[AI translation] In a couple of days, it will be Maundy Thursday according to the Christian calendar. It's good to commemorate this holiday, which is slowly becoming more and more part of the daily routine. All the more so because in the part of Jesus' farewell discourse that we are now reading, he refers to this day, that is, to his departure from the earth. Seeing the sadness of the disciples, He explains to them that they have no reason to be sad about it, that His departure will not be a loss for them. He is going away, but the Father will send another Comforter, who will remain with them forever, who will make up for everything perfectly. The Father will send another Comforter. This is what Jesus calls the divine Holy Spirit. The Lord comes from earth to fill his own with the more, the greater, the fuller: the Spirit of God! Of this Comforter, let the Good News of God speak to us today!Jesus calls this Comforter the Spirit of Truth, and in so doing he defines the very essence of consolation: God, through His Holy Spirit, consoles by revealing the truth. So not in the way the world can comfort. For how does this world give comfort to a sad person - for example, to an incurable sick person, to a desperate, discontented person, to a soul suffering in misfortune? By deceiving the soul, by trying to tell it nice things, by promising it things that it does not believe are true. Have you ever stood before an inconsolable soul, have you ever encountered human inconsolability? If so, you know how helpless it feels. For what can we do? Lies! He, the suffering soul, and I, the comforter, know that it is not true when we say such generalities: things will get better, things will get better, things will be like this, things will be like that, and then everything will be all right. We make big, comforting promises in the name of fate or time: time will heal, this great doctor! Do you know the good advice of the world: have fun, relax, don't think about it, and so on? When I hear such worldly 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 telling the truth. For example, by telling you frankly that your problem is not that you are incurably ill, but that you are not prepared to appear before God! Your problem is not that you are surrounded by malicious people who do not understand you, who do not love you, but that you are really so hateful, really so insufferable, that you will never be loved until you change! Your problem is not that you are surrounded by unbelievers, but that your faith is not alive enough, and it has not yet been able to permeate your environment! Your problem is not that you have a dead person whose loss you cannot be comforted by, but that you do not believe in eternal life! Your fate is terrible not because you have lost so much, but because you have lost your relationship with the Lord!
The Spirit of Truth relentlessly exposes the truth, not my truth, but the truth. But it is not a consolation, it is an accusation! Does the Spirit of God comfort me by accusing me, by turning against me, by making me responsible, guilty?! Yes! For without this there is no real consolation, only a delusion. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, penetrates to the very depths, and heals precisely by revealing the sins of the most hidden world of the heart. And so it always brings us to the cross of Christ, where there is forgiveness for every new sin revealed. The Holy Spirit of God comforts you by placing you under accusation, so that you can then receive absolution at the cross of Christ. The only true consolation in all sorrow and suffering is the forgiveness of sins, the release from all accusation. But only the one who is under accusation can receive this consolation, only the one who has been condemned can be acquitted! Well, so the Holy Spirit comforts by revealing the real cause of all kinds of trouble, some specific sin. He reveals the truth, what caused the inconsolable, and thus makes deliverance possible, through the forgiveness of sins!
Do you know this consolation? Do you need this Comforter? Jesus says of Him that the world cannot receive, cannot bear this kind of Comforter, the Spirit of Truth - because it cannot confess sin, repent. The world can only receive the one who justifies it, who gives it the truth, that is, who tells it lies! Can you bear the consolation of the Spirit of Truth? Do you claim it, do you expect it, do you ask it? For God gives! He gives it to you too! At Jesus' request, the Father gives this other Comforter!
Then the Holy Spirit of God comforts you so that you are not alone. Thus says the Lord at the farewell: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (Jn 14,18) One of the most painful emotions of the human soul is orphanhood, abandonment, loneliness. And it does not help if we are surrounded by people! There are people who have a father and a mother, and yet they feel very orphaned! "I will not leave you orphans", Jesus says to the disciples who at that time still had their parents, wives or other relatives alive, so they would not have remained "orphans" in the secular sense either. True orphanhood is when one feels abandoned by God. It is the person who is deathly alone, lonely, who is without Christ. It is the sadness of this orphanhood that Jesus sees in the eyes of his disciples, and that is why he encourages them not to fear it, they will not be orphans, he will come to them! And what was then only a promise to the disciples has become a reality since Pentecost! Jesus has come, Jesus is here, the divine Spirit, the great Comforter, is making the presence of Christ real, real for each orphaned soul!
