It never ceases to amaze me how the Scriptures challenge me in my own life if I only take the time to sit with a scriptural passage. I’ll tell you, I wish everyone was a preacher, because preaching forces us to sit with the Scripture and to really listen. I was listening to a wonderful preacher once—a Lutheran minister, but an incredible preacher—and I asked him, “What is your secret in preaching?” He was a shy, somewhat awkward individual in conversation, yet at the pulpit, he had the greatest insights. He told me, “I do not read any commentaries.”
Father Ted will chuckle at that. Commentaries are other people’s expert thoughts about the Scriptures; they have their place and are useful, but he said he avoided them because he was tempted to share other people’s insights and it never went deep enough. He told me that if nothing comes to mind, he reads the scripture again and again until something becomes clear. It never fails—if you spend enough time with a passage, God will speak to you and something will touch you. I have been applying this principle ever since, and it really works. It takes faith to just read, pray, and think, but something inevitably opens up. In fact, so much opens up that you can’t fit it all into a ten-minute sermon.
The Gospel reading offered to us today contains the discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of John, given to the apostles before his death. These are his most intimate teachings. Already, the Church is looking forward to the feast of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus mentions his great love for his disciples and his desire for them to have love. When they become overwhelmed by the challenge of this call, he says, “Don’t worry. I will send you a Paraclete.” This is often translated as the Advocate or Defender—the one who comes when no one else can get things done.
The word Paraclete is difficult to translate, but at the time, it meant the one who is sent in to get things sorted, organized, and resolved. Much like an expert sent into a workplace or a family to resolve a conflict and bring light to a situation, the Paraclete is the gift of Jesus sent to resolve conflicts within us, our faith communities, or the world. However, it has to begin with us and the untangling of the tensions within our own hearts. I have to have a hope for the future and see things more clearly than the surrounding tension.
Jesus speaks much about hope, as does Peter in today’s second reading. This hope comes from the gift of love and gratitude. I was moved by the Psalm today which says, “I praise you God, I thank you, I will never cease to thank you.” This kind of optimism and gratitude is supposed to shape who we are. After all, the Eucharist we celebrate simply translates to “Thanksgiving.” If we are filled with gratitude for what God has done for us, there is no room for pessimism or hopelessness.
I often struggle with this personally. I am a strong-minded individual, and I used to go to gatherings with other priests to debate, argue, and try to convince people. On the way home, I would feel bad about how I engaged, wondering why I didn’t listen more or keep my mouth shut. St. Peter talks about this: he says that if you are eager to defend your hope as a Christian, you must offer that defense with gentleness and reverence. How I long to be filled with that gentleness in all things—in offering a defense for my position, the faith that leads me, and the hope that drives my life.
We are told to keep our consciences clear, stay busy doing good, and be filled with reverence. That is a recipe for a life filled with hope. Yes, we must be opinionated because we have been given the truth of the Gospel, but look at how St. Paul engaged the Greeks in Athens. He was full of gentleness and respect. When they rejected his message, he walked away without anger or frustration.
That is a kernel of truth for me: my job is not to convince the world that I am right. My job is to witness and share what I believe while listening to others, remembering that God is the one who convicts hearts, not me. Once I have shared what gives me joy and strengthens my love, I can walk away even if I am belittled. I won’t lose a night’s sleep because I did my duty, which is to witness rather than to convince. My prayer for us is that we continue to notice what God is saying to us. The more we listen to the Word of God, the more we will find the right path for hope and love in a world that can be a source of frustration. The answer is already given; we must simply continue to seek it. Amen.