The COVID-19 pandemic has forced our lives into isolation. However, one blessing this isolation has brought me is having some spare time. Last week, I used some of this extra time to open a medium-sized box that had not been opened for many years. The box contains some of my personal belongings with a lot of sentimental value. This box has travelled with me from one vicarage to another in NZ, then to Melbourne, then to Dubai, and back to Melbourne.
In the box, I found beautiful souvenirs. They included birthday cards sent to me in my teens by my grandmother, parents, and Godparents; my tenth-grade results sheet; testimonials (or references, as we call them nowadays) written by influential people in my life for my first job interview in 1983; my first laminated job ID, the type-written letter my Bishop wrote accepting me for training to the Priesthood; my first driver license and passport and the like. I was seeing these again after so many years. They made the years of my youth flash before me and flooded me with beautiful memories.
Among these precious mementos were three handwritten lecture notes on foolscap paper (no longer in use). As many of you may remember, in the 1970s and 80s, before the arrival of A4 paper, we used foolscap paper. These were notes that I had preserved from my philosophy classes between 1987 and 1988 at the Catholic Theological Seminary in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
The first two lecture notes were from Plato's Republic: one on his Allegory of the Cave and the other on his account of the near-death experience of the Armenian soldier Er (Plato's Republic -10.614–10.621).
The third set of lecture notes caught my special attention. They were notes on one of Plato's Dialogues called Phaedo, set in the last hours before Socrates was put to death by hemlock poisoning.
There was a reason for my special attention to this third set of notes. A young novice nun from my second-year senior philosophy class, a novice of the Holy Family Religious Order, wrote them for me. I was deeply attracted to her.
My attraction to her was not romantic but devotional. This novice had the spitting image of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who lived in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. I learned about St Bernadette in Grade 9 at a Catholic School. I was -- and still is -- an ardent admirer of St Bernadette.
The novice's name was Sister Celeste. She had a special presence about her. In her countenance, eyes, and smile, I saw the same mystery, devotion, and otherworldliness that is seen in the face of St Bernadette. As expected of novices, she wore a head covering, enhancing the otherworldly mystery revealed on her face. Her name, Celeste, was perfect for her. Celeste means "heavenly."
Sr Celeste wrote the lecture notes on Plato's Dialogue Phaedo for me because I was too unwell that day to take notes. The notes were written – as we would describe a beautifully rounded script written by any female in colloquial Sinhalese – in "pearly letters." Upon discovering these notes last week, I excitingly read them all in one sitting.
The notes started with a declaration our professor frequently made: "Plato's dialogues are a great place to begin the pursuit of truth." Through the figure of Socrates, Plato raises numerous questions and discusses them in a penetrating way in the dialogues. The Dialogue Phaedo is such a great dialogue.
Plato's philosophical thought has influenced our Western culture in so many ways; the British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said: "All of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato." (Socrates and Plato lived about 400 years before Jesus)
I wanted to share this story of discovering the notes on Phaedo Sr. Celeste wrote for me for a special reason. In the evening of the same day, while these memories were still quite fresh in my mind, I read the Gospel reading for the day. When I read the Gospel, I was surprised to see the parallels between Socrates comforting his friends before his fast-approaching death and Jesus preparing his friends for his impending departure.
In Phaedo, when Socrates' friends came to see him for the last time, they were surprised to see his peacefulness on this fateful day. The friends had a plan to smuggle him out of jail and told him that it was ridiculous for him to die, leaving behind all the philosophy he had done all his life.
In the same way, in the Gospel reading (at the beginning of Chapter 14 from last week), we see Jesus' disciples perplexed about the calm way Jesus was telling them about his departure. They were reluctant to accept that Jesus had to go. Thomas was so confused that he asked Jesus where he was going. Philip, unsure of what Jesus was saying, asked Jesus to show the Father. (John 14: 5&8)
In Phaedo, Socrates explains to his friends why he is ready to face death fearlessly. He explains to them the immortality of the soul, which survives death. Then, he explains to his friends that if we know this truth, we can set our minds to what is true and sound and live a life well-prepared to face death fearlessly and enter into a life of blessedness after death. It is from this teaching of Socrates we have his famous saying: philosophy is a preparation for death. (what I have said in this paragraph is the gist of Socrates' and his student Plato's philosophy)
In the Gospel, with his impending departure to his Father, Jesus prepared his friends by promising to ask the Father to give them another Advocate to lead them to the truth.
These are Jesus' words:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. (John 14: 15-17)
There is something very beautiful expressed in Jesus' promise to his friends about the Advocate the Father will give them. That is the Spirit of truth, he said, abides with you, and he will be in you. But the rest of the world, Jesus said, cannot receive the Spirit of truth because they cannot see or understand it.
What did Jesus mean when he said, "The Spirit of truth abides with you, and he will be in you?" To explain this, I want to return to the lecture notes Sr Celeste wrote for me thirty-three years ago with her pearly letters. In the notes, she highlighted with a marker pen a beautiful aspect of Socrates' philosophy, which is known as the doctrine of recollection. It is the idea that we are born possessing all knowledge, and our realisation of that knowledge depends on our discovery.
This is to say that every one of us, as a child of God, is an eternal soul whom God has sent into this world, has all the knowledge of heaven, possesses all the qualities inherited from God, and knows the truth. But why have we forgotten all this?
