The Advocate

       There is a scene from the Golden Girls where 'Ma' chokes. Before she is resuscitated, she dies and we get a view of her at the pearly gates being greeted. A discussion ensues where the greeter laughs off a comment about who is welcomed by saying 'oh, you Catholics'.  Many Roman Catholics do hold a  rather special view of life, salvation and who is saved. Let's leave out words likely arrogance, willful ignorance and such, not to mention all the scandals, vitriol and hypocrisy.

          In today's passage we are reminded by John that we are given the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit has brought us a long way in understanding and love. We no longer view native Americans as people who are soul-less. We see slavery as a sin of humanity. We may be divided but we can see the wisdom in the many ways God reveals herself to us, in religions, and nature. While on one level I can see that the Spirit may be moving us to recognize the diversity of creation as witnessed by the LGBTQ community, I am not so certain that if I asked the Spirit about gay rights, I would get a round of applause much like 'Ma' at the pearly gates.  Sometimes we fixate and focus on the relative minutia of the world, issues that we think are the most important. We miss the forest for the tress. We cannot see what is right in front of us.

         What is right in front of us? The one true church of Roman Catholicism?   Abortion is murder? You can list 1000 issues that we beat our drums to, gay rights included. What does any of it matter compared to the ( not so ) simple message of  love as witnessed by Jesus death and Resurrection? It's all about love baby. We can get so bogged down with the details, the rules, rubrics, issues which we rationalize, theorize and bastardize that we forget the fundamental of Christ's life which is an overwhelming inclusive and unbounded love for each and every one of us. There is no judgment that we are justified in. There is no issue and no situation that cannot be resolved or looked at without love. If you live without love, you are a noisy gong or that clanging bell ( 1 Cor. 13 ).

            The Spirit is alive and well, guiding us and moving us forward in understanding, faith and love. No issue, event or treatise can be promulgated or lived out without love. Love trumps everything. The Spirit lives !

John 14:15-31

 ‘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 for ever.This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

 ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.