Paraclete

[On that first Pentecost, which we celebrate today, this promise of Jesus was fulfilled: 'I will come to you!' (verse 18b). Pentecost proclaims this astonishing fact, that God has come to us, to each one of us. It was at Calvary that God built a bridge to the lost human race, building it well on the strong pillars of Jesus' suffering and death. And at Pentecost, God himself came across that bridge. God came to us with his power, his wisdom, his love, his compassion. Not just to us, but deeper, more intimately: into our hearts, into our lives.Yes, what happened on the cross of Calvary is that we became God's, and what happens at Pentecost is that God becomes ours. As truly as God came into the manger at Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, so truly does he come into the hearts of men at Pentecost. Then he came in the flesh to die on this earth as a man, a human person, and at Pentecost he came in the Spirit to live on this earth as a spirit, a spiritual person. That is why Jesus said to his disciples as he was leaving, "I am coming to you." Yes, He is leaving, but the Father will send another Comforter who will remain with them forever. The Comforter: this is the name Jesus gives to the divine Holy Spirit in whom God Himself, revealing Himself in Jesus, is coming back to His own on earth. That is why He is going away, so that He can give more, even greater things: the Spirit of God. The Comforter. I would now like to tell you something concrete about this Comforter Spirit and his work. How the Holy Spirit of God comforts. Jesus calls the Comforter sent by the Father: the Spirit of truth, and in this way he defines the essence of consolation. In other words, God comforts by His Holy Spirit first of all by revealing the truth.
What does this mean? In human terms, comfort is almost always given by lying. For example, we try to make an incurable patient believe that the problem is not serious, that it is just a passing fad. Sometimes a whole web of lies surrounds the sickbed. Oh, if only he didn't know the truth! That's how we comfort you. To a desperate, discontented man, to a soul suffering from blindness, the world gives comfort by deceiving the soul, by trying to tell it nice things. To make promises to it which it does not believe to be true. Once again, man tries to console him with lies. He knows, the suffering soul knows, and I know, the comforter knows, that it is not true when we say such generalities: he will get better, it will turn out, everything will be all right. You know when we make great consoling promises in the name of destiny and in the name of time, we say: time will heal, that great physician. Well, all such lies are just to give the sad man something to make him feel better. That is why we add to our comforting lies even such good advice: have fun, relax, don't think about it.
When I hear human consolations, I always think of Jesus giving us another Comforter. Someone who comforts us not by covering up the ugliness of reality, but on the contrary: by revealing the truth. He says to death: death. To sin, sin. He does not hide the truth. It does not say: you are not to blame, you are innocently wronged, you are unjustly told all kinds of bad things, but it says: humble yourself under the weight of your sins. Do you know what the Comforter Spirit says? Your main problem is not that you are incurably ill, but that you are not ready to appear before God. Your problem is not that the people around you are so bad, they don't understand you, they don't love you, but that you are really so hateful, really so insufferable, that you will never be loved unless you change. Your main problem is not that you have lost someone whose loss has left an unhealed wound in your soul, but that you don't believe enough in eternity, in the reality of eternal life and in the saving grace of Jesus. Your sadness is not because you have lost someone or something, but because you have lost your relationship with the Lord. You are a selfish person who can only think of your own loss, instead of rejoicing in the joy of your departed loved one. Yes, this is what the Comforter Spirit says. The Spirit of truth. He relentlessly exposes the truth. Not my truth, which I am wont to defend, but the truth.
But it's not a consolation, one might say, it's an accusation. Does the Spirit of God comfort me by accusing me, by turning against me, by making me responsible, guilty? Yes. Yes. Exactly so. Because without it there is no real consolation, only a delusion. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, penetrates to the very depths of the human soul, and heals precisely by revealing the sins, the secrets of the most hidden world of the heart. And it does this in order to anchor us to the cross of Jesus, where there is forgiveness for every new sin revealed. So the Holy Spirit of God comforts me by putting me under accusation, so that I can then also receive absolution at the cross of Jesus.
Brethren, the only true consolation in all sorrow and suffering is the forgiveness of sins, the acquittal of all accusations! But only those who feel the weight of the accusation will receive this consolation. Only he who knows he is worthy of judgment can be lifted up. So it is the Holy Spirit's consolation to reveal to you, in the depths of your soul, the true cause of all your troubles. He always reveals some specific sin, reveals the truth, reveals what has caused the comfort, and thus makes deliverance possible through the forgiveness of sins. Do you know this consolation? Do you need this consolation? Jesus says of Him that the world cannot receive because it cannot bear this kind of consolation, the Spirit of truth. Yes, he who cannot confess his sins, repent, can only receive the one who justifies him, who gives him the truth, that is, the one who comforts him with lies. Can you bear to be comforted by the Spirit of truth? Do you even claim it? Behold, there is forgiveness for you too, mercy bends towards you, lifts you out of the abyss and carries you into glory by a liberating heavenly arm: the Spirit of the Comforter God, the Spirit of Jesus.
