“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and He will give
you another Helper [Paraclete], that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15)
Study these sentences and you will learn much about the Holy Trinity. The first lesson is the connection between love and obedience. Ours is a culture where defiance is acceptable behavior in many places: Children defying parents and teachers, adults defying the Church and its teachers, nearly everyone challenging the laws of society, all affirming their right and justifying what they do, then claiming that “If there is a God” He is full of love. He never chastises nor punishes. He understands. In the phrase made famous from the movie “Love Story,” Love means never having to say you’re sorry. Put that in the context of Christ’s identity of love and keeping His commandments.
He will pray to the Father on our behalf. Many Christians feel that’s not necessary. Asking Christ is enough. But here’s a subtle, profound insight into the acts and works of the Holy Trinity. They are in full agreement with each other. Here the Son of God is praying to His Father on our behalf, so that the Father will send us the Holy Spirit.
Notice how He says, “another Helper.” It means that our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself our Helper. [Actually this term Paraclete is more than a helper. It’s someone who stands beside us and cries out, or pleads on our behalf, like a defense attorney.] Jesus is telling His disciples that He was standing beside them, but it’s time for Him to leave them and return to where He was before the world existed; i.e., seated at the right side of the Father’s throne. And they should not regret it happening and feel sorry for themselves. The Father will send the Holy Spirit and He will abide with them forever.
Not only will the Spirit dwell with them and us, He will abide in us. Now here’s the exciting part—the Spirit will make Himself known to us. How? Because He is the Spirit of truth. We will know what truth is, and what are lies. It’s a gift—the gift of discernment. When Christ offered a blessing on the pure of heart (Matthew 5:8), He said that they would see God. He wasn’t only speaking about a vision after death. The pure in heart are capable of seeing the God within; i.e., the Holy Spirit, and the image of God in others. It’s why they are able to love more than the people of the world.
And here Christ makes a clear distinction between people of the world and the people of God. You may say, “Aren’t we also of the world, and doesn’t Christ want us to love everything in the world?” In this gospel of St. John “world” is used in a negative way. Christ means the fallen world, those who want nothing more than to exhaust themselves in earthly pleasures. As the evangelist wrote in his first epistle: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (I John 2:15).
To know the difference between that world and the world created originally is to realize the truth. That truth comes to us from God the Holy Spirit, and while we keep ourselves pure and liberated from the fallen world’s wiles, we will have the light of Christ to illumine and lead us to the Father’s Kingdom.