"Jesus said to his disciples:  «If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

"«I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

"«He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.»"

Homily:

"Jesus said to his disciples:  «If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.»"

Today's gospel is taken from Jesus' discourse to his disciples on the day before his Passion:  Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure on the Cross of Calvary, and for the coming of he who will replace him on earth, the Holy Spirit.  For this Spirit of Love who unites the Father and the Son within the Divine Trinity is like another Christ:  the Man-God is the Counselor, and the Holy Spirit is the "other Counselor" who is also sent by the Father!

In fact, there was only a single action of the Father towards his creatures:  the sending of his Word on the day of the Incarnation, "when the time had fully come" (Ga. 4:4).  Within the Divine Trinity, the Father accomplishes only one eternal act:  the generation of his Son in the Spirit of Love.  The sending of the Word at the time of the Incarnation is only an extension, outside of the Divine Trinity, of this unique act within the Most Holy Trinity itself.  This sending of the Word was prepared for by the Creation of the universe and of all visible and invisible creatures, which must all submit themselves to Christ and be summed up in him.  Likewise, this sending of the Word was followed by an extension that was to complete it in time:  this is the sending of the Holy Spirit, the other Counselor, he who will guide the disciples "into all the truth." (Jn. 16:13)

Once the sending of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is placed within the global perspective of the spread out and communicated Trinitarian Mystery, we can then better understand what Jesus means here:  "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him . . ."  What is spiritual is usually invisible.  But here, the Holy Spirit can be seen, not by the world, but by the disciples of Christ, who, precisely because they are disciples of the Man-God, together make up but one single Body of Christ by whom and in whom the Spirit of God becomes, in a way, visible to the eyes of faith.  Moreover, on the very day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles and manifested his presence in a visible way through "tongues as of fire." (Ac. 2:3).

"«I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.»"

The Holy Spirit, that other Counselor whom Jesus would send, is the divine person who proceeds from the Father and from the Son:  in this sense, he is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, he is the divine person who is at once the Spirit of fatherhood and the Spirit of sonship.  It is therefore by making reference to the Spirit of Love who unites him to his Father that Jesus can describe himself to his disciples as being the Image of his Father, as he who watches over his disciples like a father watches over his children:  "I will not leave you orphans."  When the Holy Spirit would come to earth, on the day of Pentecost, then, this other Counselor would show everyone the extent to which the first Counselor, Christ, has in himself, for his disciples, the spirit of fatherhood as well as the spirit of sonship:  "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."

"«He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.»"

Jesus had begun by saying:  "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you."  Yes!  Jesus says to his disciples, speaking of the Holy Spirit:  "He dwells with you, and will be in you."  This means that the Spirit of Love is in us.  But, of course, only insofar as we observe the law and the commandments of God:  "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me."  And this Spirit of Love, the very Spirit of God, is in us so that we might love Christ:  how could it be otherwise, since this Spirit of Love is the "other Counselor," he who was sent by Christ, the first Counselor?

If, in the Holy Spirit, we love Christ, then it is not primarily Christ in himself whom we love, but Christ in his Father:  for the Holy Spirit, in virtue of the spirit of fatherhood, sends us on immediately to the Father, where Christ is.  This is why the very first consequence of our love for Christ in the Holy Spirit is that the Father loves us:  "He who loves me will be loved by my Father."  But from that moment, we truly become sons of the Father, and, in the Holy Spirit, in virtue of the spirit of sonship, we discover everything that can be contained in the notion of "son of God".  This is why Jesus concludes by saying, speaking of whoever loves him in the Holy Spirit:  "I will love him and manifest myself to him."