Yesterday I talked about joy-- the joy that is apparent in the face of an infant as she smiles at her mother or father or others around her. it is so simple and obvious and infectious. It flows, I think, from our human need for relationship. My granddaughter glows with joy when she sees the connection she has made with others. It is a big part of how bonds are formed. Humans can't live without relationships. In the creation story that's why God makes a woman for Adam. None of the aminals is capable of a relationship with him that will truly be satisfying. But human relationships, great and wonderful as they can be, can never give us joy that is "complete" (the term Jesus uses twice in this lengthy discussion at the Last Supper). That's because we are imperfect and changeable. Babies grow up. People change. We change. We do the best we can but relationships can flower and fade. Perhaps it is as a result of that reality that Jesus promises to send us the Holy Spirit, the "Advocate" who will guide us "to all truth" (Jn 16: 13), as Jesus says in today's Gospel (Jn 16: 12-15). Who is the Holy Spirit? Yes, the third person of the Trinity, but a person who is a relationship. We think that the relationship between the Father and Son is so real, so intense, so powerful that it can be described as its own person, as people who are married will talk of their marriage as a separate entity ("we have a good marriage," or "this will be difficult for our marriage," or "our marriage will benefit from this"). When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive a relationship, the relationship between Father and Son, the relationship from which all that exists flows. It is in that relationship that joy is complete, that nothing is lacking. So maybe our path to joy is through the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Maybe the Holy Spirit-- THE relationship-- can teach us how to enter into the one relationship that truly matters: our relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit as a guide. Maybe our task is to let that happen, to allow ourself to be guided, to be open to "all the truth." We have received the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation. It is present within us. It wants our joy to be "complete." Let's do our best not to get in its way.