May 19 2020
Acts 16:22-34; John 16:5-11
Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Easter
Weekday prayer service at St. Catherine of Siena church
In today’s gospel passage, which takes place at the Last Supper, Jesus tells the disciples he will leave them and says, “It is better for you that I go.” Really? Aren’t the sheep better off when their shepherd is with them? Aren’t the weak and frightened disciples better off if their risen Lord sticks around? Wouldn’t we be better off if the Christ were here right now telling us how to love our neighbors in the context of a coronavirus pandemic, instead of way off in Heaven sitting at the right hand of God?
Well, No, is Jesus’ answer. Because if he goes, the Holy Spirit, which today’s text calls the Advocate, will come. The physical Jesus can only be in one place at a time. If he’s in Galilee, he won’t be in Philippi when Paul and Silas are arrested. But Jesus’ spirit can be there in their hearts, as if Jesus were right there with them. Instead of listening to divine wisdom as dispensed by Christ, the disciples will be able to listen to the divine wisdom dispensed by his spirit directly into their own hearts and minds. Jesus preached and lived compassion, self-sacrifice, and obedience to God’s will. When he leaves, they will be able to discover in themselves the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and this will empower them.
Put another way, like any good teacher, Jesus does not want his disciples to remain in tutelage. He wants them to be masters, to fully realize that they are sons and daughters of God, and to fully live the kingdom. They probably won’t do that as long as they have him to lean on. I mean, I wouldn’t, if Jesus were right here.
We can see what Jesus is talking about in today’s first reading, which is about Paul and Silas in jail in Philippi, which is located in modern-day Greece. The story opens with Paul and Silas being attacked by a crowd and then beaten and imprisoned by the police. The magistrates order the jailor to guard Paul and Silas securely. Of course, the jailor’s job is to guard all prisoners securely. If they got away then he has failed in his duty, and the only way to salvage his honor would be suicide. As luck would have it, there is a powerful earthquake that night, the walls fall down, and all the prisoners are able to leave. Now, you’d think that any prisoner in his right mind would follow his self-interest and walk out of the jail at this point, but Paul and Silas don’t. Why not? Well, because of compassion—the jailor will suffer if they escape—and self-sacrifice—they are willing to stay in the jail to help their jailor. And they are not afraid of what might happen to them; God will decide.
They’ve basically saved the jailor’s life, and he is as grateful as you would imagine. He nurses them and feeds them, and they tell him the good news of Christ and baptize him. The jailor is saved, in more ways than one, but Paul and Silas are still in jail. In case you are wondering what happens to them, by the next day the magistrates have changed their minds, and they tell the jailor to set Paul and Silas free. So the prisoners can leave and the jailor is off the hook.
Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will “convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation.” A translation into basic English might be that the Spirit will “show up the shortcomings of the world [our society], lead it into right relationship with God and others, and convince it that love alone is the ultimate value on which we all will be judged.”[1] Inspired by Paul and Silas’s actions, the jailor realized that his job required him to do some bad things. Their compassion gave him an example of right relationship with others, and today’s reading shows that he learned quickly. He and his whole family committed to the Way of Jesus.
God, through the earthquake, freed Paul and Silas from jail. But it was the Advocate sent by Christ that freed them while they were still inside the jail. And finally it freed the jailor from his jail, and he and his family began to follow Jesus on the Way. And it empowers us to live the kingdom as empowered sons and daughters of God.
[1] “John 16:5-11,” in Sacred Space, a ministry of the Irish Jesuits, https://www.sacredspace.ie/scripture/john-165-11, accessed May 18, 2020.