Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Year C) - John 16: 12-15

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John 16: 12-15 - 'The Spirit of truth will lead you to the complete truth.'

Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:

- 221 (in 'God is Love') - God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange (abbreviated).

- 91 (in 'The Supernatural Sense of Faith') - All the faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guides them into all truth.

- 243-244 (in 'The Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit') - Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously "spoken through the prophets", the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them "into all the truth". The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father. The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. the Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father. The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus' glorification reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

- 687 (in 'I Believe in the Holy Spirit') - "No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." Now God's Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. the Spirit who "has spoken through the prophets" makes us hear the Father's Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and disposes us to welcome him in faith. the Spirit of truth who "unveils" Christ to us "will not speak on his own." Such properly divine self-effacement explains why "the world cannot receive (him), because it neither sees him nor knows him," while those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them.

- 1117 (in 'The Sacraments of the Church') - As she has done for the canon of Sacred Scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, the Church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her "into all truth," has gradually recognized this treasure received from Christ and, as the faithful steward of God's mysteries, has determined its "dispensation." Thus the Church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord.

- 2466 (in 'Living in the Truth') - To follow Jesus is to live in "the Spirit of truth," whom the Father sends in his name and who leads "into all the truth" (abbreviated).

- 485 (in 'Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit') - The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and ordered to that of the Son (abbreviated).

- 690 (in 'The Joint Mission of the Son and the Spirit')

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Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily gospel
exegesis, where we look at the Gospel reading for the mass of
today, and we really want to getit, the literal sense of the
text. That's always where we want to
start when we study the Bible. I know so many of you are
benefiting from studying the Bible in this way and hopefully,
we all continue to learn a lot as we continue through the

(00:33):
Gospels. Today, we're looking at John
chapter 16 verses 12 to 15. Jesus said to his disciples, I
still have many things to say toyou, but they would be too much
for you now, but when the spiritof truth comes, he will lead you
to the complete truth since he will not be speaking as from

(00:57):
himself, but will say only what he has learnt and he will tell
you of the things to come. He will glorify me since all he
tells you will be taken. From what is mine?
Everything the father has is mine.
That is why I said all he tells you will be taken from what is

(01:19):
mine? So the context we always want to
start by thinking about when is this happening?
What's going on in the gospels we're in the last supper or more
properly? We're in the farewell discourse,
which goes over, quite a few chapters.
It starts at the Last Supper, onHoly Thursday, but by this

(01:39):
point, it appears that they are walking from the Last Supper, to
the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus is giving all these
promises to the apostles. What he has just said to them in
the previous verses is, he's told the apostles.
That it's actually a good thing that he's going away so that he
can send the spirit to them. And he's also said the spirit
will convict the world of sin. So verse 12, Jesus continues to

(02:04):
speak to his disciples. Keep that audience in mind Jesus
is going to give some promises here and most likely that only
intended to apply in this special way to the original
audience, which are the apostles.
So he says, I still have many things to say to you, but they
it would be too much for you now.

(02:25):
Other translations put this as they will be too much for you to
Bear. Now this is an interesting
teaching, isn't it? Jesus says here that there's
theological truths concerning his father and about maybe Jesus
himself that he would like to reveal to his Apostles.
He yearns to. But he hasn't done so yet and he
knows that if he were to try to reveal these whatever, these

(02:48):
deep things are before, the Apostle's have the help of the
Holy Spirit, then they're not going to understand.
So there's some things which Jesus couldn't actually tell the
apostles at this during his ministry because they didn't
have the help of the Holy Spiritto understand them.
So that tells us a lot about God's plan of Revelation does

(03:09):
not end with Jesus death and we'll talk about that.
So what does this verse tell us at a minimum it teaches that
Jesus did not reveal absolutely everything about the father
during his ministry. There were some things that
Jesus did not teach. Verse 13.
But when the spirit of truth andthe spirit of Truth is a title

