“FIRST IMPRESSIONS”
PENTECOST -B- May 19, 2024

Acts 2: 1-11; Ps. 104; I Cor 12:
3b-7, 12-13; John 20: 19-23

by Jude Siciliano, OP

Dear Preachers:

I have a friend named Rosie. She is in her 70s and since childhood has been friends with Marie. Seven years ago Rosalie moved about an hour away from Marie. But she still makes the trip once, or twice, a week to see her friend, because 20 years ago Marie developed a disease that slowly paralyzed her whole body. Her brain does not communicate with her muscles. Little by little her body became scrunched up. Now, she can’t move, can’t turn her head, or speak clearly. She has to live in a nursing home under constant care.

It is heart wrenching to visit her in the nursing home where she has been in bed for 15 years in her present condition. Her sister, who was also confined in a nearby room, died a year ago. Marie has no other family and Rosie is her only visitor. So, the nursing home has to contact Rosie if they change the dose of Marie’s medication, or if she gets a flu shot, or gets sick. Rosie does more. When she visits Marie she brings her clean bed clothes and flowers, rubs her arms and face with soothing lotion, kisses her on the cheeks and tells Marie, “I love you.” And Marie says in return, barely audible,, “I love you too Rosie.”

Rosie is Marie’s advocate. She is by her side when the need arises. She offers Marie love when there’s no one else to offer it. She oversees Marie’s daily care and argues for her when she is neglected. She brings the nurses cookies, telling me it is a “friendly bribe” for their good care of Marie. Rosie is on Marie’s side, speaks up for her, protects her rights, brings her joy and hope, because Marie knows Rosie will be there for her whenever she needs her.

The Bible, in both the Hebrew text and the New Testament, is filled with names for God, but God is infinite and no one name can capture God’s identity and activity. In St. John’s Gospel, as we heard today, the name Jesus gives the Holy Spirit is Advocate. Think of Rosie’s presence in Marie’s life: that is just a hint of how the Spirit is in our life. The name Advocate, or Paraclete, means someone who is called to be at the side of a person in need – especially in a legal matter when they have no one to stand up for them. Hence, having the Advocate means we are not left on our own, especially when our need is dire!

The Advocate continues to stir up the life of Jesus in us; keeps us firm when we are challenged in our faith, tempted to compromise, or give up our Christian identity to take an easier path. The Advocate, the “Spirit of Truth,” helps us separate what is true and of God in our lives and what is false and illusionary. Or, as Jesus would say, what is “of the world.”

In today’s gospel Jesus is with his disciples around the table. It is the night before he dies. He has tried to prepare them for the catastrophe that is about to happen to him, and will happen to them, if they continue to choose to follow him. He is staying true to form, not telling them, “There, there, everything will be fine. Keep a stiff upper lip.” He speaks the truth to them. Following him in this world will not be easy. The coming crisis in their lives will tempt them to give up on him and his way. There is a danger they will grow discouraged and fall away. Jesus is telling his disciples that the suffering they will have because of him is the kind they can avoid, if they choose.

It is not the suffering we experience because we get seriously sick, or have a catastrophic accident. In situations like that we do not have a choice. He is telling his disciples they will suffer, specifically because they are his disciples. They have chosen to follow him and to live his kind of life. Jesus’ way of living caused him to be rejected suffer and die. His disciples must be made aware that if we take up his ways, his life, then we should also expect rejection and maybe even worse.

We know the cost of discipleship if we have: chosen to speak up for a less significant person in our family, or society; decided not to make a career move up the ladder because we wanted time with family, or be active in our church community; given our free time to stay with a sick person, as Rosie did; welcome new neighbors into a neighborhood, or country, that does not want them; taken time from friends we love to feed the hungry, or visit the imprisoned, etc

To be faithful to Jesus’ way of life over the long haul, can be fatiguing and costly. It cost him everything. After an initial enthusiastic beginning some decided to return to former ways of living – not bad ways, but more personal, “self-focused” ways, because they tired paying the price. Jesus would say they had “fallen away.” But he did tell us the truth, didn’t he? He clearly laid out the cost of being his disciples. He also did what he promised. He knew we were too vulnerable on our own, so he sent us the Advocate.

The “ Advocate” is a strange name for the Holy Spirit, isn’t it? It does not sound pious, religious, or theological. And it isn’t. Advocate is a term in daily life and so gives us an insight into the practical, real, everyday activity of the Holy Spirit. We have tended to think of the Holy Spirit as being “on call”... somewhere “on high,” waiting to be called upon to come to our aid when, we have an important decision to make, or we have a big exam at school. But our God is not a “part-time God.” Jesus kept his word and sent the “Advocate”...full-time, with us...up close and personal. This is a limping analogy, just a clue to the life of the Holy Spirit with us. But think of what and who Rosie is for Marie, with all her physical, emotional and spiritual needs. The Spirit is more, with us, 24/7 – God, our Advocate, full time with us.

Jesus has been honest with us. He is not dwelling with us any longer, the way he did when he walked the earth. But he has not left us orphans facing daily challenges to the practice of our faith. He knows how vulnerable we are against the strong tugs of our world. At our Eucharist today we might name the challenges we face as we attempt to live faithfully Jesus’ way. Here we will be fed with the “daily bread” we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer, the food the Advocate feeds us for our ongoing and challenging journey. Jesus made a promise to his disciples who were about to be pressed, scattered, divided and tempted by events. In one way, or another, that happens to each of us at some moment in our lives. Probably more than once. Jesus keeps his promise, he gives us his Spirit, our Advocate. If it helps, think of the Holy Spirit as our full-time Rosie, always by our side, especially when we need her.