The Paraclete

Today is Trinity Sunday. Easter is over and we are back in Ordinary Time.

Islam asserts that the Paraclete, the comforter that would be sent following Jesus was Mohammed, his prophethood predicted.

Without commenting on the merits of Mohammed's prophethood, the Christian interpretation of this prophecy is a much more wonderful one; for it promises that God's true comforter, the Holy Spirit, would come with us and dwell in us and be for us "the Spirit of Truth."

What a wonderful thing - how can life truly go wrong if God will really be so intimate with us as to come and live within us? While the idea that God lives within us is not unique - you hear it from new agers all the time - the Christian view of this is much more humble.

Christianity insists that humans are modest beings; we are not gods ourselves, or part of God (pantheism.) As the eighth psalm says, "What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him?" and yet for no reason that we deserve, God indeed takes great interest in our lives and has given us much to be happy about.

And when our lives get difficult, and our seas get stormy, he comes to us, walking on the water. He dwells within us, able to give us counsel, and move our lives, or at least our hearts, in His direction.

He gave life to us, indeed gave rise to everything we know. When we lost our way, He came once as man, to greet us as we are. And now that He has been here, and shown us the way, He sends us the Spirit of truth, to keep us on our way.

That is why the analogy of the Lord as a shepherd is so apt. He cares for us all of our lives, and greets us at the end of it to lead us home.