TEXT: The Gospel according to St. John 14:23-29

John 14:23-29

23 Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
25 "I have told you this while I am with you.
26 The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
28 You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

The passion of the Paraclete is the focus of this homily reflection.  The Holy Spirit is a Person -- the Third Person of the Holy Trinity who has intensity, ardor, and desire.  The desire of the Paraclete is to bring us to Jesus, to what Jesus has told us, to bring us to the gift of Christ which is peace, "I give to you."

There are many natural fruits that God has created -- God said in Genesis 1:11 that the earth should bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, everything after its kind.

There are also spiritual fruits -- fruits of righteousness spoken of by St. Paul:  Philippians 1:11

11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

St. Paul also speaks of the fruit of the Holy Spirit --  Galatians 5:22 says, "In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness."   (We should note that peace is one aspect of that blessed -- "fruit.")

The word that St.Paul uses for "fruit" is "karpos."
This word, "karpos,"  is the same word used by the Septuagint (LXX) in the Old Testament passage --  (Genesis 3:1-4).

1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?"
2 The woman answered the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
3 it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'"
4 But the serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die!"

St. Jerome uses the word, fructus

Latin Vulgate --

3:1 sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae
 quae fecerat Dominus Deus qui dixit ad mulierem cur praecepit
 vobis Deus ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi
3:2 cui respondit mulier de fructu lignorum quae sunt in
 paradiso vescemur
3:3 de fructu vero ligni quod est in medio paradisi praecepit
 nobis Deus ne comederemus et ne tangeremus illud ne forte
 moriamur
3:4 dixit autem serpens ad mulierem nequaquam morte moriemini

Note how the enemy of our souls completely contradicts God's word.  The serpent says that the  result of the fruit Eve and Adam partook of -- "You certainly will not die!"

However, the reality of the results of the fruit of the disobedience of Adam, the man and the woman, was death -- morte.

Yet, it is God who changes all of this. . .

For, the "fruit of the Spirit," however, does not mention death.  The fruit (karpos / fructu) of the Spirit is indeed --   love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness!

My beloved in Christ -- God is love.

God is our joy.

God is peace.

God is patience.

God is kindness.

He is generosity and faithfulness.
These describe how God has revealed himself to us through whom?

I say to you my Mother, Mariam, blessed of all women -- Blessed is the fruit of  your womb, JESUS!

One whom God chose to come into the world through, who is full of grace, showed forth this Beloved Son.

Is it not wonderful, beloved that -- It was through another Woman, our Mother, our Lady, our Mater Dei, that the Seed of Abraham would bless all the nations o the earth!

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb, JESUS . . .

Here, beloved of God, is the Passion of the Paraclete in these last days.

It is the peace that Jesus brings us through the blessed Virgin, our Immanuel.  God with us, the blessed fruit of the womb of Mary,  is the Paraclete with us!

Let us look more closely at the supreme desire, of God, the Passion of God -- the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Father:

23 Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

A.   The Passion of the Paraclete is Love (agape) --  the love that cares and gives and unconditionally surrenders itself to the holy will of God and the welfare of others.  It is the Love that Jesus is.  The saints are not poor in this holy love of Jesus.  It is an aspect of that fruit, that karpos  that was far different from the one Satan offered our first mother, Eve.

Yes, it is the fruit (the different, the -- Holy Fruit) our Mother, Mary, offers us.

24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

The Father and the Son have sent the Paraclete -- God is with us still, the One who stands beside helping us along the way.  If we love Jesus, we will keep his words, the same words are the words of the Father who sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  It is the Passion of the Holy Spirit is that we keep the words of Jesus and the Father!

It is to love one another and to love God!

This Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit!

25 "I have told you this while I am with you.
26 The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you."

B.  It is the Passion of the Paraclete that we remember the words of Jesus while he was with us.  The Paraclete, who they (the Father and the Son) send proceeding from the Father and the Son in the name of JESUS -- he will teach the Church everything and remind the Church of all that JESUS told us.

