Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (April 27, 2008)

Suggested Emphasis

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.”

Salesian Perspective

In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises to ask the Father to send an Advocate (sometimes translated as Paraclete) to accompany his disciples.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language defines advocate as: (1) “One who argues for a cause: a supporter or defender; (2) One that pleads in another’s behalf: an intercessor; (3) a lawyer.”

In addition, the dictionary notes that advocate comes from the “Middle English, advocate, lawyer, from Old French advocate, from the Latin advocatus, past participle of advocare, to summon for counsel.” Important derivatives include vocal, voice, vowel, equivocal, vocation, vouch, advocate, avocation, evoke, invoke, provoke, revoke and epic.

The one that catches my eye is vouch. In this context, this Advocate, this Paraclete, this Holy Spirit will vouch for those who follow Jesus. Put another way, this Advocate is someone who stands up for us.

But hold on, there’s even more! How many of us fail to notice that Jesus promises his disciples “another” Advocate? Unless I’m missing something here, “another” presumes that this is not the first Advocate; rather, this is a subsequent Advocate which, of course, begs the question: Well, who was the previous Advocate?

Jesus himself. Jesus stood up for us by becoming one of us; by becoming one with us; by becoming one for us. Jesus stood up for us by living with us, laboring for us, loving us and dying for us that we might one day stand up forever through the power and promise of the resurrection.

But wait. Seems we have still one more Advocate to acknowledge: God, Yahweh, the Father.

God stood up for us for creating something out of nothing. God stood up for us by bringing form out of chaos. God stood up for us through Creation by giving us a share in God’s own divine image and likeness. God stood up for us through the Incarnation by taking on our human image and likeness.

In a word, it seems that God, our Eternal Advocate, is, among other things, a “stand up guy.”

As children of God, as brothers and sisters of Jesus, as temples of the Holy Spirit we, too, are called to be Advocates. We are called to stand up for what is just; we are called to stand up for what is right; we are called to stand up for what is peaceable; we are called to stand up for what is fair. Especially as members of the Salesian tradition, we are called to stand up for all that is of God in ways that are both courteous and considerate.

God stands up for us by creating us, redeeming us and inspiring us. What better way to express our gratitude than through our willingness to stand up for one another?

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.