Wednesday of the 6th Week of Easter, Cycle A - May 28, 2014

Wednesday of the 6^th Week of Easter

May 28, 2014       6:30am

Today Jesus says that the Holy Spirit brings God’s truth to us.

The special name we give to this truth is revelation.

It is the revelation of God about himself and about us.

One of the points that Jesus teaches today about revelation is that it is a progressive or gradual process.

It does not happen all at once and is then over and done with.

As Jesus says, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

Jesus’ point is based on our humanity.

It is only possible to tell us things that we can receive at the present moment.

For example, when we are in school, we learn the basics of arithmetic before we get into algebra and calculus.

God’s revelation happens in a similar way.

God teaches us gradually, as we can take it in.

This explains certain parts of the Old Testament.

Certain passages call for the killing and wiping out of enemies.

Behind these passages is the belief that Israel must not have its faith tainted by mingling with those of no faith or of false faith.

At that stage of history, the people of Israel correctly realized that their faith must be safeguarded.

But in their limited understanding or in the limited revelation at that time, they assumed that they had to destroy all those of a different faith.

And then comes Jesus with further revelation.

This revelation shows that we safeguard our faith not by destroying or hurting anyone, but instead by loving even our enemies and inviting them to share the faith we have.

So with Jesus the revelation is much fuller.

And, after Jesus revelation continues to develop as God through the Holy Spirit and the Church helps us to understand, for example, how the sacredness of human life applies to issues such as abortion and warfare and capital punishment.

In other words, the revelation is a continuing process.

All of this is tucked into Jesus’ deceptively simple statement today: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.  But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”