Ep. 187 - Advocate v. Accuser: The Holy Spirit in the Courtroom of Heaven
Mass Readings for May 10, 2026
What does it mean to love a God who needs nothing from us? In this episode, Jesus’ words at the Last Supper plunge us deep into the mystery of divine love, the Holy Spirit, and the ancient promise of a new law written not on stone, but on the heart. We’ll journey through sunsets, saints, and jazz piano to discover how God draws us into union with Himself and transforms us from spiritual orphans into true children of the Father. Finally, we’ll unpack why the Holy Spirit is called our “Advocate” and how this ancient legal term changes everything about how we face both our failures and our future.
Diving deep into our Gospel we'll spend our episode looking closer at:
The classic philosophical definition of love ("to will the good of the other") and its thorny implications for how we can love a God who needs nothing from us [00:03:09]
How the transcendentals—truth, beauty, and goodness—help explain the paradox of loving God and why relishing beauty, like a spectacular sunset, mirrors the way we are drawn to love God [00:13:02]
The Old Testament prophecy in Jeremiah, "I will write my law upon their hearts", and how it prefigures the New Law as the grace of the Holy Spirit [00:28:09]
Saint Felicity's vivid words on martyrdom and the difference between suffering as herself versus suffering "with another in me"—a living example of the Holy Spirit acting within [00:35:05]
How the sending of the Holy Spirit doesn’t just comfort us, but literally makes us children of God, closing the infinite gap between humanity and the divine [00:42:01]
Why the Holy Spirit as "advocate" (parakletos) is actually a technical Greek legal term for "defense attorney," placing us inside a cosmic courtroom drama with Satan as accuser [00:43:44]
References
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, and I showed myself their Master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33)
"The new law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1966)
"The New Law is called a law of love because it makes us act out of the love infused by the Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace, because it confers the strength of grace to act, by means of faith and the sacraments; a law of freedom, because it sets us free from the ritual and juridical observances of the Old Law, inclines us to act spontaneously by the prompting of charity and, finally, lets us pass from the condition of a servant who “does not know what his master is doing” to that of a friend of Christ […] or even to the status of son and heir." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1972)
"Love and do what you will." (Augustine, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 7, par. 8)
"You who are in such suffering now, what will you do when you are thrown to the beasts, which you despised when you refused to sacrifice? And she replied, Now it is I that suffer what I suffer; but then there will be another in me, who will suffer for me, because I also am about to suffer for Him." (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, 5.2)
"We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1)
"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan’" (Zechariah 3:1-2)
"Experience proves this: the love of prayerful souls is the most attentive, delicate, disinterested, sensitive to other people’s suffering, and capable of consoling and comforting." (Time for God 27)
Bibliography
Aquinas, Thomas. Commentary on the Gospel of John: Chapters 1–21. Translated by Fabian Larcher and James A. Weisheipl. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010.
Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel according to John (XIII-XXI): Introduction, Translation, and Notes. Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008.
Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of John: A Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012.
Discussion Questions
The classical definition of love is "to will the good of the other." How does this definition apply or not apply when we try to love God, who is pure goodness?
What role do the transcendentals—truth, beauty, and goodness—play in understanding how we desire union with God?
Reflect on the idea of "relishing" beauty, as described in the episode. How does this experience of beauty help us understand what it means to love and seek union with God?
How does Katie explain the connection between keeping God’s commandments and truly loving God?
In what ways does the giving of the Holy Spirit enable us to keep the commandments, according to the episode?
Compare and contrast the "old law" and the "new law". What makes the new law unique or superior?
How does Katie use the story of St. Felicity to illustrate the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers?
Discuss the metaphor of God "writing the law on our hearts" (Jeremiah 31). What does this imply about how Christians are called to live?
What does it mean to say that God does not leave us "orphans," and how does the Holy Spirit fulfill this promise in a practical and theological sense?
"Advocate" or "parakletos" is presented as having a specific legal connotation in the original Greek. How does this deepen your understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in the Christian life, especially in times of temptation or failure?