 It's just a great blessing to be able to celebrate with you to be here at this weekend at this time. God is good, amen? So we've all heard the story. It's been spoken about several times over the last 48 hours about the Pentecost experience. We've talked about that that has to be our reality as well. And it's such a great image that nobody knows exactly what it looked like, but I love reflecting and imagining what it must have been like. I've had an opportunity a number of times to be in the upper room and just to kind of stand there and say, what took place here, right? But the reality is what took place there can take place in any room, in any auditorium, in any church, in any bedroom, in any tent, anywhere across the world. The Lord isn't ultimately looking just for a room. He's looking for a human heart, right? That He wants to stir in that human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen? And we hear in this story, obviously, the people from every nation, and that's represented here. We have people here from Ohio, Pittsburgh, New York, Buffalo, even Cleveland, right? Even Cleveland. Lord brings people from everywhere together to be able to speak one voice and to be able to come together in a God and a power of the Spirit that wants to, and we've heard this multiple times, John was speaking about it this morning, to be able to send us out, right? That He's got a mission for us, for each one of us, a plan that He desires for us. But it's interesting to reflect on the Gospels that the church chooses up for us today, that we all understand this sense of Pentecost and something took place at Pentecost that changed the world forever. Let's not undersell this. It changed the world forever. But there was a lot of groundwork that led to that place, that the Holy Spirit and the relationship of the Holy Spirit culminated in Pentecost, but there was a lot that was taking place before. And that's why the church invites us, I think, beautifully to take a look at the Gospel of John today, as we're reflecting on this mission that each one of us has called to, right? Everybody here is called to go out and be a part of the mission. What that's going to look like is profoundly different. But everybody here, the Lord, has a mission for you, amen? And it is your job to discover what that is. But I'm going to suggest what the church invites us to, to reflect on today, helps us understand more fully and be able to do what, in fact, the Lord asks us to do. Amen? So it says in the scriptures today, Jesus said to his disciples, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And I will ask that my father and he will send you another advocate. And then again, we find you at the end of the Gospel. I have told you this while I'm with you, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send. This idea of the advocate is kind of a really complicated word. I did a quick search on the scriptures about the word advocate. There are, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. There are at least eight different words depending on what translation you use for the word advocate. Some translations use paraclete. Some translations use comforter. Some use helper. Some use companion. Some use friend. Some use advocate. I can't read my writing. Seriously, I have no idea what that says. OK. All right. And I was thinking some use buddy. You have another buddy. It doesn't really, I just think that would have been an appropriate one, right? This idea of advocate, there's, again, eight different. Trying to get quite the right word. And you've often heard, I'm sure, about the advocate. One of the examples they use is a lawyer in a court case that he is your advocate. And that's not really what it is. It's more like the expert witness. The advocate is the one that, technically, it means the one who is coming in, right? The one who is coming in. So you've got a court case going on. You need an expert witness that's going to save the defense. The advocate is the one who's going to come on. He's going to give this great. If you saw the My Cousin Vinny, it's the woman who comes in and talks about the car. And everything changes, right? That's the advocate, OK? The advocate, another image that the scripture uses of the advocate is actually a military situation. You're fine yourself in a military situation. This particular group is being overrun by the military. You bring in the advocate. And the advocate is the one that fixes whatever the situation is. The advocate is the fixer, right? The advocate is the bottom of the ninth, two outs, base is loaded. You call in the advocate, right? The advocate is the one who saves the day. The one who saves the day, the one underdog, if you will. Ta-da, right? So those of you who remember who underdog is, right? Comes in to save the day. That's when the Lord says that He is giving you an advocate. It's the one who is going to come into the situation. He's going to come into the situation. The Lord has given you, has given us an advocate. And it's interesting that Jesus