Then the Spirit of God comforts you so that you are not alone. Thus says the parting Jesus, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (verse 18) One of the most painful basic feelings of the human soul is that of orphanhood, of abandonment, of being alone. Along with it is the vulnerability to fate, to the forces of disease, to human evil, to the forces of nature. A person can feel orphaned even if he is surrounded by many people, if he has a father and mother, if he lives in a large family. Jesus, too, when he said, "I will not leave you orphans," was saying this to people who still had either their parents or their wives or other relatives alive. So they would not have remained orphans in the secular sense. That is, true orphanhood is when one feels abandoned by God. It is the person who is deathly alone, lonely, who is without God. Jesus saw the anguish of this orphanhood in the eyes of his disciples, and so he encouraged them not to be afraid of it, that they would not be orphans, that he would come to them. And this promise was fulfilled at Pentecost. Jesus came, Jesus is here, in the Comforter sent by the Father. The presence of Jesus is made real for an orphan soul.
Comforter. The original Greek word means something more: paraclete. So the One whom the Father gives is a helper who comes alongside the believer in Jesus, to whom he can entrust all his things. He is the One whom a man in trouble can call on, Who takes care of him, Who acts as his advocate. So no one need live his life as an orphan. Is it not a great consolation that God sends us almost a heavenly Advocate, someone who wants to take over our affairs, who wants to take care of us, if we dare to trust Him? There are so many troubles in a man's life, so many lawsuits with everyone, with husband, wife, children, people, himself. Well, Jesus is saying: here I am, come to me, don't do it yourself. Believe that he is with us. He is with us in the Bible. When we open it up to seek advice, to seek guidance, he takes us by the hand in the kingdom of Scripture and leads us through it, explaining the words, the mysteries in his own kingdom. He is with us in fellowship with other believers, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Mt 18,20) There is a church, yet you are an orphan, feeling alone? Well, you could come too, you could be in fellowship with others. You could talk to Him about everything, as believers usually do. You could ask Him to take care of your affairs, you could give Him your problems, as so many believers do, again and again. And then you too would experience how He is as He promised in our Word, "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you." (verse 18)
And the comfort of the Holy Spirit goes even further. The one who has come into contact with this wonderful Comforter, Paraclete, divine Spirit, not only experiences with joy that Jesus himself has come to him, but also that Jesus has entered into his heart and soul, that Jesus is in him like the light of the sun in a room. Jesus says to them such mysterious things. (Jn 14,20) How the persons are here joined together, Christ in the Father and us in Him, we in Christ and Him in the Father. God and the believer in Him are inseparably intertwined, intertwined, interpenetrated. In other words, a whole new miracle of spiritual union with God is born through the Holy Spirit. This cannot be explained or understood, but only accepted with a humble heart.
That is why we do not need to shout loudly to pray, but only the sighing prayer of the Spirit. For within us is the one to whom we are speaking! That is why sin can be fought and conquered, that is why testimony can have power. That is why eternal life on earth is already mine, because Christ is in the Father, the believer in Christ, and Christ in man, in the believing soul. Imagine what happens to a man when he is indeed possessed by the Spirit of God! If he is filled with the light of the Spirit to the very depths of his being, to the very place where the passions are born?! Then a man is truly fulfilled, and becomes strong, pure, useful, happy. His life begins to radiate, to shine, like a light bulb that is plugged into the circuit. Then everything in a man begins to speak, to sing, to rejoice. His words, his work, his joy, even his pain. The greatest consolation is precisely when man experiences in himself the fullness of the life for which God has redeemed us. Christ is seen in our actions, Christ is revealed in our being. The life of Christ. Jesus says: "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." (verse 20) Has that day come for you? Have you known that He is in you, and you in Him? Oh, how good it would be if Jesus, the Comforter, this mysterious, blessed Paraclete, would come to us! Will he come? Will he come into our hearts? Will he fill us with his blessed presence? How?
Well, let me conclude my pastoral practice by saying something that has been repeated so often. I comfort a suffering man, I reason with him, I explain to him, but he just shakes his head. I point out facts where the comforting has taken place. He says: that was different, that was not his case. But we begin to pray together, and when the sufferer is surrounded by silence, the mysterious work of the Spirit is suddenly set in motion, and the sick soul is deeply lifted up. There comes over his face a kind of reconciled and happy calm. His heart is filled with a peace that transcends reason. A miracle had happened to him: the Spirit, the Comforter, the Paraclete, was stronger than he. Do you understand? Let all arguments, explanations and speeches cease, and let us begin to pray! Let us ask with the song we have sung so often, but now let us sing it as those who are really in great need of that blessed Comforter:
Living Spirit of God, come, blessed descend upon me,
Thy heavenly flame pass through my heart and mouth!
Untie me, send me away, fill me with fire!
Living Spirit of God, come and bless me!
Canto 463, verse 1
Amen
Date: 2 June 1963 (Pentecost).