Wednesday, May 19, 2004
6th Week of Easter

1st Reading: Acts 17:15, 22-18:1
Gospel: Jn 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples, "I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the whole truth.

'He has nothing to say of himself but he will speak of what he hears, and he will tell you of the things to come. He will take what is mine and make it known to you; in doing this, he will glorify me. All that the Father has is mine; because of this I have just told you, that the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you."

Commentary

"HE will take what is mine and make it known to you." "He will remind you of all that I have told you" (Jn 14:26). These verses suggest that we can know something and yet not know it at all. At one level, those disciples knew Jesus well, but at another level they hardly knew him at all. Even after the Resurrection, some of them (the two on the road to Emmaus) still imagined him a political messiah. It is possible to know a great deal of theology and yet not to know Jesus or God at all. It can become just an abstract study. The Germans make a useful distinction between a "Lehremeister" (a professor) and a "Lebemeister" (one who shows you how to live). One of the ancient Desert Fathers said, "Don't judge yourself; but live with someone who knows how to live." The Holy Spirit makes us capable of interiorizing what Jesus made visible to us. "The Holy Spirit has two workings in us," wrote Johann Tauler. "The first is that He empties. The other is that He fills the emptiness, as far and as much as He finds emptiness to fill."

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