“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now...” (John 16:12)
Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:
“Now, however, you are perhaps wishing to know what those things were that the apostles were then unable to bear. But which of us would venture to assert his own present capacity for what they lacked in ability to receive? And this is why you are neither to expect me to tell you things that perhaps I could not comprehend myself were they told me by another; nor would you be able to bear them even if I were talented enough to let you hear of things that are above your comprehension. It may be, indeed, that some among you are fit enough already to comprehend things that are still beyond the grasp of others. But what they were that he himself thus omitted to tell, it would be rash to have even the wish to presume to say. Therefore, one may say that Christian people, even when desiring to hear, ought not to be told what those things are of which the Lord said here. If the apostles were still unable, much more so are you. For surely if we had read any such thing in the books confirmed by canonical authority, which were written after our Lord’s ascension, it would not have been enough to have read such a statement, had we not also read in the same place that this was actually one of those things that the Lord was then unwilling to tell his disciples because they were unable to bear them.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 96.)
Collect
O God,
Who by the mystery of today’s great feast
sanctify Your whole Church
in every people and nation,
pour out, we pray,
the gifts of the Holy Spirit
across the face of the earth and,
with the divine grace that was at work
when the Gospel was first proclaimed,
fill now once more the hearts of believers.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever
Who by the mystery of today’s great feast
sanctify Your whole Church
in every people and nation,
pour out, we pray,
the gifts of the Holy Spirit
across the face of the earth and,
with the divine grace that was at work
when the Gospel was first proclaimed,
fill now once more the hearts of believers.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
