Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday - 8th May 2024

​Today is the Eve of the Ascension and our Gospel reading, (Jn 16: 12-15), prepares us for tomorrow’s feast. Jesus is about to leave his disciples to ascend to the Father. The interesting thing, of course, is that these words are recorded as having been spoken by Jesus on the eve of his passion and death. Jesus says to his disciples:​​“I still have many things to say to you

but they would be too much for you now.

But when the Spirit of truth comes

he will lead you to the complete truth,

since he will not be speaking as from himself

but will say only what he has learnt;

and he will tell you of the things to come.”

Jesus is aware that his disciples can only take in so much and that they’re reaching saturation point. The time has come to draw the conversation to an end. There’s much more he would like to say, but there’s time, for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, will tell them everything and lead them into the full, complete and absolute truth. Everything they need to know and much more besides will be given them by the Spirit. Just as Jesus did the Father’s will and only spoke in conformity to the Father’s will, so too the Holy Spirit will not speak as from himself but from the Father’s heart. This is one if the highest expressions of trinitarian thought in the Gospels. In fact, it is the Spirit who will glorify Jesus, just as it is the Father who glorifies him.

​​​“He will glorify me,

since all he tells you

will be taken from what is mine.”

The Spirit will bear witness to Jesus, for just as the Father and the Son are one, so too the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, for there is but one God.

“Everything the Father has is mine;

that is why I said:

All he tells you

will be taken from what is mine.”

John is rich in theology and much of our understanding of God comes from this Gospel and the discourses of Jesus. The Son, the incarnate Word of God, can say that all the Father has is his, and, in the same breath, all that the Spirit will teach the disciples, in other words, the Church, comes from the Son, for Father, Son and Spirit are but one God.

 

​Father, as we meditate on the words of your Son today and take them to heart, we pray that we might live by them always. Give us the Spirit of truth to lead us into the complete truth, that we might come to know you even as you know us. Amen.