GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 6TH WEEK OF EASTER, 13 MAY 2026

John 16:12-15.  In the concluding section of Jesus’ farewell  to his disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus continues to speak of the role of the Holy Spirit among us.  Whenever we read or hear passages of scripture like this, we become alert to the work of the Holy Trinity.  As we recite in our creed at Mass, we believe that the ‘Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.’  Sometimes it is easy to slip into a mind-frame that God is the Father, as if God is the Father alone; or God is the Son alone; or the Holy Spirit alone.  We need always to be aware that God is always all three in one.  Now Jesus himself and the Holy Spirit have a particular role – to reveal to us the Truth of the Father.  The bringing of that Truth is what we call revelation.  Jesus definitively reveals the Father to us, and the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us into “all Truth.”  In guiding us into all Truth, the Spirit guides us into all truth about everything else too, for everything will be seen and understood in its relationship to God.  I have continued to use a capital for this Truth, for we are not speaking of truth in human terms as it may be achieved by human effort.  It is Divine Truth about divine things brought to us by divine persons.  As it was for the twelve disciples, the significance of the Truth comes to us humans over time – we grow in our spiritual awareness of the Truth by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  It is the work of God in us by God’s grace.  As our text tells us, Jesus knew many things which the twelve were not yet able to understand, but the work of the Spirit is to continue to reveal those things – that means to all of us as the Church but also to each of us personally so long as we abide in that Church.  Truth comes to us from a person!  Cardinal Newman’s motto and crest say something of that – cor ad cor loquitur – ‘heart speaking to heart!’