I am so thankful for this promise from Jesus.  It is a promise that they (the Father and the Son) have fulfilled.  It is fulfilled to this very day until the Parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Then, we will see him face to Face!

We are reminded that the Passion of the Holy Spirit is to bring us into close koinonia (communion) with Jesus through the Eucharistic Sacrifice -- the Host, the Body and the Blood, my beloved.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever trusts in his name may not perish but have everlasting life.

What a fruitful -- peace that is!

Such intimacy brings us peace, the pax domini.  We share this in the Mass. . .

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

What a peace we have -- is it any wonder that Jesus focuses on this aspect of this fruit that he is for us?  We have peace with God because of JESUS.  We have this Peace, because of the blessed fruit of the womb of the ever pure blessed Virgin Mary!

Praise God from whom all blessing flows!

Do we not share this Peace, this fruit from the Holy Spirit at Mass during Eucharist?

Pax Christi.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- as it was in the beginning is now and shall ever be world without end.  Amen.

In the beginning God's Spirit also produced a "peace" when the tohu w'bohu (formlessness and void) was set aright by the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the tahom, the "abyssos," the "deep!"

God is never the author of chaos.  The Logos, our Lord Jesus Christ, was the author and perfector of our faith.

He brings us peace!  Peace with God and the peace of God --  Romans 5.
John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2  He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be
4 through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
5 the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

Was it not so in Genesis 1:1-3?

1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
2 the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.
3 Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

God brings the fruit of the Spirit into our hearts and into the Church --  light and peace.  If you enter a dark room and bring light into it there is a sense of welbeing.  There is peace within your heart when you are seeing the light.  Peace exists in the light of Christ, who is our Light!.

Satan brings darkness, chaos and death.  Satan brings turmoil into the heart and the world.  Satan brings schism.  He is NOT our friend.  Satan is our enemy.  He is a defeated foe!  (Rev. 12 - 19, it is eschatologically assured to us, Jesus tells us ahead of time, because he loves us and wants us to believe, to have faith, to have trust).

What is our choice?  With St. Peter we must say -- Lord, only you hae the words of eternal life!

Whom else may we follow that loves us so?

Oh, how God loved us!

God loved us so much that he demonstrated it while we were yet sinners!  (Romans 5:1-11)

Look at the CARE of God --

28 You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

C.  It is the Passion of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete that we know for sure that JESUS is not One who walks out on us without telling us ahead of time!
There are many in this world who have suffered some kind of abandonment in the spirit.  They sense being forsaken,  a day when someone was seen by them as rejecting them as a person and they found themselves alone.  We are not alone.  Our Lord JESUS Christ in his Passion found himself alone and forsaken by the Father, as he paid the price for your sin and mine.  This was a dark night upon the God who loves us so in the Christ we love so much.  This was the dark night of the blessed Mother of God, as the sword pierced through her heart and that of St. John as he stood by our Mother.

However, my beloved, JESUS told his disciples, and Mary (with John), that he was going away.

My beloved, if this does not show love, nothing does.  Love tells a person what they may not want to hear, but, need to hear.

Love seeks us out, like a "hound" sent by God from heaven, and God the Holy Spirit passionately discovers and calls us to reconciliation.  This LOVE searches us out to give us the PEACE... the fruit of the Spirit.

Love seeks us out and brings us to the Eucharistic Table where we taste and see that he is good.

Love brings is peace.

Pax vobiscum.

29 And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

D.  It is the Passion of our Paraclete that we believe.  We say this at Mass in the Nicene Creed.

It is important, my beloved in Christ that we trust in Christ fully when we say the Credo.

Jesus told us before it happened, so that when it happened, John and all (with Mary our Mother) would believe and trust him fully.

The Spirit of God gives that fruit of peace, because he also gives us "faith," since, for God it is always -- "great is your faithfulness."

Let us avail ourselves with our Mother, Mary and the Church, of these graces from her Son, Jesus, the blessed Fruit of her womb.

Deus et Sanctissima