Nearing the Feast of Pentecost, our Gospel readings continue to be taken from the Lord’s Farewell Discourse from John’s Gospel. In today’s passage, the Lord reveals that the Holy Spirit “will convict the world.” He will Convict. Here, the word “convict” is used in the legal sense: a criminal is convicted of a crime, meaning, his crimes are brought to light, it becomes clear that he is guilty of committing evil. So, the Holy Spirit will convict the world, bringing to light the evil in the world, the criminal errors and behaviors of the world.
And the Lord mentions 3 particular areas in which the Holy Spirit will convict the world: in regard to sin, righteousness, and condemnation.
The Holy Spirit, through the preaching and teaching of the Church shows that the world is all wrong about sin. The world say “sin isn’t real. Right and wrong are simply subjective to the individual. What’s wrong for one person is right for another. God’s commandments are fabrications of the patriarchy for the purposes of controlling the vulnerable. It doesn’t matter what you believe in, how you act” FALSE.
Sin is real. Behaviors, decisions, choices, and attitudes contrary to the divine law are evil. And choices which are not in conformity with the goodness of God cause real harm to souls. Sin mutilates souls, darkens intellects, weakens will, deepens the attraction to graver evils. Sin begets sin. The deeper one falls into sin, the farther one falls away from God. The world is wrong about sin.
It is also wrong about righteousness. We cannot make ourselves righteous by our own activity. For, righteousness comes from being in communion with God, allowing the life of the living God to fill one’s soul, to make choices in conformity with the Divine Will of God. The world will always fail in its attempts to build a utopia because it divorces itself from God. There can be no secular utopia. We cannot hope to accomplish anything of lasting good value without God.
Rather, we are to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Unless God is the builder of our lives, our families, our nations, our building is in vain.
So the world is wrong about evil, the world is wrong about goodness, and finally it is wrong about condemnation. The world says all roads lead to heaven. This is false. All roads except the road of Jesus Christ lead to eternal condemnation. “No one comes to the Father except through me” Jesus says himself. In the end “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two.”
As baptized members of the flock of Christ, we are sent into a hostile, unbelieving world. But unbelievers and even hostile anti-Catholics will be converted, will be attracted to the Truth when they see the truth evidenced in our lives—the truth that the life of Christ bears fruit that the world cannot produce—true lasting peace, joy, gentleness, chastity, patience—and leads to life everlasting.
You want to proof that Jesus Christ is truly God and Lord? Look at the evidence produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. Look at the courage of the martyrs; look at the saints he has produced, look at their miracles, their righteousness. Look at the unity he has brought among the disparate people of the world who accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at the patience and joy and understanding and knowledge he gives to ordinary people who pray.
The world is convicted by the Holy Spirit working in our lives. May we witness to the saving Gospel in every conversation and decision today and all days, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.
God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.
Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.
Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.
May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.
That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.
O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.
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