The Season of Pentecost: The Gift of the Advocate

The Season of Pentecost: The Gift of the Advocate

 
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” - The Gospel of John 14:15-17

 
The Season of Pentecost in the Syriac-Maronite Tradition is a time to reflect upon the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in the Church, and in the world.  In nature it corresponds to the months of planting, growing, long sunny days, warm evenings, and often vacation travels.  During these later days of spring and the months of summer, we are called by the Church, to unite our prayers with the Holy Spirit that; “groans within us” (Romans 8:26), the Holy Spirit who pleads for us in our weaknesses before the Father.

In the Johannine Corpus of writings in the New Testament, the term (Parakletos) “Paraclete” is used five times, and can be translated from the original Greek as Counselor, Advocate, or Helper.  The word was taken from its use in the courtroom, refering to the lawyer for the defense, or advocate for the accused.  John uses “Paraclete” in reference to both Jesus and the Holy Spirit, thus echoing the words of St. Irenaeus of Lyon (born 130 AD in Smyrna - died 202 AD in Lugdunum {Lyon} in Roman Gaul), that the Father is never present without his two hands, the Son and the Spirit (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies).  

We read for example in the First Letter of John that Christ is our advocate; “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).  

In John’s Gospel we see too that the Holy Spirit is also an advocate for the strength of the disciples, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” (John 14:16); to give instruction in the truth, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26); and defend against error and evil, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned” (John 16:7-11).

In the Old Testament the Jewish Feast of Pentecost happened fifty days after the celebration of Passover.  Its significance was the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.  In Christianity, Jesus Christ is our Passover, by his Cross and Resurrection he has lead us on our “exodus” from sin and death, to the Kingdom of His Father.  In like manner the Holy Spirit is for Christians the celebration of Pentecost, the New Law, not written on tablets but written on our hearts, permeating our soul.  Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles, “When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed as resting upon each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…(Acts 2:1-4).  

It is fitting that Pentecost is a Season and not just one day in the liturgical calendar because it realizes the New Day that never sets, the New Law that will never be abrogated, it is the apocalyptic moment, the ushering in of the end-times, “I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).  This power from “on high” is the Holy Spirit, the Truth of God that has transformed time, so that we can truly say the Kingdom of God is in our midst.  

In The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith (the Nicene Creed) it says that the Holy Spirit (?κπορευ?μενον) “ekporeuomenon” from the Father, which we usually render in English as “proceeds”.  Yet, this Greek word is a dynamic discription of the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit. “Ekporeuomenon” means to burst forth, to spirate, to go forth in such a way that a connection is made between the Giver and the one to whom it is given.  In the Creed it is understood that in the Holy Spirit, the will of the Father that was accomplished by the Son, becomes for us the Day that never sets and our human history becomes salvation history, by our Advocate and Counselor - the Holy Spirit.   

- Rev. David A. Fisher