NOTES for Joh 16:12-15
In the verses of today's passage from John's Gospel, the Lord speaks of the Spirit, who will come and guide us “into all truth.” And why will He be able to do this—to reveal the truth, to free us from our “inability to receive it” (see John 16:12)? Because “He will not speak on His own, but will speak whatever He hears”; He will do the will of the One who sent Him. This alone is the guarantee of success—and not personal success, but success as a gain for eternity. One might ask why this is necessary, since the Holy Spirit is God and could speak on His own... But Jesus too does the will of the Father who sent Him. There simply is no division among the Persons of the Trinity like the division between us and God. And the fulfillment of the will—the concord, so to speak, of the actions of the Trinity—takes place differently. This very will is one of the things that bind Them (the Persons of the Trinity) together... So too for us: God's will, or more precisely our assent to it, is meant to serve as the link between us and the Kingdom of Heaven.