(03:33):
that Jesus gives to the Holy Spirit which and that title gets
used quite a bit in the farewelldiscourse.
The holy spirit is called the spirit of truth because truth in
the Gospel of John basically means the father's will
particularly in terms of the revelation of Jesus being the
Son of God. So gr God's Plan of Salvation or

(03:54):
God's will for the world. Something like that is, what is
But truth and the Holy Spirit has come to communicate that
truth. So Jesus here is probably
talking about as you know, special coming of the Holy
Spirit. That has to do with the truth.
And perhaps some Scholars. Think it might have wet refer to

(04:14):
this spiritual awareness of God of his truth.
That wasn't available in the oldCovenant, but which was
prophesied in the Old Testament.So Jeremiah in Jeremiah and
Ezekiel prophesied that the New Covenant would have a couple of
interesting features. So Jeremiah says, and this is
God speaking. I will place my law within them

(04:35):
and write it upon their hearts. Everyone from the least to the
greatest show on Army. And then Ezekiel says something
similar, in chapter 36, I will put my spirit within you.
So that you walk in my statutes,many scholars think that this is
the Fulfillment of those predictions when Jesus here
promises to pour out the spirit.When does that happen?

(04:55):
When does the Spirit come? Well, we know, because we know
what happens a bit later on. The Holy Spirit comes at
Pentecost, that's when they receive the spirit of Truth.
And Jesus says, when he comes, he will lead you to the leet
truth. So what's the teaching here?
Jesus says, the holy spirit willguide the apostles to discern

(05:18):
all divine revelation that God has willed to be part of what we
call the deposit of Faith. So the holy spirit will guide
the apostles to to discern all the things that God wants or
Wills to be revealed in that particular time period, the
deposit of Faith. So that would be all of
scripture and all of tradition in the apostolic age, that's

(05:40):
probably what Jesus In view here, when he talks about he
will lead you to the complete truth.
It's a promise to the apostles that the holy spirit will
complete the deposit of faith intheir time.
This is the fifth promise Jesus makes about the Holy Spirit in
the farewell discourse. Some translations have this as

(06:02):
he will lead you to the all truth rather than complete
truth. The basic meaning here though
is, it doesn't mean all is in 100% of everything ever.
It's not a teaching that the holy spirit is going to teach
them everything about everything.
It basically means everything that is necessary.
Jesus says that during the apostolic age, the holy spirit

(06:23):
will teach the apostles. Everything that is necessary.
And in fact, that's where it gets, put into the deposit of
faith. So this verse teaches us that
the Canon the New Testament was not closed with the death of
Jesus. There is still more Revelation
to come during the apostolic age.
The Holy Spirit, guided the apostles into understanding,
further theological truths and these are the truths or at least

(06:45):
some of them made it into the New Testament, some of it
remained as part of oral tradition.
Remember, this is a promise to the apostles.
It's not a guarantee that any individual Christian can be
lured to learn all the truth. Even with the help of the holy
spirit, it's a promise of the Apostles.
Now, Church tradition. We've looked at the literal

(07:07):
sense. It's worth mentioning, the
Catholic tradition also thinks that this verse might have an
additional meaning. When Jesus says, the holy spirit
will guide you into complete truth.
Some interpreters within the church would say that this
promise that Jesus gives here actually applies to the church
in the long term as well. In that case, Jesus is saying

(07:29):
that the Holy Spirit Will gradually guide the church as a
whole into learning all the Throughout the ages of history
and that would apply to the way that doctrines are developed and
clarified in the Catholic church.
If you think about it, not everything was entirely explicit
in the amongst the very first questions.

