As I read today’s gospel, I put myself in the place of the disciples. They had given up their professions, their families, their friends and followed Jesus. He was their Master, their leader, their teacher. It is not surprising then that they could not fathom life without Jesus. But Jesus assures them that his physical self has to return to the Father so that the Holy Spirit can come into the world and continue the work that he began. So, instead of being grief-stricken he tells them that they should rejoice because his presence with them will be at a different and more intimate level than they have known. Besides, the Spirit would enable the world to see that Jesus’ claim of his relationship to the Father was true, thereby, silencing the critics and exposing as the ultimate sin, their unwillingness to believe.