“REMEMBER: FOR THE TIME IS COME”
Saint John 15:26 - 16:4
Exaudi: 24 May Anno Domini 2020
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Who is The Comforter? If you don’t know that…see me later and we will schedule you for remedial catechesis before your next admittance to The Sacrament.
Has The Holy Ghost come? He is evident and working all through the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament. He is breathed out on the Apostles on Easter evening. He, as we shall see next Sunday, came upon the same Disciples at the Feast of Pentecost. He is, as you confessed in the Creed, The Lord and Giver of Life. Do you have life might be the better question? Are you baptized? Yes, you are, and so yes, you do have life. The Christ has given you the water of eternal life. Where are you seated at 9:00 am on this Sunday morning? Yes, you have been Sanctified, i.e. called by The Gospel, The Holy Spirit’s work, enlightened with His gifts, and kept in the true faith! The Paraclete has come and has made you His tent, tabernacle, and home. Do not grieve Him or spurn Him by presumptuous sin or lukewarm belief.
Jesus as the Apostle, the “sent One” of The Trinity, has been gifted the honor, by God The Father, of sending The Holy Ghost to you in your Baptism. And then, in Trinitarian reciprocity, The Spirit has given you back Christ The Truth. This makes The Holy Spirit indeed the Spirit of Truth, of Jesus. Thus, the Third Person of The Godhead testifies and talks of the Son, and gives Faith IN The Son.
The Comforter came to the “12” so that they would be Jesus’ witnesses to the world. A mark of their Office, of their Apostleship, would be 1) they had been with The Christ from the beginning of His public ministry, and 2) that they had received The Holy Spirit in a way unique to the “office” that Christ was establishing. They were not better than an average Christian (there is no such thing as an average follower of The God/Man) but they were certainly different and more unique. They were His Ambassadors, His Legates, His called and ordained Bishops to the world. They would go into all that said world making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in The Name of That Father, That Spirit, + and That Master of theirs, The Son. To be one of the “12” one had to be with Jesus from the beginning. But to be a pastor today, or to be a disciple such as yourself, one need only be with Jesus from His beginning IN YOU at the Holy + Font. You have the same Comforter sent upon you as did Peter and John, as Matthias and Paul in their own regenerative washings.
Spoken then by Christ with His own mouth, the prophecy was to strengthen and embolden His beloved friends with courage and resolve to face their own upcoming trials, (both figurative and literal) and eventual martyrdoms. To be offended “at” or “of” Jesus is to be scandalized over The Word of God, both Law and Gospel, but especially Gospel. To be scandalized is to stumble, become afraid, ashamed, and eventually apostatize. When the rabid Jews were to “put you out of the synagogues” it was more than a congregational assembly casting the required unanimous vote to ex-communicate someone. It meant real societal ostracization along with beatings, whippings, and possibly stonings unto death. None of the “12” were executed for preaching the Law of Moses. Not one of them was punished or killed for the good news that The Lord loved His people and was a forgiving God. They were killed for confessing Jesus was the Christ; That Jesus was God in the flesh; That only by Jesus’ blood and merit—not the Temple Sacrifices, and not keeping The Torah—was a man saved. And, that the man saved could be a gentile as well as a Jew. Jesus as God, giving out freely without works, forgiveness by His suffering, death, and resurrection, was the offense. The “12” were not offended and confessed Him until the end…their end…awaiting His return at The End.
You are now the Disciples of Christ. You are now His witnesses to the ends of the earth. Not by your missionary journeys and your pastoral activities, but by your worship and service—God’s Gottesdienst to you and then your diaconia (service) to Him and Neighbor.
Jesus first came for you, His little lost sheep. Jesus came from The Father. Jesus witnessed The Love of and for God and the Love of and for neighbor. Jesus offended the Scribe, Pharisee, and lawyer. Jesus was not only cast out of the synagogues, but out of the Temple, and of out of the city of Jerusalem itself. He was there for you on the tree bleeding, suffering, and dying. But now because of The Comforter, He is here feeding, comforting, and forgiving—not from the Cross but from the Body given on the cross and the Blood shed from that Body. Receive Divine Comfort.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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