Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read John 14:15-21
Have you ever found yourself at the end of your rope? I’m going to assume that you, like me, are human, flawed, and have definitely had days that felt like I just can’t do it. Two days away from welcoming my fourth son was one of those days.
After a busy and full Christmas and new year season, I was in the throes of preparing to welcome baby boy number four. While I told myself I was going to take it easy over the holidays because I was nine months pregnant, my perfectionist tendencies to please and provide for everyone took over. Exhausted and weary, I trudged through the process of cleaning up and putting Christmas decorations away in preparation for a new baby in the house. It was then that my other sweet boys started coughing. Two doctor visits meant two kiddos with viral pneumonia who had to be quarantined so they didn’t get anyone else sick. After dozens of trips to the pharmacy, countless loads of laundry, hundreds of trips up and down the stairs to provide for sick kids, I sat on the couch and thought, oh, there it is! The end of my rope! I found it.
I needed help, and maybe a massage and a nap. But I felt a deep tug in my heart for something deeper. With my husband taking a shift with the sick kiddos, I ran to the perpetual adoration chapel at my parish. As I walked in, I encountered my priest, who could see the exhaustion on my face. He invited me to sit with him before the Blessed Sacrament and, as a good father, he listened. While I was worn out because of the chaos of our circumstances, my heart was so weighed down by fear, anxiety, and doubt that I could hardly see a way through it. After confessing all of this, Father placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “Laura, you can’t do it. But the Holy Spirit can.”
Paráklētos: The Spirit of Truth
In this week’s gospel, we see Jesus on the eve of His passion at the table with His disciples, His dearest friends, preparing them for His departure. He knows what is coming and that the days ahead will be confusing, difficult, hard, and full of suffering. Instead of offering them a user manual or giving them a holy pep talk, He promised them a person: the Advocate.
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17).
The Greek word for advocate that Jesus uses here is paráklētos, or paraclete, a noun meaning an intercessor, advocate, or helper.[1] The Paraclete that Jesus promised is His Spirit, poured out from the Father and into our hearts to be with us always. Knowing what the disciples would face in the wake of His passion, and later in building His Church, He gave His Spirit to equip and guide them in it all. Jesus’ promise to the disciples of the Paraclete honors the difficulties in this life and reveals the heart of the Father.
When "I Can’t" Meets "He Can"
When we are feeling like we are at the end of our rope, we often feel like orphans, abandoned to figure it out on our own without a protector. But the truth is, Jesus knows every moment of difficulty and suffering that we face, and He assures us that through the Holy Spirit, we are never unprotected. While the will of the Father is not always to spare us that suffering, the desire of His heart is to be with us in it all—to be our Helper, Advocate, and Comforter. Fr. Dave Pivonka asserts that “the moment that we say ‘we just can’t do it,’ is the perfect opportunity to abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit.”[2]
When we say, I can’t do it, Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18).
When we say, I have lost hope, God says, “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
When we say, I am confused, Jesus says, “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (John 14:26).
When we say, I am weak, God says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us” (Romans 8:26).
God fulfills His promise to us by pouring out His Spirit to be our Paraclete—Intercessor, Helper, Comforter—in every single moment.
Peace in the Chaos
I wish that I could say that as soon as I relied on the Holy Spirit things got easier that week. While basking in newborn bliss in the hospital, back at home, a snowstorm knocked out the heater, leaving grandparents to care for the rest of our children in a 45-degree house. So while our circumstances didn’t get easier or simpler, what did change was my heart. He brought my heart a supernatural peace in the chaos. He gave me eyes to see the joy in the mess and the gentleness to take it one step at a time. In this life, the promise is not the absence of chaos or suffering but the presence of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, in the chaos.
With joy in the mess,
Laura White
Food for thought or journaling …
What is an area of your life that you need a helper, comforter, or advocate?
Come, Holy Spirit. I ask You to come into my heart and rest on me. I bring to You this specific intention and acknowledge that I need help. I cannot do it on my own. And so I bring my heart to You and invite You to come—bring the healing that I long for, the comfort that I desire, and the guidance that I need. I open my hands and my heart to You and say, come, Holy Spirit. Amen.
P.S. Jesus invites us to know Him and know His Spirit. Get to know Jesus better in the Walking with Purpose Bible study Touching the Divine (which happens to be my favorite!).
[1] BibleHub, “3875 paraklétos,” Biblehub.com, accessed April 25, 2026, https://biblehub.com/greek/3875.htm.
[2] Fr. Dave Pivonka, T.O.R., “Abandonment to the Spirit – Fr. Dave Pivonka, T.O.R. at Napa Institute Summer 2022 Conference,” The Napa Institute, December 4, 2022, YouTube video, 32:12, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_bX-jt6fF8.
