IT IS THE WORLD THAT IS CONDEMNED [JOHN 16:5-11]
As Jesus kept talking during the Last Supper to His apostles about leaving this world, He noticed that they were overcome by grief. They just didn’t seem to understand why He must go. He told them the sober truth. If He didn’t go, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, would not come to them. He would go and send the Holy Spirit to them. What would the Holy Spirit do when He came? He would be their counselor, their consoler. He would guide them in their relationship, in their encounter with the world.
The Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong about sin, about justice, about condemnation. He will show by the divine, just and holy life of the Church which He will guide, that Christ was sinless, that He was just, that He did not deserve condemnation. Those who refuse to believe in Him, to obey His commands, are the guilty ones. They are the unjust. They are the ones who stand condemned.
Which side are we (you and I) on? Are we truly sharers in that divine life by our faith, our obedience, our love? Are we among the just of Christ, the righteous? Do our lives bear witness to the holiness of Christ whose members we are?
We have received the Holy Spirit just as the apostles did. He is our advocate too. He is our guide and our consoler. He gives us instructions, guidance and the strength, the courage it takes to live with Christ, with His Church. We need not suffer condemnation. It is the world that is condemned every time we witness to Christ as Lord in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jakarta, 28 May 2014
A Christian Pilgrim
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