FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.
Christ your Advocate.
" Behold, the Lord God is my helper; who is he that shall condemn me." (Is. 1. 9.)
I. We are told in the Gospel of the present Sunday, that Christ said to His disciples, " I go to Him that sent Me, and it is expedient for you that I go." (John xvi. 5, 7.) Our Lord went to His eternal Father to plead for us, in the supreme consistory of heaven, as our patron, advocate, and intercessor. "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just," says St. John (1 Ep. ii. 1); and St. Paul writes, "There is one mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim. ii. 5.) It is, therefore, truly expedient that He should go to the Father to intercede for us, for we have been guilty of many crimes.
II. What an advantage it would be to a criminal to have in an earthly court the king's own and only son for his advocate, willing and desirous of promoting his pardon. Such a one in your regard is Jesus Christ, " who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." (Apoc. i. 5.) He is infinitely powerful, and consequently well able to obtain for you every favor and grace of which you stand in need, for He says, " All things are delivered to Me by My Father." (Luke x.
III. You ought to wish for the happy hour, in which your Advocate will enter your soul in the holy Eucharist. Then you can unfold all your miseries, necessities, and distress, and induce him to plead for your efficacious redress. Take care, then, that your soul be pure from sin and divested of every affection to it; "for wisdom,"
