THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

Meditation for Wednesday of the 6^th Week in Easter

(Acts 17:15, 22-18:1; Jn 16:12-15)

As Jesus prepares for His Ascension, He continues to direct the attention of His disciples to the Holy Spirit. Today He presents the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth! Truth can be encompassing to the human mind. Our capacity to grasp deeper truth and wholesome truth is usually limited. The human mind derives pleasure in dwelling on the surface of things instead of digging out the deeper truth, which might require more effort than we had previously accumulated. But the Holy Spirit comes to our aid in our hunger and search for truth. “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak.”

We see then that the Holy Spirit is our guide into the way of truth. He is fascinated by truth; He ‘feeds’ on truth and dwells therein. The unity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit is such that the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Son, dwells on those who have Jesus in them, even in the iota of His gospel. Since Jesus is the fullness of truth, whom we can relate to, the Holy Spirit guides our steps to locate Jesus and walk in His paths, which is the pathway of truth. Jesus says, “He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

That means the Holy Spirit mingles the truth of Christ with our human lives, so that the encompassing truth becomes our lived experience! The truth that appeared as mystery now becomes an encounter; and that which is beyond human understanding, we proclaim with conviction and testimony. All these shall happen when the Spirit of truth comes. We see this manifestation in the wisdom of St Paul before the Areopagus in Athens. Because the Athenians would not accept any knowledge that did not originate from human mind, they laughed at Paul’s message of the resurrection. If we do not open up to the Holy Spirit, we will remain locked up in ignorance, our search for truth will be painful, and round and round an endless circle of ignorance and error, and we may end up living in fear of the truth! Come, Holy Spirit of truth, let us to the truth that sets us free. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Wednesday May 12^th, 2021.
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