said it's really, really important that we understand this. This is the 14th chapter of John. It's the Last Supper Discourse. And right before He says this, He says to them, just so you know, I'm going to go away. And He talks about His Father's house and there are many rooms in His house. But I'm going to leave you. Imagine the consternation that must have caused for the disciples. They had spent this time with Him. And they have grown to love Him. And He says, I'm going to leave you. It's better, as Chris said, it's better that I go. And I'm sure they're like, is it really? I mean, this is going so good, Jesus. Let's just kind of go with this. So He kind of drops this bomb and He says, I'm going to leave you. It's better that I go. And then He says, and I'm going to send you an advocate. All right, that one who comes in at the last minute and saves the day, the one who comes in. And then He goes on to say, I will send you an advocate. And there's three things that I think He wants us to reflect on. Who will make His dwelling with you. You will make His dwelling with you. If we're going to be able to go out on mission, brothers and sisters, it's essential that we get this right, that this advocate comes to wants and make His dwelling in us. I would like to suggest that when this becomes reality for us, that we come to understand what does it mean that God dwells in me, that I am the tabernacle, literally the tabernacle of God, right? That God, He's going to make His dwelling with me. This changes everything. I mean, that if I really believe this, I can walk out of here with a profound confidence, right? So much of the mission of Pentecost is out there, but if it's not here first, I'm going to be freaking out out there. But I know that God dwells in me because of the power of the Holy Spirit. He says, I'll send you an advocate, the Holy Spirit that will dwell. And in that you will experience the Father and the Son because the Spirit is going to dwell and make that alive in us. Brothers and sisters, I think oftentimes if we're honest, when we're praying, we're looking for the Lord, we look for Him out there. And I recognize that He is out there, but He is first and foremost here, in present, dwelling in me. That if we begin to pray and we understand that reality that God dwells in me, our prayer isn't only external, but it becomes internal. God, you are dwelling in me. That you are alive in me. That you animate me. In those moments, and this is what's so beautiful and important is that Jesus has just said, I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna go away, but don't worry, the advocate is gonna come and he's gonna dwell with you. And brothers and sisters, sometimes that's the only thing I want in the midst of my fear, right? Is a child, you know, you're afraid or you're frightened or you're sick and all that matters is your father or your mother, they come and they just be with you. You can't fix everything, they're just with you. And that's enough. Again, bearing in mind that Jesus is telling them that they're going to leave, that he's going to leave. Who here hasn't lost a loved one? And all you wanna do is just for a moment, just to dwell with them just for another moment. Jesus says I'm gonna send you an advocate and I'm gonna dwell with you. I'm gonna be present to you in your loneliness, in your fear, in your questions, in your anxiety. I'm gonna dwell with you. I don't think we can go out on mission and do these great things that the Lord's inviting us to do unless we understand that the advocate dwells with us. Amen? Then he goes on and he says again, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, and he's going to teach you, right? He's going to teach you. This is important for us. We have to ask ourselves, do I wanna learn, right? Am I willing to learn? Am I willing? Am I willing to be able to be humble enough that maybe the Lord has something to teach me? And he tells us again, this is all culminating in Pentecost, but before he goes, I'm gonna dwell with you and I'm gonna teach you. And brothers and sisters, we have a great deal to learn, amen? Amen? The Lord wants to be able to teach us, to be able to equip us so that we're able to go out. But what I find comfort in this is that I don't, doesn't mean that I have to have all the answers. I know that I'm gonna find myself in situations and I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't know what the best course of action is, but I do trust that the Spirit of Jesus dwells in me and the Spirit of Jesus will lead me. And at this moment, he will teach me what it is that I am to do. Because so often times I have no idea. I mean, so many things come across my world that says, Jesus, I just don't know what to do. Teach me, lead me. What am I supposed to do here? I think that's particularly true for those of you who are parents. I mean, God bless you, right? You have no idea what you're supposed to do. You're facing him with situations that your kids bring to you. It's like, there is no book that you