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When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,
he will testify to me.
The Spirit of truth is the one who guides us into all truth (see John 16:13). He is the one who teaches us all things and reminds us of all that Jesus taught (see John 14:26). The consequence of this truth is conviction, specifically in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment (see John 16:8). The guidance of the Spirit happens at different levels in the Church. The Apostles who had been with Jesus from the beginning had a unique vocation to testify. The authors of the books of Scriptures had a unique charism of the Spirit in order to teach "solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings" (see Dei Verbum 11) because "everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit" (ibid). The Spirit himself still guides the Magisterium of the Church. He does not give her the power to add to revelation, because revelation was given once and for all (see CCC 66, 67, Dei Verbum 4). But he does give the guarantee that the highest levels of teaching from the Pope and ecumenical councils will always be, not necessarily as clear as we would like, but at least free from error. This high level ecclesial presence of the Spirit is the guarantee for individuals within the Church to be sure that they do not go astray. The three guarantees allow the Spirit within us to properly triangulate are own position.
And you also testify,
because you have been with me from the beginning.
But it is not only to the Church hierarchy, nor only for the sake of the institution that the Spirit is given. As Paul taught, to "each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit" (see First Corinthians 12:7). As individuals, we obviously do not enjoy the same guarantees of being protected from errors as does the Church as a whole. But by remaining faithful to the Spirit at both an individual and ecclesial level we do have a solid foundation where we can have certainty of the truth we possess. Spending time in this place in the heart of the Church experiencing the presence of Jesus is how we ourselves become molded to give testimony. Giving testimony is clearly a priority of the Spirit. And this means that the Spirit is not just a gift for helping the faithful to remain faithful. He is a gift meant for us to go out and share. This is not the job only of a professional missionary class, but of every faithful disciple. Some of us may be called to go on great missionary journeys like Paul, Silas, and Luke. But many more of us will be called to bear witness in places we have been planted. The promise that "the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you should say" (see Luke 12:12) is for all everyone.
I have told you this so that you may not fall away.
It is a bad idea to try to live the Christian life without availing ourselves of the power of the promises of Jesus. The alternative is to try to fend for ourselves, to assembly our own truth from such scraps as we can piece together, to convince ourselves about such few relatively unimportant sins as we can stand to do without, to rely primarily on our own righteousness, and to ignore the idea that of future judgment. If we try to bear witness to Jesus at all under these conditions we will hardly be persuasive. Even if the audience was not hostile they would not be impressed with what we, of ourselves, have to offer. All the more, then, since we are called to testify and to love even those who would kill us to offer worship to God, ought we rely on the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of truth knows what such hearts need to hear. Only he can give them the conviction that can yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
They will expel you from the synagogues;
in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you
will think he is offering worship to God.
We must learn to listen the voice of the Spirit of truth speaking to us in Scripture, and through the the voice of Tradition and of the Magisterial teaching of the Church. We must spend time in prayer with Jesus so that he can fill our us more and more with his Spirit in the call and response of his heart to our own. This is how we sheep, not overly intelligent creatures, can come to know and trust the voice of the shepherd. And only if we know his voice can we be the witnesses we are meant to be, witnesses the world needs.
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