NOTES for Joh 14:25-31

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things, but He will also bring to your remembrance all things that Christ said. These words contain the answer to a frequently asked question: by what principle were the canonical Gospels selected, given that there were many more Gospel narratives? The words and episodes recorded by the four Evangelists were preserved precisely because the Holy Spirit did not allow them to be forgotten. Meanwhile, anyone even slightly familiar with the “apocryphal gospels” will agree that, although they use certain Gospel motifs, they belong to a different kind of literature.

As He departs, He leaves peace to the disciples, but emphasizes that His peace is unlike the peace familiar to people. Unfortunately, the peace usually established in human relationships can be defined only negatively, as a temporary absence of war and hostility, and therein lie its weakness and fragility. But the peace brought by Christ is equivalent to the authenticity of life. Beside it, every hostility looks like a dark crevice that the light has not yet reached.