Our Advocate against accusation

This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God.  Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven.  And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above . . . . 


If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God.  Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as well. - St. Irenaeus - Against Heresies


Have been concentrating on Fr. Neuhaus' excellent book so far this year rather than the Liturgy of the Hours, but wanted to give some focused thought to the Holy Spirit this morning, on the eve of Pentecost.  It isn't that I've been ignoring the Spirit throughout the season - quite the opposite, with the wonderful variation on the Life in the Spirit Seminars in which I've been blessed to be involved - but I haven't spent so much of my personal prayer time reflecting on our Paraclete.  Even though the first part of what I've quoted forms the bulk and is worthy of reflection on its own merit, I've included it mainly to provide context for what the last portion says, which really struck me this morning.

I've long grasped what the accuser's role at our personal judgment is traditionally understood to be. In that context, Christ, who bore the full penalty for our sins, will be our only defense against the accusations we will undeniably know to be true. "Guilty," I believe I will be compelled to admit, a confession to which I believe I will hear respond that the penalty for my offenses has already been amerced upon him. What a gift!  (BTW, I do not by any means hold to the traditional view that the Father is the harsh judge demanding justice; I tend to expect that we will be the ones judging ourselves so harshly in the infinite light of God's truth, unable to enter into His presence with our sinfulness so plainly before us.)

But we here do not wait for that unknown day to hear the accusations against us.  Each time we are tempted we are reminded of our own past failings, our weakness, our lack of letting ourselves be set apart for God's glorious plan in and through our lives. "You're only human. You're not good enough. No one can do all that is asked of them. Look, you've never had the power to avoid this sin." As Christ will be our Advocate at our final judgment, so we have an Advocate defending us with the greater truth against the daily accusations we experience. We have put on Christ, and received the Holy Spirit, whom St. Paul tells us transforms us all into his own likeness, from one degree of glory to another, and by whom people who have been absorbed by the things of this world become other-worldly in outlook, and cowards become men of great courage. (St. Cyril of Alexandria - a commentary on the Gospel of John)


In what way are we most cowardly? Is it not in shrinking back from all that the Holy Spirit makes possible within us? We reject God's plan for fear of what we'll lose out on along the way. We do not trust in God's love and providence for us. But the Holy Spirit within us answers the accusation of our own shortcomings with the greater truth: we are clothed in Christ, transformed into his presence in the world. He equips us with Spiritual gifts and causes us to bear Spiritual fruit, and as a result we who were able only to fall short are made able by God within us to shine as beacons of His love to all the world.