Jesus said, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.” (John 15:26)
We are between the Feast of the Ascension of Christ and the next great feast, Pentecost. Together with the Saviour’s disciples, we await the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise and pray that the Holy Spirit may come to us and dwell within us, kindling in us the fire of his love.
Today’s Gospel reading reveals two aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. First, he bears witness to us about Christ: our faith comes from him as a gift, and without him we could not understand spiritual things. Then, as a natural consequence, he also makes us Christians witnesses to Christ.
Without the Holy Spirit there would be neither witness to Jesus nor the Church. If sharing the Gospel of humanity’s redemption and ministering salvation had depended only on the abilities of a handful of Galilean men, neither this website nor St Elizabeth’s Parish would probably be here today. Yet beautiful things come to pass wherever people are ready to place their lives at the disposal of the Spirit of God. Therefore we must never rush to judge spiritual realities solely by what our eyes see or by outward appearances. During the Soviet era, predictions were repeatedly made about the year when the last churchgoer would die and the churches could be closed, because it was assumed that this small handful of believers could not last long. Yet the opposite happened: the Soviet Union, which once stretched over a sixth of the planet, has itself passed into history, while the Church of Christ lives and grows, and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. This is because the Holy Spirit of God gives life to the Church and makes mighty what would remain weak and wretched by human strength alone.
Let us therefore be bold in asking the Holy Spirit first to bear witness to us about Jesus Christ, so that we may understand what he has done for us and what more he desires to do; and then to teach and encourage us to be faithful witnesses of the same Lord Christ here at the edge of the world.
