A Promise of the Spirit
Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, May 27th, 2025 - John 16:5-11
“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His ascension into heaven and in so doing, He is highlighting the very person we have with us in this apostolic age - The Holy Spirit.
So why is it “better” that Jesus go?
Because in His going, He sends us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. In the economy of salvation, the Spirit is not an afterthought. He is the soul of the Church, the One who animates her sacraments, her teachings, her mission.
Without the Holy Spirit, there is no Pentecost. Without Pentecost, there is no Church.
And so the Church in her wisdom offers to us a liturgical rhythm that mirrors this promise. At every Mass, the priest calls on the Holy Spirit in the Epiclesis, to transform the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ so that we may celebrate the Eucharistic mystery.
This Gospel passage reminds us that conviction is also the Spirit’s work. Holy conviction, the kind that reveals the truth of our sin, not to shame us, but to lead us to the confessional, to healing, to new life. The Spirit speaks through our conscience, through teachings of the Church, through the whisper of grace nudging us toward virtue.
In this short passage, Jesus reveals to us something astonishing. That there is even more to give to us than Himself. That He will not only be with us, but wants to dwell within us. Through our baptism, through the Eucharist, through every sacrament, the same Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation is present with us and in us.
So as a Church we humbly pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Now I am going to the one who sent me,
and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
And when he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
sin, because they do not believe in me;
righteousness, because I am going to the Father
and you will no longer see me;
condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned."
Up to Pentecost, Christ’s Spirit had not entered into His disciples. He was physically with them. At Pentecost, Christ inhabited them. This is why it was better for them that He left. The Holy Spirit is the downpayment of our inheritance (cf. 2Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14).
Amen, so be it!