Comfort

“ If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. ”

God gave us all very hard skulls. The skull is a solid bone around the mushy matter of the brain, an organ without physical power, muscle, or movement. It would be totally defenseless were it not surrounded by a globe of hard bone. Not so the heart of man.

Our heart rests in a soft cavity just to the left of our spine, amidst the constantly active lungs, held there only by a ribcage and a diaphragm, the thin muscle sheath that causes the lungs to breath and keeps the heart from falling. The heart: this fist-sized organ begins its pumping activity 18 days after we are conceived and never stops pumping until we are dead. What a strong muscle the heart is! and what a vital organ. But it lies exposed in the flesh of our torso, where any sword or arrow might impale it.

We need both our heart and our brain. But when life is hard and deals its blows to us, it is more often that our heart receives the injuries. Brains are better protected.

We need both our heart and our mind . Our heart: the emotional core center of our conscious life that provides us with passion, desire, motivation and love; our mind: the reasoning faculty that lets us evaluate, dream, invent and plan our lives. A man may lose either his mind or his heart and he has lost much of what once was his. When a man loses his mind, we all pity him, get him professional help, name the mental illness by some pathological name—and steer clear of him if we can. But when a man loses heart, when his heart dies within him, and he becomes an emotionless brain, a Mr. Spock, Mr. Data, we promote him, make good use of him, train him to go as far as he can. We never think that he too is a casualty at all.

Jesus saw his apostles losing heart, growing sadder by the minute as He faced his coming trial and execution. The heaviness of the moment was overwhelming them. It was overwhelming Him too. But He knew why He needed to walk this path, and what was to come after. So He told them. “ If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; …he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you… The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:15-27

This Comforter is the Greek word paraclete . The English translation is composed of two parts: com (with) and fort (strength); one who strengthens us. The Greek original means more: an intercessor, consoler and advocate . To give comfort can mean many things, and be done in various ways. This Spirit of God, who comes at Pentecost and remains living inside Christians ever after, has unlimited power and capacity to render comfort to our heart, as well as to teach our mind.

Our jealous mind causes us to spend too much time with the mental benefits of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, judgment. We may seek the gifts of the Spirit: “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.” 1 Cor. 12:8-10 But where is comfort in all of this? Christ first called the Spirit “the Comforter.”

He saw His closest friends becoming afraid. Fear, betrayal, great loss, abandonment, bitterness, and anger cause great injury to our hearts. These hearts were made for love, for desire, for passion, for pursuing a cause beyond what reason may dictate. When we lose heart, we take a mortal blow to our more godlike nature and may become brilliant but heartless machines: the tin woodman without a heart. Jesus saw this danger and promised the Comforter.

Comfort figures in the Old Testament language and scriptures as well. In Hebrew the words we render as “comfort” mean to support, establish, hold up, refresh , and to strengthen ; or to deeply sigh : as if to say, “Awww, what's a matter?” and to pity, console , and ease pain . It was this meaning that was used when Isaiah wrote God's promise: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people… Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem… that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned… The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God… the glory of the Lord shall be revealed… O Zion, that bringest good tidings… lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; …Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:1-11 Aww, does it hurt? Let me assure you, It's going to be all right now. Can you hear this comfort coming from God? Isaiah would also write what Christ quoted and commented on in the synagogue at Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings… to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty… to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord… to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3 King David, a man of great valor and courage in battle, kept it up because he saw His God as a good shepherd: “thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4

All the comfort promised in the Old Testament was to prepare them for the Messiah and the Spirit of God to come. Many of them missed the point when He was among them, but we understand it was Jesus who fulfilled those words and who brought the comfort of His Spirit to live within us at Pentecost. And we do need consoling, comfort, reassurance, and a heart-felt courage to face our lives and to live in this world. Our brains are protected in these thick skulls, just as our minds are protected within the realm of reason, theory, facts, words and the evidence of our senses. Our minds can spend every conscious moment rationalizing our experiences until we have reduced human life to equations, easy maxims, principles, rules and cynical proverbs. My cynical proverb used to be: “Hope for the best and expect the worst—that way you'll never be disappointed.” See how fearful that young man was of being disappointed? He protected his heart with his mind. He needed some comfort, not cynicism.

St. Paul found comfort in the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4 Hope is not a rational product, nor is faith or love, the greatest gifts. You cannot produce one of them by simply employing your mind. Paul wrote that “our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” 2 Thes. 2:16-17 Paul was one of the most intelligent men of all time, able to reason through vast numbers of issues and conclude great ideas, expressing them in a way we have kept sacred for millennia. And yet, Paul didn't hide behind his reason, but kept his heart in play, and he encourages us to do the same. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Romans 15:13

What I offer today is this. The power of the Holy Ghost does have its fruits in our mental capacities. I believe the Spirit makes us smarter, for the Mind of God now dwells inside these coconuts. But the Heart of God also dwells in these breasts, and it is the Heart of God that reaches down to Earth to save us. “God so loved the world…” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…” “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:1-2 “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” 1 Cor. 8:1

Jesus gave few commandments. His new and greatest command was for us to love each other as He loves us. You can't do that with your mind. Your mind will talk you out of it. Or your mind will think it's doing it, heartlessly, when it's only congratulating itself and condescending towards others. Love is sacrifice. Love is the heart made sore for the sake of others. Love is the command we have to live by, and without a heart, without the ability to love with all our heart, there is no commandment we may obey to truly please God. Christ's entire Sermon on the Mount may be summarized by saying that a physical obedience to the Law and a mental ascent toward God is insufficient for us to please God at all. It must be from our hearts, also being obedient with a true desire for Him and for His righteousness, that our lives may be made whole at last. This is what the Spirit is come to do. Comfort ye, my people . God is pleased with you, but He asks that you let the Spirit come into your hearts and with the strength that comes by hope, faith and love, to know God with your heart. For God is love.

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