Perhaps, because the moment we come here to this world, we have let ourselves forget where we have come from, let the memory lapse and let go of the standards with which we have come here. The Bible describes this loss of memory or amnesia in many ways. For example, the Bible describes it as us having fallen from the grace of God (Romans 3:23); disobedience (Titus 1:16); the wisdom of this age (1 Corinthians 2:6); works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) and sin (Psalm 51:1-2).
But why does God place us in a world where we will forget him and the qualities and knowledge of heaven we have come here with?
It seems that dear Sr Celeste had struggled with this question herself. In the notes, outside the margin, she had remarked: "We come to this world to experience the qualities of heaven and put them to practice. Maybe this world is for testing, like studying for an exam at home and then sitting for it outside the home. Perhaps, we may have asked God to test us….."
Celeste's insight about us having asked God to test us rings true. In both the Old and New Testaments, the words translated as "test" mean "to prove by trial." Therefore, David constantly sought God's testing, asking God to examine his heart and mind and see that they were true to God (Psalm 26:2; 139:23). God tested Abraham before making him the Father of many nations (Genesis 22:1-19; Romans 4:16; Hebrews 11:8,9; 17–19). God allowed Satan to test Job (Job 2).
James says in his epistle that testing our faith develops perseverance, which leads to maturity in our walk with God (James 1:3–4). James goes on to say that testing is a blessing because when the testing is over, and we have "stood the test," we will "receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him" (James 1:12). Therefore, when God tests us, His purpose is to prove that our faith is real.
Jesus knew that the testing could be very trying. That is why he spoke very protective of us as the Good Shephard two Sundays ago (Reread John 10). Jesus is very protective of us, and he describes the Spirit of Truth as an Advocate. The word in Greek mentioned here for the Advocate is the word parakletos. It is the Greek word for a defence attorney, a lawyer or solicitor cum counsellor. Jesus wanted to ensure that we are set up with a divine advocate in his name to help us see through all the attacks of the evil one (See John 14:26) in the same way he advocated and cared for us while he was with us (See Matthew 8:16; Luke 4:34, 41; 9:1; 11:14)
The testing or trials we undergo come in various ways. Whatever the source of the testing, it is to our benefit to experience the trials that God allows. The psalmist likens our testing to being refined like silver (Psalm 66:10). Peter speaks of our faith as "of greater worth than gold," and that's why we "suffer grief in all kinds of trials" (1 Peter 1:6–7).
Let us return to Jesus' promise to his disciples/friends and us that he will ask the Father to send us the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. In the following two chapters of John's Gospel, Jesus says: "When the Advocate comes, …, he will testify on my behalf, … and that he will guide you into all the truth (John 15:26 & 16:13).
In Jesus' words, the Spirit of truth requires two things of us for it to guide us to all truth. They are that we love him and keep his commandments (John 14: 15 & 21). Jesus's words that the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth because it neither sees him nor knows him simply mean those who lack love and do not keep his commandments cannot be led to the truth.
St. Paul beautifully described the truth to which the Spirit will lead us this way: "We speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory." "As it is written," he says this is "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him." Then he says, "These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God." (See 1 Corinthians 2: 7-15)
All that I have shared with you today invites us to make sense of our lives: their joys, sorrows, ups and downs, trials, and victories. In the same way, Socrates asked his friends to live fearlessly in knowing the truth that our souls are eternal. Jesus offered us the Advocate to lead us to this same truth and all the truth.
My friend Dr Eben Alexander III (from last week) said the same beautifully this way:
“I believe heaven makes us human, that without a knowledge that it is where we come from and where we’re going – that is our true country – life makes no sense.” (The Map of Heaven, Simon & Schuster (October, 2014)
There is a further lesson for us to learn from all of this for Rogation Sunday. It is that we who know this truth need not fear death. Let us take all the precautions against COVID-19 because we love and care for ourselves and everybody else, but not because we fear death. The media drives the campaign against the pandemic by making us all fear death.
Before closing, here is a word about St. Bernadette and Sr. Celeste.
Bernadette lived a life devoted to prayer and meditation on the apparitions she received at 14. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 35 in 1879. Although it has been 145 years since her death, her body remains incorrupt and rests in a glass vault at Saint Gilard's convent in Nevers, France, where she lived as a nun of the Sisters of Charity. She was canonised in 1933 and is fondly known as the Sleeping Saint.
Through 1987 and the pursuing years, my friendship with Sr Celeste deepened. We became one another's spiritual confidants. In 1989, she made her final vows – sacred promises of obedience, chastity, and poverty – to serve God as a fully-fledged nun. Before the final vows are taken, a novice is asked to nominate a religious name besides the given Christian name. Because of our deep friendship, she asked me to provide a name for her. I acclaimed: Bernadette! She gladly accepted the name and took her vows as Sister Bernadette Celeste.
May we wait expectantly for the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, to descend upon us as Jesus had promised. Amen
Christ is Risen, Halleluiah! He is Risen, Indeed, Halleluiah!
Let us pray:
Eternal God, the light of the minds that know you, the joy of the hearts that love you,
the strength of the wills that serve you; grant us so to know you that we may truly love you,
and so to love you that we may gladly serve you, now and always. Amen.
