6th week in Easter Time, Monday – 23rd May 2022 — Gospel: Jn 15,26-16,4
Challenging Witness
In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues his Last Supper discourse, in which He gives both a promise and a warning. Firstly, He promises to send the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete or Advocate or Helper or Encourager. The role of the Paraclete is to defend and protect, support and give testimony on behalf of Jesus, and for His disciples. Secondly, He warns His disciples that they will bear witness. Part of this giving witness is not in what they say, or how they act, but also in the persecution and even death they may experience due to their willingness to proclaim their relationship to Jesus and their commitment to His mission.
In some ways, witnessing and persecution are much different today than in the early years of Christianity. We have to give witness by standing up for our beliefs and manifesting a way of life in a world that contradicts values to a true Christian life. That is a challenge for us. It implies that we have to set ourselves distinctively apart from the ways of the commercialized, self-centered world, and we must do it in a manner which invites others to accept the good news. Our lives must be a joyful witness in a way which entices people to want to have a relationship with Jesus.