Our Hungarian Bible translates it as "Comforter", although the original Greek word used here means much more than that. It reads: parakletos. Parakletos means someone whom a person in trouble calls on to help him. A modern translation renders the meaning directly: Helper. A Someone who takes up another person's care, helps, intercedes, pleads his case - an advocate, a lawyer. The Paraclete, then, whom the Father gives, is a divine Spirit who stands by the side of the believer, takes up his cause, to whom the believer can entrust all his affairs.
This is how Jesus defines the being, the person of this Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, who is here, who is with us now: 'I will not leave you orphans.' So none of us should live life as orphans. Is it not a great consolation that the Father sends us such an advocate at Jesus' request? And not someone we could hire to manage our affairs, but this Paraclete! He appointed this lawyer to us "ex officio", He paid the price, which cost a great deal: the blood of Christ. And if you're still sad, with a lot of unfinished business: now the Lord is telling you that He has already sent Someone to take over your case. Who wants to take care of you, if you would trust Him, if you would dare to trust Him with where the trouble is in your life, with whom you are in a lawsuit: your husband, or your wife, or your child, people or yourself? Well: you have someone to turn to, the main thing is not to deal with it yourself!
Brother: the Lord is with us in His Word! You have a Bible, and you are helpless and sad?! When all the Word is for you, you just need to hear it?! "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them." (Mt 18,20) There is a church, and yet you are an orphan, feeling alone? But you could come, you could be with Him among the others. You too could talk to Him about everything, as other believers do, you too could ask Him to take care of your affairs, you too could give Him your problems, as so many believers do, again and again. You too could see how true Jesus promised, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (verse 18) And the comfort of the Holy Spirit goes even further. Those who come into contact with the Holy Spirit of God not only experience that in Him the Lord Himself has come back to His followers, but also that through the Holy Spirit fellowship with Christ becomes even closer than it was before, when He was still here in the flesh. Thus saith the Lord, "In that day (that is, when ye shall have received the Comforter, the Paraclete) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." (verse 20) There are mysterious connections here: Christ in the Father and in us, we in Christ and with him in the Father. The Father, the Son and the disciples are inseparably united, interpenetrated, a whole new miracle of spiritual union is born through the Holy Spirit. This cannot be explained, nor understood, but only accepted with a humble heart. That is why we do not need to shout loudly to pray, that is why prayer said in the spirit alone is enough - that is why it is possible to fight and win against sin and the world, that is why the testimony of the disciples can have power, that is why eternal life can already be mine on this earth, because Christ is in the Father, the believer in Christ, and Christ in the believer. Thus the Holy Spirit makes complete for us the life for which God has redeemed us. Good Friday proclaims what Christ did for us as the Lamb of God. Easter bears witness to the living reality of Christ with us. Maundy Thursday is about Christ being over us as Lord and King - and all of this was done so that through Pentecost Christ might become real in us. Jesus says: "I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." (Jn 14,20) Has that day come for you, have you known that He is in you and you in Him?
Behold, this is what the Comforter is doing, sent by the Father at Jesus' request. Thus said our Lord, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter." (John 14:16) He asks. He asks. Have you ever asked? Do you want what He asks for you, or do you always ask for something other than what Jesus asks for you?! Why don't you ask? Don't you believe the Father will give it to you? He will, because He has promised. So let us ask together. With the hymn we have sung so often, but now as those who are in great need of the blessed Comforter. Let us pray:
Come, living Spirit of God, come and bless me,
Let 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: 29 April 1951.
Lesson
Jn 14,15-25