The ultimate Comforter and Advocate

“The Paraclete is our comfort in times of solitude.”

The 50th day after Easter is Pentecost Sunday.

On this day, we commemorate the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which Jesus Christ has sent.

The Gospel of John quotes Jesus extolling his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandment. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always. 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…. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

By this indwelling of the Holy Spirit marks the “birthday of the Catholic Church. For on this day the paschal mystery is completed.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains—On this day, On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance.

In his Pentecost Sunday Homily delivered last year at St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis explained that the term “Paraclete” essentially means two things: Comforter and Advocate.

“The Paraclete is the Comforter. All of us, particularly at times of difficulty like those we are presently experiencing due to the pandemic, look for consolation. Often, though, we turn only to earthly comforts, ephemeral comforts that quickly fade.

“Today, Jesus offers us heavenly comfort, the Holy Spirit, who is “of comforters the best” (Sequence). What is the difference? The comforts of the world are like a pain reliever: they can give momentary relief, but not cure the illness we carry deep within. They can soothe us, but not heal us at the core.

“They work on the surface, on the level of the senses, but hardly touch our hearts. Only someone who makes us feel loved for who we are can give peace to our hearts. The Holy Spirit, the love of God, does precisely that. He comes down within us; as the Spirit, he acts in our spirit. He comes down ‘within the heart,’ as ‘the soul’s most welcome guest’ (ibid).

“He is the very love of God, who does not abandon us; for being present to those who are alone is itself a source of comfort.”

The Paraclete is our comfort in times of solitude when we feel that an obstacle within you blocks the way to hope if the heart has a festering wound if we feel that there is no way out.

In times like this, Francis advises the forlorn, the depressed, the heartbroken the lonely, to open the heart to the Holy Spirit. As Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “where the trials are greater, he brings greater comfort, not like the world, which comforts and flatters us when things go well, but derides and condemns us when they do not” (Homily in the Octave of the Ascension).

That is what the world does, that is especially what the hostile spirit, the devil, does, the Holy Father continued.

What is then the Paraclete as a Comforter and Advocate is telling the Church in today’s Philippines and world? The Holy Father explains:

The Paraclete is telling the Church that today is the time for comforting.

It is more the time for joyfully proclaiming the Gospel than for combating paganism. It is the time for bringing the joy of the Risen Lord, not for lamenting the drama of secularization. It is the time for pouring out love upon the world, yet not embracing worldliness.

It is more the time for testifying to mercy, than for inculcating rules and regulations. It is the time of the Paraclete! It is the time of freedom of heart, in the Paraclete.

The Paraclete is also the Advocate. In Jesus’ day, advocates did not do what they do today: rather than speaking in the place of defendants, they simply stood next to them and suggested arguments they could use in their own defense. That is what the Paraclete does, for he is “the spirit of truth.”

He does not take our place but defends us from the deceits of evil by inspiring thoughts and feelings. He does so discreetly, without forcing us: he proposes but does not impose. The spirit of deceit, the evil one, does the opposite: he tries to force us; he wants to make us think that we must always yield to the allure and the promptings of vice.

With the Holy Spirit on our side, there is nothing to be really afraid about—whether it is a serious sickness we are facing or the challenges our country and planet are facing.