Ascension  ↩
6. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩

Gospel: John 14:15–21

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

John 14:15–21 ESV – Bible Gateway

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This section from the Gospel of John is from the Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper.

Peter Kreeft offers a necessary corrective to the idea that the law, in the sense of the Commandments, binds us in a loveless manner.

First point: love and law are usually thought to be opposites. The Pharisees were loveless legalists. Obeying the laws—all the laws—was their thing, and their only thing. Jesus is often seen as the opposite: pro-love and anti-law. That’s a mistake. He was anti-legalism but not anti-law. He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love is not first of all a feeling; it is a willing, a choice. That’s why love itself is commanded by Christ. You can’t command a feeling. How silly it would be to say, “I command you to feel sweet feelings of compassion or desire or concern for me.” To love God is simply to say, “Thy will be done,” and mean it, and live it. And that will of God for us is expressed by laws, by commandments.

…

Love brings us “in” to the other without losing our own identity. Human love in that way is an image of the love that holds God together in the Trinity. Love is the spiritual equivalent of “the strong nuclear force” in physics that holds all the matter in the universe together.[1]

Antinomianism and the idea that just as long as we “love” it then released us from observing the natural law seems especially strong now. This view often sees the commandments as just positive law that can change with the times.

Jesus comforts his disciples by further telling them of the Comforter, along with revealing more deeply the inner mystery of the Trinity.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for the Gospel of John notes:

Jesus promises that once he has entered into heavenly glory, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always. This is the first of five promises about the Holy Spirit—the Advocate or Paraclete—made by Jesus in the Farewell Discourse. The Spirit is another Advocate because Jesus is also “an Advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). The Paraclete is the Spirit of truth because he is the Spirit of Jesus, who is “the truth” (14:6), the revelation of God. While distinct from Jesus, the Spirit does not operate independently of him (16:13–15). Since the world does not receive Jesus (see sidebar on p. 37), the world cannot accept or receive the Spirit, who abides with Jesus (1:33). The world neither sees nor knows the Spirit because the world does not see or know the truth about Jesus by faith. The disciples, however, have some openness to Jesus in faith, which in turn disposes them to the Spirit. Jesus promises that the Spirit remains with and will be in his disciples. Through the Spirit, God comes to dwell in the hearts of Jesus’ disciples, much as the Father dwells in Jesus and Jesus dwells in the Father (14:11).[2]

and

The word translated in the NABRE as “Advocate” is the Greek word paraklētos, represented in English as Paraclete. The term comes from a verb meaning “to call to one’s side,” as with the Latin term advocatus, hence “Advocate.” The background for this term is the Greco-Roman courtroom. A paraclete was someone who could provide help and assistance to a person in a trial setting: give counsel, plead that person’s cause, intercede with the judge. The courtroom background for this term fits with the Gospel’s running themes of trial and judgment. As the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit serves as a counselor for the disciples. He will give comfort and help to the disciples when the hostile, unbelieving world persecutes them (14:16–17; 15:26). Dwelling in the disciples, he will lead them to a deeper understanding of Jesus (14:26; 16:12–15) and enable them to bear witness to him (15:26–27). The Spirit also serves as a prosecutor against the world, for he will prove to the disciples that the world is wrong about “sin and righteousness and condemnation” (16:8).[3]

From the Catechism:

§729 Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made to the fathers. The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the Father in answer to Jesus’ prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus’ name; and Jesus will send him from the Father’s side, since he comes from the Father. The Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us for ever; he will remain with us. The Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that Christ said to us and bear witness to him. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment.[4]

Bishop Barron remarks on this passage:

Jesus promises to send us the Spirit of truth who will make us intimate friends of God. The Holy Spirit is the love shared by the Father and the Son. We have access to this holy heart of God only because the Father sent the Son into the world, into our dysfunction, even to the limits of godforsakenness and thereby gathered all of the world into the dynamism of the divine life.

Those who live in Christ are not outside of God as petitioners or supplicants; rather, they are in God as friends, sharers in the Spirit. And this spiritual life is what gives us knowledge of God—a knowledge, if you will, from within.

When the great masters of the Christian way speak of knowing God, they do not use the term in its distanced, analytical sense; they use it in the biblical sense, implying knowledge by way of personal intimacy. This is why St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for one, insists that initiates in the spiritual life know God not simply through books and lectures but through experience, the way one friend knows another. That knowledge is what the Holy Spirit facilitates.[5]

Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A
• The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• The Word on Fire Bible (Volume 1)꞉ The Gospels
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A, Sixth Sunday of Easter  ↩
2. Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)  ↩
3. ibid  ↩
4. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference. Paragraph 729  ↩
5. The Word on Fire Bible (Volume 1)꞉ The Gospels  ↩