Christ The Teacher: The Holy Spirit Will Instruct You

This chapter in Luke’s Gospel contains a number of exhortations to the disciples on the Endtime, that is, that Final Day of the Lord, which is both a time of judgment and a time of vindication.

There are three brief teachings in this Gospel passage. Firstly, God will vindicate all those who have proclaimed him courageously and in public — but not those who have denied him through fear or favour.

The Last Day is then a time of accounting, where the disciple’s quality of life will be revealed, and so will he be rewarded or punished. The Endtime is a time of trial and persecution, and the disciple can expect to be hauled up before magistrates and courts to defend his beliefs and values. Jesus’s words are consoling:

Do not be anxious about finding the right words to defend yourself. The Holy Spirit who is present in you will inspire you to speak truly and courageously.

Words of encouragement, these!

What is this Holy Spirit? It is the presence of the Risen Jesus in the members of his Church. It is this presence which brings the disciple peace, forgiveness, courage, joy, generosity, patience…all the virtues, in fact, so necessary to live the Christian life. The disciple realizes that he or she needs this ‘presence of the Spirit’ as a personal source of energy.

To ‘sin against the Holy Spirit’ is to pretend that we do not need this gift from God, that we can manage all by ourselves. It is to delude ourselves that by our pious works and prayerful rituals, we can make ourselves holy, righteous. This is ‘self-righteousness’, the sin of the Pharisee, the conceit of someone who thinks ‘he can do it all by himself’, who thinks that he doesn’t need God’s help.

This is why Jesus says ‘there can be no forgiveness’ for such people – because precisely, in their pride, they think they have no need of forgiveness, and will not ask for it!

The genuine disciple on the other hand has made his own the prayer of the publican, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And truly, the abundance of God’s mercy and goodness is given him, as well as courage and strength during times of trial and persecution.