Fr. Michael Williams

Whenever we say goodbye to someone we love, and we know we will not see them for a long time, it can leave us feeling sad and depressed. This was the case for the disciples as Jesus prepared to return to the heavenly Father. The Lord’s disciples were feeling sad that He told them he was leaving; and they were also feeling afraid- who would be their support now? The disciples had grown used to the Lord’s company, as they had accompanied him for three years in his public ministry of healing souls and bodies. They had come to rely on him, but now He was leaving them. However, before He goes Jesus makes a promise: “I will not leave you orphans”.

Jesus makes the promise to his disciples, that is to the Church, that the Father, “will give you another Advocate to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth”. This first group of disciples, which is the early Church, are promised the gift of God’s Holy Spirit forever. Jesus is saying here that he will give the Spirit of Truth to his followers forever. This was a great consolation for those first disciples, but it is also a great consolation for us too. The Lord is present with us today, albeit invisibly, because we have “another Advocate…the Spirit of Truth”.

However, Jesus then goes on to say that “the world can never receive [this Advocate…this Spirit of Truth] since [the world] neither sees nor knows him”. Not for the first time, Jesus is saying that the truth He is offering will not be welcomed or received by the world. This is because Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. The Truth that Jesus offers is not valued by the world. The world and its institutions has a very different outlook on certain issues to the Church’s outlook, which has been given “the Spirit of Truth”.

The world believes that human life is a disposable commodity, that can be used, abused and manipulated: But the Church teaches all human life is sacred from the moment of conception to natural death.

The world believes the pursuit of material possessions and ‘looking good’ are the goal of human existence: But the Church teaches that the attaining of eternal life with God is the goal of human existence.

The Spirit of Truth and the spirit of the world are very different in their outlook.

Because of the Lord’s promise we should have complete confidence in the abiding presence of God’s Spirit in the Church: “I will not leave you orphans”. The Spirit of Truth, who speaks to us through the Teaching Office of the Church, speaks with a different voice to the powerful and famous of this world, who don’t have the Spirit of Truth.

Christ promised his disciples, “I will not leave you orphans”. He has been faithful to countless disciples for the last two thousand years: He continues to be with us. So “let us reverence the Lord Christ in our hearts”, confidently knowing that He is with us until the end of time. He is with us in the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict; he is with us ‘where two or three are gathered in his name’; he is with us in the poor; and he is with us in the sacraments, especially Holy Communion. Jesus certainly has not left us as orphans.