Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 16,5-11

but now I am going to the one who sent me. Not one of you asks, 'Where are you going?' Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this. Still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgement: about sin: in that they refuse to believe in me; about who was in the right: in that I am going to the Father and you will see me no more; about judgement: in that the prince of this world is already condemned.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Saint Augustine comments on this part of the speech by making Jesus himself say: "It is good for you that this form of servant should move away from you; it is true, I live among you as the Word made flesh, but I do not want you to continue to remain attached to me in a sensitive way; I do not want you, satisfied with this milk, to wish to remain always children. If I do not take away from you the delicate food with which I have bred you, you will not feel the desire for a more solid food; if with carnal mentality you remain attached to the flesh, you will never be able to receive the Spirit." For Jesus it is time to inaugurate the time of faith. We must not think that our time is poorer than that of the apostles. The Holy Spirit poured into the hearts of the disciples decides the time of the Church. It is the Spirit who sustains the disciples, who consoles them, comforts them, protects them, enlightens them and makes them capable of communicating the Gospel of love to transform the world. The Spirit will help the disciples in the difficult times they face. The Spirit "will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement." The evangelist imagines a great assembly where the evil that works in the world to destroy it is revealed and unmasked. It is the task that the disciples must live by letting themselves be guided by the Spirit. There is a need to consume the eyes in scrutinizing the world and history in the light of Scriptures with the help of the Spirit in order to be able to identify the evil that operates in the world, to defeat it and to take the paths of love that save the world. This is the grave and fascinating task that Christians still have today: to be prophets who unmask evil and who first and foremost point the way to good by their example. One of them, Archbishop Oscar Romero, speaks still today. He read the dramatic history of his time in the light of the Word of God. Certainly, it cost him martyrdom, but his testimony is still very precious today. Faced with the accusations made against him, he replied that he did nothing but read history in the light of the Gospel: "The word is like the ray of sun that comes from above and illuminates. What fault does the sun have when its purest light meets puddles, excrement, garbage on this earth? It must illuminate these things, otherwise it would not be sun, it would not be light, it would not highlight the ugly and the horrible that exists on earth."