can go to. It's like, that's you, what do I do? Okay, here's what I need to do. You need the advocate to teach you, to come in at that moment. And this is what's so important for us to understand that the Spirit of Jesus wants to encounter us in the moment that we need him. That's the advocate, he comes and he saves the day. I got no idea what I'm supposed to say to my son or daughter. Come Holy Spirit, teach me what I'm supposed to say. One of the things that I love about the Catechism, when you take a look at the Catechism and speaking about the sacrament of marriage, it says that it's the first thing, and I also, whenever I do a wedding, I tell the couple this, that the Catechism says that the Holy, the first gift you received at matrimony at the day of marriage is the Holy Spirit. We often equate the Holy Spirit with confirmation or baptism. It's all some ordination. It's all the sacraments, right? But in marriage, it says that the Holy Spirit is readily available to the couple. I think that's a really powerful line, that the Holy Spirit is readily available to the couple. I was very graced with the mom and dad who would literally call on that, would find ourselves in a situation, in a stressful situation, and my mom and dad would say, well, let's just stop and let's just pray for a second. He said, are you serious? Are you serious? It sounds like maybe Chris should have done that before he came home. Seriously though, his wife Grace, I did their wedding, his wife Grace is so such a beautiful saint. So it's probably Chris's fault. Right? But at that moment, right? The spirit, the advocate wants to come in and whatever the situation is. I mean, so oftentimes in my work, in my office at the university, we're in a situation where we're stressful. It's like, what do we do? I said, let's just stop. Let's just stop. There's nothing so urgent that we can't take 30 seconds and take a breath and say, Jesus, what am I supposed to do here? The Holy Spirit is ever available to teach us what to do, amen? Spirit is dwelling in us, is teaching us, and the last one I don't remember, what is it? Oh, that's right. He'll remind us. Right? I always joke that as a priest, 95% of what I do as a priest is tell people something they already know. Right? Telling something is some of the most profound experiences of my life has simply been the Lord reminding me. The seminary and sitting in a chapel by myself having to deal with just a lot of death and struggle with babies that I've been ministering to and families that I've been ministering to. And just in that moment, there was just this profound darkness and in this weight that was upon me, not knowing what I was supposed to do, not knowing what I was supposed to do when I confronted by these situations as a priest. In the middle of that, on a Thursday evening, I'm sitting in front of a chapel. The Lord had been barren and distant and a million miles away. I was just pouring out my heart to the Lord and he broke in and he said, Dave, don't you know that I love you? And I had to be honest and I said, no. I mean, I'd forgotten. Right? I'd forgotten that. I love the fact that the spirit of Jesus comes to dwell with us, to teach us and to remind us. To remind us of those things that we know, that remind us that in the midst of the stress and the anxiety and the pressures of the world, it just takes this moment to remind us. I remember one time an individual came to confession and they repented for not remembering. And I found myself praying in that evening and reflecting on that because it's rare that we repent for not remembering but the scripture says time and time again, remember, remember, remember. This is what this is. The Greek word is these enamonesses, this act of memory, this act of remembering. And what the spirit wants us, wants to be able to do is to help to remind us in those moments that we most need that. Again, the advocate is the one who's gonna come in and save the day and remind us what we need to know. And I find from experiences like this or when I lead pilgrimages, people are anxious at the end because they've heard so much and they're worried. It's like, I just wanna remember everything, right? I just wanna remember everything. I believe in a spirit of Jesus that's gonna remind us when the time is necessary. And it may be a year from now and you're gonna be in a situation with somebody at your work or somebody at the soccer field or somebody in the hospital and the memory's gonna come back. You're gonna be able to share and being able to bring forth what you heard this weekend or 10 years ago because the spirit will remind you. Again, that's why we're here is that Jesus invited us to return to this altar and to remember and allow him to remind us what he's done for us. Do me a favor, take a breath. Jesus on this day of Pentecost, you sent the advocate to dwell with us that we would not be orphaned. You will always be with us to teach us and to remind us so that we might be faithful in the mission you've given us. Come Holy Spirit. Amen.