In whom can we find heavenly comfort amidst our struggles and battles with the vicious devil?

In His parting words before His arrest, the Lord Christ repeatedly reassured His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to them, saying, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16); “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26); “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26); and “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).

The Lord Christ completed our redemption on the cross, ascended into heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit in order to grant His Church the sweetness of partaking in the cross, the experience of the power of resurrection, and the token of the heavenly life. The Holy Spirit is the “other Comforter” who takes what is Christ’s and gives it to us. The work of the Holy Spirit continues in the life of the Church until the end of this age, preparing her as a bride bearing the image of her heavenly Bridegroom.

The word “ Paraclete ,” usually translated as “Comforter,” can also mean “Lawyer,” “Defender,” or “Advocate”; for He advocates for the Church of Christ before divine justice on behalf of sinners; those who, because of their living faith that works in love, bear the righteousness of Christ. The Lord Christ calls Himself the “ Comforter ,” but he calls Holy Spirit “ the other Comforter ” (cf. John 14:16). A Targum describes the days of the Messiah as days of comforting. Christ comforted His disciples while He was with them in the flesh, and when He departed from them in the flesh, He sent them His Holy Spirit, the other Comforter.

Because the Lord Christ offers Himself as a sacrifice of love for the sake of humanity, it is the right of those who believe in Him for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them and dwell within them; He who had previously ceased to dwell within humanity from the moment Adam fell. This gift means, in fact, that we receive the Giver of gifts Himself. It is an abiding gift that cannot be taken from the believer until he takes it with him beyond this life. The Holy Spirit will not leave him as long as he accepts Him and cooperates with Him.

First, the Savior established the foundation of knowledge, which is faith. Upon this foundation, He established the work of love, which is obedience to the commandments.

840 St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 96.1–2 (NPNF I/7:371– 372).

Finally, He sent to us His Holy Spirit from the Father, who alone is able to bring all this to completion.

Here, the Lord Christ makes manifest the role of the Holy Trinity in perfectly fulfilling the divine plan for our glorification in eternity. The Father sends His Son as a Comforter who sacrifices Himself for the salvation of the world, and now receives Him upon His ascension, and in doing so also receives the universal Church, from Adam till the end of ages, in Himself, with Him as its Head. The Father receives the first Comforter and is pleased in Him who has fulfilled the work of salvation of humanity and proclaimed the love of the Father in practice. Having ascended to be received by the Father in heaven, this Comforter is now separated from humanity in the flesh, although He remains always present in the midst of His holy Church, always interceding for her before the Father; and sending the other Comforter who fills the Church and enlightens, sanctifies, and guides her, without departing from the Father or separating from Him. Here we see the relationship of mutual love between the Holy Trinity, working for the salvation humanity and its eternal glory.

St. John Chrysostom says, “But why did He say: ‘I will ask the Father?’ Because, if He had said ‘I will send,’ they would not have believed in the same way, and at the moment what He was striving to achieve was this: that He should be believed.”⁸⁴¹