Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These
are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your
own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to
fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are
Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so
that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his
very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).
The Lawyer
In an
ordinary or usual court procedure involving the trial of a criminal, there is
the accused with his or her counsel or lawyer, there is also the accuser with
his or her counsel or lawyer, there is the judge, there are the witnesses and
the clerk or clerks of court. Of course there may be also some onlookers and some security personnel. At the completion of so many hearings of the case
the judge delivers the verdict. He or
she either convicts or acquits the accused.
In our
Gospel reading today we have a lawyer mentioned, not the judge, who gives the
verdict for us. This is a very special case of a lawyer giving the verdict, so
that we no longer have to face the judge.
In our
Gospel reading Jesus mentions this lawyer by his role: that of an advocate.
Jesus says, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate to be with you always." Then he repeats the word
"Advocate" and makes clear who this advocate is. He says, "The
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything". This Advocate is no other than the Holy Spirit.
The Greek
word translated here as "advocate" is "parakletos". In the
Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible this Greek word is only anglicised. It is
translated as Paraclete. In the Authorised version translation it is rendered
as Comforter. In the Revised Standard Version which some Catholics use and in
our New American Bible Revised Edition from where the text of our Gospel
reading is taken "parakletos" is translated as "Advocate".
The
original meaning of the word "parakletos" as used by the Greeks was
that of someone called to one's aid in a judicial cause. Hence it is understood
as an advocate, a pleader, intercessor. In our present day this is the lawyer
for the defense. And Jesus picked this word because this is what he meant,
somebody who would plead for us before the Sovereign Judge.
Jesus
described the work of this lawyer. A few verses after this he described his
work as convicting the world of sin, of justice and of condemnation. In John
16:8 Jesus described the work of this lawyer as convicting, reproving,
rebuking, exposing the sin of the world.
Before we
consciously come to Jesus we are in and of the world. This lawyer, the Holy
Spirit, convicts, reproves, rebukes, exposes our sinfulness to us. When this
happens we feel we are the greatest sinner in the world. This conviction is the
work of the Lawyer whom Jesus sends us in his bodily absence.
In the
lives of the saints we often read that this and that saint considered himself
or herself to be the greatest sinner in the world. We who read their lives seem
to think that this was an exaggeration. We cannot seem to think that they were
indeed the greatest sinners. But this conviction for these saints was real. They
did not think it an exaggeration. It was not the result of their imagination.
This was the result of the conviction of the Holy Spirit in them. When the Holy
Spirit shows us our sinfulness we consider ourselves the greatest sinner in the
world. The result of this is that we hasten to go to Jesus to seek his mercy.
Looking at him in the cross the Spirit himself tells us our sins have been
forgiven through the suffering and death of Jesus.
After being
thus convicted by the Holy Spirit and delivered from our sinfulness by our
faith in what Jesus did on the cross, we escape the judgment of God. Jesus
said this: "He does not come under condemnation, but has passed from death
to life" (John 5:24).
Thus we
have a case where a lawyer, the Holy Spirit, convicts us and pronounces us
guilty and upon our agreement with this we will no longer be condemned by the
judge, we have escaped condemnation.
This
experience of the saints wherein they considered themselves the greatest
sinners is not supposed to be an isolated experience, for the canonized saints
only. This is supposed to be the normal experience of every Christian who has
actualized the grace of baptism given him or her. If we actualize this grace there
comes a time when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and we consider
ourselves the greatest sinner in the world.
This is
what happened during Pentecost day. We read that when the people heard of
Peter's preaching, they "were deeply shaken" (Acts 2:37). The
Authorized version renders these words as "they were pricked in their
heart". The Revised Standard Version renders them "they were cut to
the heart". The literal meaning of the original word is "they were
stricken or pricked violently, were smitten."
St. John of
the Cross has a better translation which aptly expresses the experience of a
Christian when he or she is convicted by the Holy Spirit. St. John says, 'He tenderly wounds our souls in its deepest center'.
This Lawyer
is the living flame of love that tenderly wounds our soul in its deepest
center. Again let us not consider John of the Cross as a way out of the road
saint, as offering an ideal too far for us to reach. He only expressed the
normal experience of a person who wants to be a genuine Christian.
Let the
Holy Spirit convict us of our sinfulness. Let this Lawyer accuse us and let us
accept his accusation. Then we will no longer hear the verdict of the judge.
Let us bow
our heads and you follow me as I pray the prayer of St. John of the Cross from
his poem THE
LIVING FLAME OF LOVE.
O
living flame of love
That
tenderly wounds my soul
In
its deepest center! Since
Now
you are not oppressive,
Now
finish your work! if it be your will:
Tear
through the veil of this sweet encounter!
O
sweet burning,
O
delightful wound!
O
gentle hand! O delicate touch
That
tastes of eternal life
And
pays every debt!
In
killing you changed death to life.
O
lamps of fire!
in
whose splendors
The
deep caverns of feeling,
Once
obscure and blind,
Now
give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
Both
warmth and light to their Beloved.
How
gently and lovingly
You
wake in my heart,
Where
in secret you dwell alone;
And
in your sweet breathing,
Filled
with good and glory,
How
tenderly You swell my heart with love.
(from
THE
LIVING FLAME OF LOVE
By
St. John of the Cross, as translated by E. Allison Peers and revised in just
two words)
