Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter (2025)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to His disciples:

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:12–13).

This means something important: Jesus did not say everything.

He didn’t reveal the fullness of truth all at once. Not because He was hiding it, but because the disciples weren’t ready. The rest would be revealed by the Holy Spirit—the Paraclete, the Counselor.

He is the One who leads the Church, generation after generation, deeper into the truth.

And that Holy Spirit is still alive and continues to guide the Church, leading to the truth.

But there is something about this truth.

Pope Francis said: “God is shared with the world through love and authentic relationships, not by forcing the truth on people.”

We see exactly this in the first reading today—Saint Paul at the Areopagus, the public forum in Athens, a place of debate, thought, and dialogue.

It was the heart of Greek intellectual life. Paul wasn’t speaking to peasants.

He was speaking to philosophers, thinkers, scholars—people trained in logic and rhetoric. Luke tells us that Stoics and Epicureans were present. These were people who probably knew well the works of Aristotle—including his definition of truth from Metaphysics:

“To say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true. To say of what is not that it is, or of what is that it is not, is false.”

That’s truth. But it’s a limited truth. A logical truth. A human truth.

And then Paul steps in—not to destroy what they knew, but to build on it.

He doesn’t begin by saying, “You’re all wrong.”

He begins with what he sees: “I saw among you an altar with this inscription: To an Unknown God.”

He finds a point of contact. He even quotes their poets—Aratus or Epimenides.

That’s brilliant. That’s respectful. That’s evangelization.

Paul is not compromising the Gospel.

He’s not softening it. He’s opening a door.

Preparing the ground. Creating space for the Holy Spirit—because only the Spirit can convince the human heart.

Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the truth in its fullness.

Only the Holy Spirit can show a person their sin, and offer the way to salvation.

It is a powerful lesson for us.

We often want to speak the truth. That’s good.

But how we speak the truth matters.

Sometimes we may feel obligated to speak it—because it is our right—but we don’t always consider how that truth will affect the other person.

We need to remember: the Spirit of Truth is not a hammer.

He is a light. He doesn’t shout.

He guides—quietly, gently, but always deeply.

Let us ask Him today to guide us into all truth,

and to help us lead others there as well—not through argument, but through love,

to the One who is the Truth Himself: Jesus Christ.