(07:51):
For example, the Trinity was notfully understood in the first
century, it was only with later development, which we believe
was Guided by the holy spirit. That we came to understand that
truth, more fully and of course,this teaching would apply to
magisterial, Ability as well andthat's laid out in the Vatican,
two documents, which says that the pope alone or the pope and
the Bishops United with him can be divinely protected from

(08:15):
teaching error, when they Definematters pertaining to Faith and
morals. In fact, they are protected from
error. That's a Catholic teaching that
infallibility can occur in certain certain circumstances,
and perhaps this teaching here in John, chapter 16 is the basis
for that. The guidance of the spirit is
basically Christ's guarantee that the gospel, the core things

(08:38):
of the faith will not be corrupted distorted or
misunderstood by the ordained Shepherds of the church during
her Earthly pilgrimage and that probably extends to today, as
well, it's not a guarantee that individual Christians or even
individual Bishops will always get things right though.
And there's a lot more that could be said about that.

(08:58):
Jesus goes on since he will not be speaking as from himself or
more. Literally what it says there is
since he will not be speaking onhis own authority.
So the Holy Spirit doesn't talk about himself rather.
He will say only what he has learnt If you've been following
the Gospel of John, you know, that Jesus only ever
communicated what he heard from the father.

(09:21):
And so now Jesus extends that and he says the holy spirit will
only communicate what he hears from the father and the son.
So it's a continuation of the sun's message.
That's the holy spirit's job to make the father to make the Sun
and his message present on the earth.
And then Jesus adds this interesting phrase, remember he
speaking to the apostles and he will tell you of things to come.

(09:45):
Or more, literally, there he will declare to you, the things
that are to come. So Jesus, here teaches the whole
list, the apostles that the holyspirit will give them
Revelations of things, which areto come in the future.
That's a promise he gives to them.
And the word here for declare isactually quite a specific Greek
word. It's used in The Book of Daniel

(10:06):
to designate the revelation of eschatological realities.
So it does seem to carry this idea of knowledge of future
things about how God's plan is going to unfold in the future.
Another interpretation this is Ithink less likely but it's worth
mentioning some Scholars. Think that, what Jesus means
here is that the holy spirit will make eschatological

(10:26):
realities such as God's overall Plan of Salvation present in the
lives of Apostles and of all believers.
So, it's not a promise that theywill have visions of the future
rather. It's a promise that they will
access information about sort ofdeep understanding of God's
plan, something like that. I think this could apply

(10:49):
particularly to the the Apostle John, if you think about it
here's the one who's authoring this passage.
What other books of the Bible does John author?
Well, one of the books that Johnauthors is the Book of
Revelation and if you know the Book of Revelation, it's
basically filled with visions ofthe future.
So it appears that the Apostle John did have visions of the
future. Now if John, it's debated as to

(11:12):
when the Gospel of John was written into when the Book of
Revelation was written, but if you think about it, If the
Gospel of John, that way readingtoday was written before after
John has written Revelation. Then perhaps John is including
this verse here in his gospel because he knows that many of
his readers would have already read the book of Revelation and

(11:34):
he's giving them a surance that those visions that he imparted
in the Book of Revelation are infact from the spirit because
Jesus promises here that the holy spirit will allow the
apostles to have knowledge of the future.
So It's an interesting Theory which could be correct verse 14.
He will glorify me. So back the basic meaning, there

(11:55):
is the holy spirit will Point people towards Jesus rather than
himself. He will make Jesus divine
Majesty known to believers. Already the Gospel of John has
said that the father and the songlorify each other and the other
holy spirit is included in this process of glorification, he's
going to glorify Jesus. In fact, later in the New

(12:16):
Testament, John says, the spiritis the one who testifies and
that's in 1 John chapter 5. Jesus goes on since all he tells
you will be taken from what is mine?
Everything the Holy Spirit teaches.
The apostles will in fact, be given by Jesus himself, notice
that phrase, all he tells you will be given will be taken from

(12:39):
what is mine. So the Holy Spirit gets his
information from Jesus and then you pass it to the apostles.
Jesus now is going to clarify what he means by mine verse 15.
Everything the father has is mine.
That is why I said all he tells you will be taken from what is
mine. So there's a complex.

(13:00):
Of trinitarian thing going on here.
The father reveals everything tothe sun in a kind of total
self-giving love. And the life of God, is an
eternal communion of life and love, which is sort of what
Jesus is getting at here. That's the Heart of Jesus
Revelation, that's the same Divine exchange of love and
life, which is made available toall believers.

