When our Lord said He would send us an Advocate, one must first ask, what is an Advocate?

ad·vo·cate
noun
/ˈadvəkət/
a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.

If I was a criminal, which we all truly are in the spiritual sense, as we are all guilty sinners, I am granted the right to an Attorney.  When our Lord told us He would send an Advocate, this is in fact the Holy Spirit. What does this mean to us? He is here to guide, and help us in the many internal and external struggles we face, to stay on the right path and not to be lead astray by what we are lacking. If I were to represent myself in a court of law, without ANY knowledge or understanding of the Law, where would I be sent for many years by the Judge who knows all? If I chose to represent myself, am I not doing what our Lord told us not to do? Would I therefore be pleading “Innocent” when in fact I am guilty? Would I look to be insane by the Judge and then would I not actually BE insane by NOT taking the advise and direction of the Advocate our Lord has appointed to me?

The very moment we do something wrong, we know it to be wrong, because our “conscious” tells us it is wrong. In the deep chambers of this conscious, resides the Advocate. As we act on the wrong decision and sin, we are convicted. This is a moment of grace. A moment to be CONVERTED. A moment in which our stone hearts, can be changed to flesh. When we continue on that wrong path, we are walking away from the Advocate there to help, and we begin to build a mountain of guilt.  What is a soul to do with guilt? How does one get rid of it? We can try to repress or suppress it, but over years, it becomes something that consumes and rots us from the inside out. By the time it manifests externally, which mind you, does not take very long as others can see guilt a mile away, even when we choose not to and think we have wonderfully hidden it,  it becomes a burden that eats away at our relations with others through depression, anxiety and anger. Left very long or not very long at all, depending on the sensitivity of the soul, it shows itself as mania, hysteria, psychosis, and many times takes us into suicide and or murder.

How then is a soul to rid ones self of its own guilt? By embracing the guilt. Embracing it and you take it to the dumpster and walk away from it. If I am appointed an Attorney for a trial, am I not to tell my Attorney everything that has taken place to ensure a “Light” sentence? Our Lord knows our guilt. No one gets away with murder. No one gets away with anything. Sin is sin and the wages of all sin is death. Guilt and holding on to the guilt of our sins, is that millstone around our necks. How is that millstone shattered? By taking the Counsel that has been appointed to us by our Lord. Do everything He tells you. Beginning with a great Confession. The act of confessing, is the beginning of cleaning up the guilt we have accumulated or if you would hoarding guilt, for years and years. You know that our Lord has told us that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. When our interiors are packed with sin and guilt, it makes it very difficult to find anything, let alone that room where the Advocate is located. Confessing our sins and turning away from them, is how we clean up that interior in order to find that hidden room under the exorbitant amount  of guilt we buried Him under.

What to do while we are being convicted? Silence, contemplation and prayer. Have you ever been told to shut up and listen for your own good? This is the time to do just that. Speak when He directs you to. Say what He is advising you to say. Act, as He is directing you to act. He is here to help you. It is mercy He seeks for you. Even when the worst most horrific things about you are being revealed. The horror of it all, is no horror to Him who already knows. The horror of it all, is to YOU who thought you had hidden it and thought it would just all go away. Like a parent who catches their child with their hand in the cookie jar, you are so busted. And He still loves you. Like a rat in a trap, squirming to be released,  in everything you have ever done. And He loves all His creatures. The Advocate will NOT release you. The question remains, “Do you love me?”.

The Advocate will advise you to plead GUILTY and not to continue in the guilt, but to keep clean, live a model life until your court case is heard. His advice is always to REPENT and believe in the Gospel. Not yourself.  It is the Judge who will do the releasing and sentencing, and we hope it might just be for time served, if you begin to serve the sentence before you stand in front of the Judge.

Welcome the Advocate with open arms. Don’t do what you know is not good. Do not push Him away. Pray for Him to come to you, and help you to make it through it all.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Here is a wonderful video by Venerable Bishop Fulton John Sheen. For some reason, it will not play from the beginning. Please, watch it from the start, not half way through.