What you need is love!

Karl Barth, a great Lutheran theologian, is reported to have said that, as Christology was the focus of the 19th century, the role of the Spirit will be the focus of the present century, referring to the century that has just passed. This prediction, I think, has come to pass and continues to be fulfilled at the beginning of the present century by a renewed interest in both theology and Church life.

Too often in the past, the Holy Spirit has been the 'forgotten one' of the Holy Trinity, or invoked as the guarantor of fixed teaching, not only as far as the revealed truths are concerned, but also in regard to the application and the living of these truths in the daily life of the faithful.

Today we speak of "development of dogma" which entails an ever deeper understanding of the truth, which is ultimately divine revelation itself. This is, after all, what Jesus had in mind when he said the words reported in today's Gospel: "I will ask my Father, and he will give you another to befriend you, one who is to dwell with you for ever. It is the truth-giving spirit... He will be continually at your side, nay, he will be in you."

In theology the Third Person of the Holy Trinity is also called "the Spirit of Love", the personified love that is in God. Truth and love go together. No truth is possible without love, just as no authentic love is possible without truth. We have all experienced, I am sure, the content of this equation. It is truth that opens our minds and helps us to discover the authentic values that are in them.

The same is true of love. The lack of love often prevents us from looking deep into the heart of our neighbours and from discovering all the great qualities that are hidden in them. Without love our spiritual sight will remain blurred as far as our neighbour is concerned. And then it is also love that engenders enough strength within us, enabling us to act at all. Hence the saying which in Latin sounds as follows: Ama, et fac quod vis, which means "love, and do whatever you want".

I have never been too familiar with the songs of the Beatles and still less a fanatic of them. But one of their songs is entitled All you need is Love, which for me is, so to speak, explosive and packed with deep meaning.

We have all had some experience of it in our lives. And as Christians we do believe that the source of true love is none other than the Holy Spirit, which theologians have called "God's subsistent Love". Hence the concluding words of today's Gospel, where Jesus tells the Apostles: "If a man has any love for me, he will win my Father's love, and we will both come to him and make our continued abode in him!"

"All you need is love!" Who can count the number of fellow human beings who are experiencing today all kinds of needs: need of food, need of good health, need of work. But there can be no doubt about it: the deepest and most urgent need of every human being, including ourselves, is love. And here occur to me the words uttered by Lady Diana, of happy memory. She famously claimed not to want to be Britain's Queen, but rather its "Queen of Hearts". "Someone's got to go out there", she said, "and love people, and show it." She herself was experiencing the lack of the love that was due to her in her private life. This was causing her much suffering. She therefore knew what she was talking about. Jesus wants to fill this need to the full in us, by sending the Holy Spirit.