The best advocate in the chaos

Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. (Jn 14:23-29)

There are times when we need an Advocate. We need someone to advance our cause, to put into words what we’re feeling, and to speak truth to the powers holding us back.

The best Advocate of all is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father has sent in the name of Jesus.

The gospel is part of Jesus’s going away speech to his disciples. He makes this speech the night before he died. It is fitting that the church places this reading toward the end of Easter, in between the resurrection and Pentecost.

He said, “I am going away and I will come back to you.” He continues, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Jesus knew the disciples would need an advocate.

I tried to place myself in the scene. I imagined being one of the disciples hearing the words of Jesus: “I am going away”. I had an unsettling response, summed up in four words, “Here we go again.”

I moved around a lot when I was growing up. I lived in eight places before I finished high school, which included six different states and two countries. I look back and realize I struggled with these moves. I remember my father saying something similar: I am going to prepare a place for you. Many times he would get a job in a new location, or in the military get transferred, and would be gone for about six months. He would return. The movers come in and pack up our belongings. We’d load up the car and drive to the place he had prepared for us. Sometimes the place wasn’t that great.

These were breaks in normal attachments to friends, a neighborhood, a school, and a home. My way of coping was to withdraw, put my shields up, not get too close to anyone, and look at those around me as being unreliable. These are behaviors I continued into later relationships of life. These are behaviors I continued with my relationship with God.

Psychologists call this an Avoidant Attachment style. The other unhealthy way a person handles breaks in normal attachment is an Anxious Attachment style. An anxious attachment obsesses of over pleasing another, and worries that the other is going to be mad at them.

As I look back on those difficult years, I realize that more than anything I needed an Advocate. I needed someone to understand how painful it is for a shy little seven year old to change schools. I needed someone to know how difficult it is for an introvert to make new friends.

I look back on those childhood years and realize how my heart was longing for an advocate. Someone who would understand. Someone who would advocate for me. Someone who would remind me that my little world may be in chaos, but there is a fixed point which is always faithful.

Jesus understood that some of the disciples might have some of the same feelings. In this farewell speech, Jesus is leading both people with avoidant and the anxious to the healthy middle. The Secure. I’m guessing amongst the disciples, there might have had both. The avoidant disciple might have said, “Here we go again. I’ve given my life over to this man. Enough with him. I’m going fishing.” The anxious disciple might have pleaded, “Please don’t go. I’ll do anything if you stay.”

To the anxious, he says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid… My peace I give to you.”
To me, and all of the other avoidant people, I says he will send an Advocate to understand what we’re going through, to provide a fix point to remind us of the love of Jesus.

We live in this between time. Through the windshield is the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation. The holy city Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven from God, symbolic of the renewal of all creation. In the resurrection of Jesus. Time is marching toward the renewal of all creation. There are a lot of bumps along the way, curves in the road, traffic issues, maybe a fender bender. To help us with the journey, the Lord Jesus sent us a gift. The Holy Spirit. The Advocate.

As I think about how an advocate might have helped me as a child when I was wandering in the wilderness, think how much more the Advocate, the Holy Spirit can help as you travel through the bumpy roads of this in between time.

When people pray, they often pray to God. Sometimes we turn to Jesus or offer a prayer to the heavenly Father. Catholics turn to Mary. Not as many people pray to the Holy Spirit. This week, try praying to your Advocate. The advocate understands what you’re going through. Ask the Advocate to teach you, and remind you of the promises of Jesus, especially that Father loves you, and will one day make his dwelling with you.

Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit
and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.