A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. As I've said, this reading readings we have of the gospel are all from the last discourse of our lord at the last supper, and it's worth reading in its entirety. It takes about three minutes. Anyway, our lord said to his disciples, continuing his discourse with him, when the paraclete comes, the spirit of truth who comes from the father and whom I myself will send from the father, he will bear witness on my behalf. You too must bear witness as well, for you have been with me from the very beginning.
I have told you all of this to keep your faith from being shaken. Not only will they expel you from synagogues, a time will come when anyone who put you to death will claim to be serving god. All this they will do to you because they know neither the father nor me. But I have told you all of these things that when their hour comes, you may remember my telling you about them. And this is the gospel of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Today, there is a great deal of discussion and, not to mention confusion about the word of God. As soon as I say that, people think of a book. Some priests and deacons in the pulpit, when they're finished reading, the gospel, they'll hold you up and they'll say the word of God.
They hold the book up. Of course, it's a if it's a translation, it's not the word of God, you know. It's it's what somebody thinks god said. But anyway now please note if you read, this is just part of a long text. Just part.
We're at the last supper. Let's go back a little bit. Let's go back a little bit. First of all, you have our blessed lord on a very solemn occasion. There wasn't anything incidental.
There wasn't anything coincidental. There wasn't anything opportunistic about it. But in a very solemn way, our blessed lord spoke to a man named Cephas and said, you will now be called rock, patriots, Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church. Christ said that.
And it's all I don't care how you translate the Greek. You can't miss it. Now the the next incident is this discourse of our lord at the last supper where he specifically says to his disciples, look, I haven't told you everything because you could not bear it. But the spirit of truth, the parakeet, will come, and he will tell you everything. And there's I'm this goes on for about, ten ten verses.
Our blessed lord is speaking how he's tried to to instruct his he's talking to the 12. Judas is there. He's talking to the 12, and he's telling them, I have told you. I have taught you. I have made you my disciples, but I have not been able to tell you everything because you couldn't bear it.
You weren't up to it. But the paraclete will come. The holy spirit will come, future tense, and he will tell you everything. I'm paraphrasing it, but I'm not exaggerating it. I'm giving you the the, the meaning and the significance of it.
And as I say, goes on for about 10 verses. Now the next event is the ascension of our lord. It's after the resurrection. It's just before our lord disappears physically from the face of the earth. Now by a very special appointment, he's meeting his 11 disciples.
Judas is gone. And he says, I'll meet you in Galilee. Now that's up in the North. So the disciples go up to Galilee to the place appointed, and there they meet Jesus. And just before he disappears from their sight, he says, going therefore, teach you all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, and teach them and everything that I have commanded you, and teach them to preserve.
That's the Greek word, Terai. There are many translations of it, but that seems to me the the the the right meaning to to preserve everything that I have taught you. But remember, at the last supper, he said, I haven't given you the whole message. And then he disappeared from sight. And then we come to the book of the acts of the apostles when they here they are, a handful of men and some women gathered, frightened, scared to death because they they're they're they and with good reason, they have every anxiety that what happened to Jesus may happen to them, and they know now what happened to Jesus.
Look at the cross. And then the marvelous event of the first Pentecost. What our blessed lord had promised is fulfilled. The holy spirit comes and infuses this handful of scare I don't say cowardly because they were not cowardly, but they were just plain scared as any human being would be. Fear is a very natural reaction.
It doesn't prove you're a cowardice, it just proves you're human. And then they are changed men. The holy spirit descends upon them, and they threw open the doors, and they went out boldly with the truth, with the deposit of faith, with the proclamation, proclamation. Not with a book, not with what a handful of theologians told them to say, but with what the holy spirit had told them to say. Now there's a big difference between the proclamation that the apostles took with them and spread out over the whole Mediterranean Sea.
In three hundred years, the great empire of Rome was Christian. Going therefore, teach ye all nations and preserve what I've given you. Preserve it. Take care of it. Safeguard it.
And the fullness of the proclamation came with the descent of the apostles. As Tertullian, the great Latinist who died in 02/2020 says, he says, before before anything was put down in writing or in letters, the proclamation went forth by the living voice. That's the proclamation. Now today, what do we hear? We hear that revelation comes from the people of god.
Who is the people of God? It's a phrase taken from the second Vatican Council. The Catholic church teaches that the revelation of God's truth was given once and for all to those disciples and apostles and finished and completed on Pentecost. And that's what we wanna get a hold of. That is the truth of Jesus Christ.
Now there are plenty of truths, But if you're talking about Christian truth, you want the truth that comes from Jesus Christ, the son of god. Not just a good man, but the son of god. One third of the trinity, holy spirit, the other. And it's the holy spirit that brought to completion the revelation of god's truth. And Christ said to his disciples who became the first bishops that they must preserve and safeguard that truth, not what some fertile imagination of theologians tell us we ought to believe or accept.
So where do you find the Rock Of Peter today? Look around, and you will see, and you will hear Peter speaking. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.