John 16.5-11 – Saints Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs – Optional Memorial
«It is good for you that I go away, because if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you». These words of Jesus in today’s Gospel contain a profound lesson. Sometimes loving means leaving space for the other. It means not holding back, not occupying everything, but allowing the other to emerge. This leaving space can be experienced as distance, as emptiness, even as absence. Yet it is not abandonment. It is a higher form of lovebecause it makes freedom possible.
Something similar happens in our spiritual experience too. When it seems to us that God is far away, that he doesn’t make himself heard, it doesn’t mean that he has left us. Instead, it may be the way in which he invites us to put what we are into play. It’s like he wants to bring out forces that are already within us, but which remain hidden until we are called to use them. It is the Holy Spirit, a gift from above, who works in depth and transforms the heart. Jesus adds that the Spirit “will convince the world regarding sin, justice and judgment.” Sin, in its deepest root, is not simply making mistakes, but not believing. It is closing oneself to the relationship with Christ, not trusting Him.
Justice, however, is linked to the fact that Jesus “goes to the Father”. It no longer imposes itself clearly, it no longer offers itself as a presence that eliminates freedom. Precisely for this reason faith becomes a real choice. Finally, the judgment: “the prince of this world is already condemned.” It means that evil, while continuing to manifest itself, has already been defeated. If the Spirit convinces us of these three things we have everything we need to live everything differently: trust in Christ, accept your responsibility and remember that Jesus has already won everything, even what makes you lose today.
