28 May 2014 - step by step

28 May 2014 - step by step

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

When we hear this, how do we feel?  Are we disappointed that Jesus won't tell us everything all at once?  Do we take it as an insult that we "cannot bear it now"?  Instead, shouldn't we be grateful?  Jesus knows we are works in progress.  Shouldn't we be happy that Jesus is willing to work with us as we grow?  He meets us where we are.  He does not insist that we achieve everything all at once or know everything all at once. 

The disciples in today's Gospel reading cannot bear to hear some things Jesus does want to tell them eventually.  But it isn't exactly a shortcoming on their part.  In order to accept and internalize what Jesus wants to tell them they need the Spirit of truth.  If Jesus just drops the data on them that he wants to convey they will get lost in it.  They will be confused.  It may even hurt them and others.  They need the Spirit of truth to guide them.  The Holy Spirit provides the key that keeps them focused.  He glorifies Jesus.  He thereby prevents the truth from becoming abstract and impersonal.  He prevents it from being watered down and sanitized.  He prevents us from putting it into the service of personal self-serving or self-indulgence.  The more important the truth the more it needs to be perceived by hearts which, in the power of the Spirit, glorify Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by guiding his people into all truth.  It is to keep this promise that the Holy Spirit protects his Church from formally teaching error.  As individuals, we benefit from the guiding of the Holy Spirit through the Magesterium of the Church and personally.  Because the Magesterium enjoys full guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit we can trust that she faithfully hands on all that was entrusted to her by Jesus.  Just like the Holy Spirit she will not speak on her own but will speak what she hears from the master.  We share this promise personally, too.  As we try to get to know Jesus better and to learn his plan for us we can count on the Holy Spirit to be there to guide us.  We don't always listen.  But he is always ready to glorify Jesus in us by revealing him more.

The Holy Spirit definitely guides Paul.  He teaches Paul how to commend the Athenians for the good in their culture without obscuring the necessity and centrality of Jesus.  He is able to say:

I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.

He says this without losing his point in a one to one association of that God with Jesus.  The Holy Spirit guides him to glorify Jesus here, showing Jesus as one who utterly transcends the vagueness and human invention that mares the Athenian unknown God:

The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.

Paul is able to continue safely on the points of overlap precisely because the Holy Spirit proclaims the uniqueness of Jesus through him.

God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.”

Not everyone is ready to hear about the uniqueness of Jesus.  They may put off thinking about it or even scoff at the idea. But the Holy Spirit isn't giving up and neither can we.  He wants us all to be united in the praise of Jesus.

Let the kings of the earth and all peoples,
the princes and all the judges of the earth,
Young men too, and maidens,
old men and boys.
Praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.