Another Paraclete; mutual indwelling (John 14:16–23)

…is a creature—the Son—but consubstantial with the Father. By saying “another” he shows the difference of the hypostases, and by saying “as me” the kinship of essence. And he says he asks the Father because they are incomplete, since somehow he himself sends him—which the apostles gave to the faithful by laying on of hands. Nor is the Spirit sent as if displaced, but he who is everywhere stands over them with authority; yet he said this showing the time of the presence; for unless Christ were sacrificed and sin loosed, the Spirit would not have come upon the faithful. And by economy, as man giving reverence to the Father, he said “I will ask.” And he called him another because he is self-subsistent, not because he is alien to the Father or the Son; for he works those things which the Son does, so that the Spirit seems to be the Son himself. Therefore he is also called Spirit of truth, which is Christ. Paraclete is the name of both the Son and the Spirit as giving us comfort and as interceding for us with the Father; for this name produces comfort and does not signify a different essence of Spirit and Father.

By saying “remains” he taught that not even after death does the Spirit depart, just as a quality of the Godhead comes to be in you and remains always in the saints, whenever through virtue and purity they are eager to keep the grace in themselves.

That is: the worldly, who conceive nothing outside what is seen, cannot receive what is incorporeal and invisible; “receive” he said—that is, they can neither contemplate nor so know.

He never left them empty of his providence, yet he also appeared to them after the resurrection. Since when he came he called them “little children,” when about to depart he said orphans.

Because he was going to appear only to them after the resurrection, he said “a little” to all. He calls a little time the span until the second coming; for even a long time is little to God. But you the saints will know me through the Spirit’s indwelling, not those who love the world’s things.

An earnest of the coming life, which you are to receive, is my resurrection. He says the disciples live not only the present life but the coming one.

When he rose from the dead and they obtained the Holy Spirit, they received knowledge that the Son, having the same power as the Father, is not split from him because of the unity of essence, and is always with them helping them. I, being life by nature, joined myself to the Father who is by nature and life itself. And I also joined you to the Father through the co-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, making you “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4); for I am in the Father naturally as his fruit, and you in me inasmuch as I became man, and I in you through the Spirit’s indwelling.

After the resurrection those who believe rightly will know perfectly; for now “we know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9), that just as the Son is consubstantial with the Father, so also there is one will of both.

Lest we suppose that all without distinction will enjoy such a gift even if some are not good, he immediately coupled to the word the person of those who love him. These would be those who have learned to live