(13:22):
And we'll look at that when we see catechism paragraph 2 to 1,
why does Jesus mentioned it here?
He wants the apostles to be clear.
That, although the holy spirit is indeed revealing, the
father's will that's his primarypurpose.
He also wants the apostles to know that the sun has access to
the same things as the father. So it is also correct to say

(13:43):
that the holy spirit is revealing what Jesus has to
because the father and the son have the same information,
hopefully, that makes sense. So, let's have a look at some
catechism references here. And there's quite a few
interesting ones about the Holy Spirit, and I'll include all the
catechism references to this passage in the show notes.

(14:05):
Let's look at paragraph 2 to 1. This is a really deep teaching
about God's identity and our role in being drawn to God
paragraph 2 to 1 in God is love God's.
Very being is love. I should stop there that here
this Catholic teaching really clearly.
We don't know this teaching we need to hear it.

(14:27):
The Catholic Church teaches God's very being is love.
The paragraph Goes On by sendinghis only son and the spirit of
love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost
secret. God himself isn't is an eternal
exchange of love, father, Son and Holy Spirit and he has
destined us to share in that Exchange.

(14:49):
How amazing is that Christians are called to be part of the
Divine love which God pours forth.
Paragraph 91 is his early in thecatechism about what his faith.
It says this all the faithful share in understanding and
handing on revealed truth, they have received the anointing of
the Holy Spirit who instructs them and guide them into all

(15:10):
truth. So the church does teach the
Holy Spirit guides, all believers in a general way to
understand truth, but it does not promise infallibility to
individual questions. Prague paragraph 687.
This is in the section about theholy spirit.
Says, no one comprehends the thoughts of God, except the

(15:30):
spirit of God, now, God's spiritwho reveals God makes known to
us Christ, his word, his living utterance, but the spirit is not
speak of himself. The spirit who has spoken
through the prophets. Makes us hear the father's word,
but we do not hear the spirit himself.
We know him only in the movementby which he reveals the word to

(15:53):
us. And disposes us to welcome him
in faith. The spirit of Truth, who unveils
Christ to us will not speak on his own such properly.
Divine self-effacement explains why the world cannot receive
him? Because it neither sees him nor
knows him while those who believe in Christ know the
spirit because he dwells with them. so here the church teaches

(16:16):
that the Holy Spirit never speaks of himself, his job is to
reveal the sun to people Paragraph, 1117.
This is about the sacraments of the church.
And it's a discussion about how the whole, how the church has
developed. Its understanding of the
sacraments over time, as she hasdone for the Canon of sacred

(16:36):
scripture, and for the doctrine of the faith, the church by the
power of the spirit, who guides her into.
All the truth, has gradually recognized.
This treasure received from Christ and as the faithful
Steward of God's Mysteries has determined its dispensation thus
Church has discerned over the centuries then among liturgical

(16:56):
celebrations. There are seven that are in the
strict sense of the term sacraments instituted by the
Lord seal here, there that are quotes from John 16 about how
the holy spirit is going to guide.
The apostles into all the truth.The Catholic Church understands
that to be extended to the magisterium of the church
throughout time as well. Last paragraph will look at

(17:20):
paragraph 690. This is about the joint mission
of the Son and the spirit, when Christ is finally glorified he
can in turn, send the spirit from his place with the father
to those who believe in him. He communicates to them his
glory that is the Holy Spirit, who glorifies him from that time

(17:40):
on this joint Mission will be manifested in the children,
adopted by the father, in the body of his son, the mission of
the spirit. Adoption is to unite them to
Christ and to make them live in him.
So that's the end of today's podcast.
I hope you've learned something new.
There's some really fascinating teachings in here about the

(18:02):
Trinity about the Holy Spirit and about our role in accessing
God's truth as well. Thanks for listening, please
continue to share the podcast around and we'll see you again
tomorrow.