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Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
Jesus was guiding his little flock into the deepest of mysteries, which was his relationship to the Father and the Holy Spirit, into the divine life they shared as Trinity. He was not in the first place interested to provide definitions to which the apostles would need to adhere, nor anathemas describing errors that about this relationship that would constitute heresy. What was necessary was not first doctrine but participation, access to that very life of God by experience. It was only after Pentecost, from within that life, guided by its power, that the Church would work out the details of he related theology. Revelation required first that Spirit of truth be in the hearts of believers. What does that participation look like for us? The indwelling of the Spirit brings us into relation with the Father, not as data, but as adopted daughters and sons.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (see Romans 8:15).
Those who were still relating to God as slaves and not as friends or sons would not reason correctly about the inner life of God. They would project onto that life dynamics of power and control as primary ingredients rather than realizing, as is actually the case, that everything is about love. It is precisely our own experience of this undeserved love that changes everything for us. We come to know this love by faith, and the result is "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". It is certainty that we are loved that gives us "hope of the glory of God" as our boast. The more that the Holy Spirit himself pours this love into our hearts the more we are able to let it flow through us to the world.
Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions
When we live in the power of the Spirit, knowing God as our Father, and following the path of Jesus who loved us beyond all reason, even afflictions cannot shake our trust. Our sense of the goodness of the Father's plan becomes stronger and stronger, more and more like the trust with which Jesus himself embraced the entirety of the Father's will for him, including his cross. We may not always understand his will, but our knowledge of the goodness of the one who permits it will enable us to persevere, to have a hope in a "glory beyond all comparison" that is infinitely greater than what is finally only a "brief momentary affliction" (see Second Corinthians 4:17-18).
God purpose in sending the Son was not to force us into a life that was ultimately a drudgery. The Father, Son, and Spirit, are rather inviting us to share in the very joy and delight that characterize their own relationship from all eternity. We were made so that the Triune God himself would be able to share this superabundance of joy with us. May he pour it out, more and more.
and I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of his earth;
and I found delight in the human race."
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