Spiritual message from Fr Yacoub:
“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate [i.e. the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7)
Our Lord Jesus Christ says this to his disciples; He is saying that the Holy Spirit left with you is better than Me staying with you. Jesus may be saying this because when He is with the disciples He is not physically with them all the time, but when the Holy Spirit dwells in them, He is always available and the disciples are able to feel His presence at all times and in all places.
Essentially, Jesus was saying to them that the top gifts that I will leave with you are My body, blood and My Spirit (i.e. the Holy Spirit); these are My gifts that I will leave for you forever, and this is the source of life. So, you’ll live in Me because you’ll feed on Me and you’ll have My Spirit living in you. The beauty of this is not only for the disciples, but for us as well, even now in the 21st century, we have this access to the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
It’s good also to understand that the Holy Spirit is invited by a couple of virtues, e.g. if our hearts are full of love towards each other, we live in harmony, then this is very attractive to the Holy Spirit. This happened to the disciples when they were gathered in one accord on the 50th day when the Holy Spirit was poured on them.
Also, it’s important to understand that there’s nothing that can quench the Holy Spirit more than hatred, jealousy, revenge, and looking down on others; these are the vices that can cause the quenching of the Holy Spirit in us. So we invite the Holy Spirit by the Spirit of love towards one another, and we live in this love, having the Holy Spirit with us, and Jesus promised this is good for us even more than those disciples that were living with Jesus at the time He was in the body.
Glory be to God. Amen.