Tuesday, VI Week
(John 16)
If you are scratching your head over what Jesus means in the gospel today, you are in good company. It is said that St. Augustine avoided the passage as very difficult. But this doesn’t mean that scholars today are left without an opinion.
First, it should be noted that the word convict is somewhat literal and does not fit well with each object. It would be better to say that the Holy Spirit Advocate proves the world regarding sin, righteousness, and condemnation. Not that the world will ever note its mistakes, however. Rather, the Spirit will act in the minds of Christian disciples to relate to them the truth about Jesus.
The first error of the world which the Spirit brings to light is the sin of refusing to believe in Jesus. The perpetrators of this sin are more than those Jews who put Jesus to death. They include people who refused to believe in him after he worked many signs and those who still today refuse to believe after being told about Jesus’ resurrection.
The error of righteousness concerns the Jews’ putting Jesus to death for claiming to be God’s son. The power of the Spirit which we can sense within us shows that Jesus has indeed gone to God and so is as righteous as he said. If he weren’t, then how could Christian disciples have the Holy Spirit? On the other hand, those who executed Jesus have proven to be the ones in the dark.
The final error regards condemnation. The Spirit’s presence to the disciples, once again, shows that Jesus, whom the world condemned, has been the righteous one all along. On the other hand, Satan, the prince of the world, is proven guilty. We should explain how Satan, the guilty one, still seems at liberty to ensnare humans. The gospel would answer that he has no power over the true believer. Regarding others, it would say that his limited power will last until Jesus returns in glory.
Jesus’ statement here is not meant as mental gymnastics for his listeners. Rather, it is intended to give us a profound desire to experience the full sense of the Holy Spirit. The renewal of the Spirit’s presence on Pentecost should reaffirm our faith by showing the sin of disbelief. It should further move us to imitate Jesus, the righteous one. Finally, it should strengthen our resolve not to submit to Satan, who has already been condemned of untruth.
