Scripture Reflection

Scripture: for Wed. of the Seventh Week after Easter (May 7, 2008). Acts
20:28-38. Psalm 69:29-30. 33-36. John 17:11-19. Lectionary # 299:

As we approach Pentecost Sunday our liturgical readings prompt us to
deepen our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised us the Holy
Spirit as an Advocate, a Comforter, and one who would teach us those things
Jesus revealed but we did not understand. We continue to read Jesus'
prayer to the Father in the intimate scene of the last supper of Jesus with
his apostles. There is a striking association today with Jesus' use of the
word truth ('emet in Hebrew) and the Greek word meaning consecration.
Jesus has these remarkable words about his apostles in his prayer: "I do
not ask you to take them out of the world, but to guard them from the evil
one. They are not of the world, any more than I am of the world.
Consecrate them by means of truth--'Your word is truth.' As you have sent
them into the world I consecrate myself for their sakes now, that they may
be consecrated in truth."(John 17: 17-19). Truth in Jesus' words as
presented in the Fourth Gospel is not an abstract word nor an intellectual
virtue confirming the object someone speaks about. It is a sacred reality
of word and deed confirmed by God's marvelous creative act of redeeming
love. We experience in what unfolds in salvation history when we are atuned
to the workings of God through faith and our own response of love. All
throughout the Gospel of John his words and actions are manifestations of
truth. His intimate friends will be in union with the truth through the
Holy Spirit after he ascends to the right hand of God, his Father. That
is why the apostles had no fear after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
them. They brought Jesus' words and deeds to all peoples through their
preaching, healing, and teaching.
To experience biblical truth, we can turn to the Psalms which use the
word emeth 84 times out of the 330 times it is used in the Bible. Almost
every Psalm helps us to grasp the meaning of truth. Jean-Pierre Provost has
this important paragraph about biblical truth (emeth)
"What is remarkable is that the word in the Bible never refers to
some abstraction, to truth as an idea, but always to the concrete solidity
of things, to the trustworhiness of a word once given, and to the
reliability of persons. ...The well known response AMEN occurs twenty-four
times in the Old Testament to express people's or an individual's adherence
to the Word of God ( a promise, a curse, or a mission): Deuteronomy
27:15-22; Jeremiah 11:5. And the word already has a liturgical character as
the people's response to a prayer (Nehemiah 8:6; 1 Chronicles 16:36)." (A
Short Dictionary of the Psalms, p. 71).
We see then that the word AMEN comes from the same radical as 'emet.
This word is connected to our gift of believing and trusting in God and
God's word. As we read and hear in one of the Psalms, "The word of the
Lord endures forever." Amen.