Let’s Talk About Peace
Our world today cries out for peace, as if peace is not an edifice requiring everyone to participate in building it! While today’s gospel suggests the presence of the Holy Spirit as the recipe for peace, our first reading proposes the need for a center for peace, those who possess the Holy Spirit (the Apostles), to broker peace in the name of the Holy Spirit (the apostolic letter of peace which our first reading contains). Let us limit our reflection to today’s gospel.
A literary exegesis, which we employ today, looks closely at the relationships created by the different verbs in a text. Today’s gospel uses verbs in the future time, past (aorist) and present. By implication, some activities in the text are yet to be fulfilled at the time they were spoken, while others had already taken place, to which the present makes an important link. For clarity, I have emboldened the important verbs in the text.
John 14:23-29
Jesus answered him, “[whoever] who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe (John 14:23-29 New Revised Standard Version).
The very first point made is the consequence of love. The verbs involved are in the future time/tense; they describe what will happen in the future to those who will love God. The one who loves does show his/her love by keeping God’s word: “anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” By implication, when the physical “Word” of Christ disappears from the scene (Jn 14:28), it will still be possible to love him; this will be done through keeping his “Word.” Consequently, there is no difference between ourselves, born centuries after the earthly Christ’s incarnation, and those who knew him in the flesh. Our love for him translates itself in keeping God’s “Word.” The “Word” which became flesh (Jn 1:14) is the same as the “Word” which he spoke, and which we are expected to keep. Also, just as the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14), the Word and the Father will dwell with whoever loves God through keeping God’s “Word.” The future verbs point to the era of the Holy Spirit who will come on Pentecost day.
If the first point made is in future time/tense (Jn 14:23), the second point made is in the present (Jn 14:24). Here and now, implied by the use of present time/tense, people do not keep the “Word” of God: they have rejected it. The sign of rejection is made evident by the use of a past verb (aorist) “sent” (πέμψαντός). The rejection of Christ is the rejection of the Father who sent him. This point is essential today because it tells us the kind of world in which the Holy Spirit will come to, on Pentecost day. It also tells us how our present world, with all the sins plaguing it, badly needs the presence of the Holy Spirit.
If the second point made is in the present and the first point in the future, the third point (Jn 14:25-26) made creates or gives a sign of “hope” that the future might be better than the present. This note of “hope” is built upon a promise of sending an “Advocate,” a job to be done by the Father. The present rejection of the “Word” will be given a chance of survival, when the Holy Spirit comes, because the “Advocate” will teach and remind Jesus’ disciples of what Christ taught – the full meaning of them all.
If the Father “will send” the Holy Spirit later on, Jesus bequeaths “peace” before his departure. This fourth (Jn 14:27) point is presented in the present time/tense. The warning that Jesus’ “peace” is not the usual kind of peace people are conversant with (worldly understanding of peace) is important in two ways: first, it reveals the identity and role of the Holy Spirit, because to call the Holy Spirit “Advocate” is to presuppose a legal battle for which the disciples of Christ will need an advocate or lawyer to defend them. Secondly, Jesus’ gift of “peace” suggests there were problems already that the disciples were facing, so they needed to know that God’s peace is different from what they were expecting. More so, Jesus’ peace was to dispel their present/current fear because the Holy Spirit will come.
The last point (Jn 14:28-29) made, “I go away, and I come to you,” is very ambiguous. The question usually asked is whether Jesus Christ is the one who returns to his disciples in the form of the Holy Spirit. That is, whether the Holy Spirit and Jesus are one and the same. However, another passage of John’s gospel indicates that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, so he is different from the Holy Spirit and the Father: “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” (Jn 15:26 NRS).
Since we have seen the implications of the gospel text, a question remains: what is the message of today’s gospel? It is clear that Jesus’ gift of “peace” and the promise of the “Advocate” were made from the backdrop of the reality of the day: lack of love of the “Word.” It follows that the cases of unbelief we experience today make the presence and activities of the Holy Spirit still relevant in every generation. In other words, Jesus invites us to be courageous in the face of the difficulties we face in life and keep praying that the may Holy Spirit help us in moments of trials and persecution.
Assignment for the Week:
Prove the presence of the Holy Spirit in you by working for peace in your immediate vicinity.