A phrase that has stuck in my mind perhaps since seminary days is the observation, “There is no going beyond Jesus; there is just deeper and deeper involvement with him.” No doubt the “Quiet Corner” has been graced with these expressive words over the years in assorted forms and various renderings.
This coming Sunday’s Gospel immediately brought the profound insights of this phrase to mind. Jesus advises his Apostles at the Last Supper, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus clearly insists that the teaching of the Spirit and the message of Jesus Christ will be identical. The Spirit “will take from what is mine and declare it to you,” Jesus asserts. The Spirit will “speak what he hears,” Jesus affirms. There is no new message after Jesus but just a deeper and deeper appreciation of Christ’s original Gospel. The task of the Spirit will be to make the Christian community more aware of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to be found in Jesus Christ. The mission of the Spirit is to do the work of Jesus.
In its own way, the reading from the Old Testament’s Wisdom books this Sunday also celebrates spiritual insights that have not changed since Eden but have simply been uncovered by thinkers over the centuries. The ancient author writes, “When the Lord established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; when he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth; when he set for the sea its limit, then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth” The biblical wise man teaches that there are certain basic truths that have been rooted in creation since the beginning which man cannot alter and must not ignore. There is no going beyond these truths; there is just deeper and deeper appreciation of them. Jesus would reveal the fullness of these ancient truths just as he would reveal the fullness of Christian truths, not to alter them but to complete them. The insights which the Wisdom books celebrated were, basically, the natural law, the moral law, the immutable human framework placed by God within the heart of man. Just as the Holy Spirit clarifies the basic Gospel of Jesus for later generations, so the Holy Spirit also clarifies the basic demands of the natural law for the entire human family. Thus the Spirit leads man to the fullness of truth.
Jesus is the fullness of truth. “I am the truth,” Jesus reminds his disciples. Only when men embrace the full truth found in Jesus will they be able to know and promote the fullness of truth, which, as Pope Benedict teaches in his recent encyclical “Charity in Truth,” is the primary way of doing good, the primary act of charity. If man wants to do good and be charitable, then he must certainly know the truth. The fullness of truth is the indispensable guide for charity. Likewise doing good, charity, is the ultimate validation of truth, giving it substance and evidence.
“Charity rejoices in the truth,” wrote St. Paul insightfully and the pope is pleased to quote these words in his letter. According to the pontiff, authentic charity must be based on, guided by, and oriented toward the fullness of truth, both natural truth and revealed truth. Doing good without the broad truth of human reason becomes too emotional, too individual. Doing good with only the transcendent truth of revelation becomes too narrow, too otherworldly. Authentic charity needs the fullness of truth found in reason and revelation and reflected in the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ to be fully effective. When Pope Benedict celebrates the fullness of truth and the richness of charity, he certainly understands the basic “values of Christianity” to be that truth and that good which are not only useful but essential for the spiritual and material development of believers and mankind alike.
