In an exchange between coming and going, the going of Jesus to the Father and the coming of the Spirit, one of the roles of the Easter breath that animates the communities is indicated: the defence, meaning from the word “paraclete”. This defense is divided into three areas:
Defense from sin. The real sin is not believing in Jesus, it is the sin from which all the others would take life. The gravity of disbelief lies in not giving the other the possibility of the truth. It is a set of truths – of different ways of loving – that founds the communities that are responsible for transmitting the faith in a credible way. Without the embodied evidence of love, believing in Christ would lack roots.
For justice. The way in which God does justice is the cross, the choice to make the Son suffer to put an end to all other suffering. It is difficult to enter into this divine logic – and the difficulty is amplified by the multiplication of sufferings with which we live every day. But the cross is not an end in itself: it is the path towards communion with the Father. It is this intimacy that we must look at to understand the effects of this justice which would seem like a painful defeat.
From judgment. To the question if there will be a judgement, Jesus responds with a clear sentence: the prince of this world, condensed of everything that causes evil, is already condemned. It is the crisis of all the universal judgments with which we have frescoed our churches. Whoever causes evil already has condemnation in his evil. For everything that is moved by love the goal is to return to the one who sent us.
Only love makes the language of sin, justice and judgment “Christian”.
The true shield that the Spirit holds to defend us is love.
Giuseppe Amalfa SJ
Continue reading the other insights of the day on the site
Source: Get up and Walk – the daily gospel with commentary
