The Gift and the Power of the Holy Spirit in our Lives

Come, Holy Spirit, Come!  And, indeed, the Spirit came, as we read in the first reading of today's liturgy, Acts 1: 1-11:  "...[S]uddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim!"  A large crowd gathered and were confused "because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, "Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them...speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God."

Nothing is impossible for God!  Enabling persons from different languages and cultures and beliefs to hear foreigners proclaim "the mighty acts of God"   is not beyond God's power any more than it was beyond God's power to bring the Son of God into our world in the incarnation, impregnating the womb of a teenage woman with the Son of God taking on human nature through her! And as Jesus walked among us,  He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, restored the health of the sick, cast out demons and  raised the dead to life. And when Jesus returned to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit, not only to the people in that house or who crowded around that house but to you and me as well!

As Paul says to us in today's second reading, 1 Cor 12: 3b-7, 12-13,  each of us has been given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit. Paul explains:  "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit."  Through the Church, that is, in our baptism, confirmation, and the reception of other sacraments, we are given a variety of spiritual gifts, not for our own sake, but for the sake of others. We are entrusted with certain forms of service. The workings we do, and that we see others do, are produced in everyone by the Holy Spirit at work within us.  The Spirit manifests Him/Herself through us for the other person's benefit and, in other people,for our benefit!

And so we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 104: "Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, you are great indeed! How manifold are your works, O Lord!...May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lore be glad in his works! Pleasing to him be my theme; I will be glad in the Lord."

Coming from God!

In today's Gospel, John 3: 1-8, Nicodemus, a rule of the Jews, comes to Jesus at night, not wanting others to know that he was seeking Jesus.  There was much about Jesus that caught Nicodemus' attention and he acknowledged such:  "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him."  Jesus says to Nicodemus:  "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."  Jesus explains further when He says:  "Amen, amen, I say to you unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit...."   You and I are "born from above," that is "born of Spirit," by virtue of our baptisms.  That birth empowers us to see God's Kingdom, to see the Spirit at work in the signs and actions of others, just as the Spirit worked signs and wonders through Jesus.  People were healed! Cripples walked again.  The deaf began to hear. The blind to see!

How often are you and I not awakened by the love and kindness, the forgiveness and generosity of a neighbor, a spouse, a child, a co-worker!  We have examples of the Spirit at work in thethousand and thousand of healthcare workers around the world risking their lives to save others from dying from the coronavirus. We have many people working in human service professions to help those struggling with mental illnesses find light again and a myriad of persons in the teaching profession encouraging students to believe in themselves and their capabilities to succeed in life!   Parents around the world sacrifice sleep to tend to their infant children or to a sick child or a child scared of "monsters" under the bed!  How many spouses, like Nicodemus,  have not said to their husband/wife: God sent you into my life; I am so blessed by you. Is that not like saying: "You come from God"?

God be praised and glorified and thanked for the many ways in which the Kingdom of God is revealed in our midst by others and by ourselves!

"Take Courage...and Work!"

In today's first reading, Haggai 2: 1-9, Haggai recalls the memory of the Temple built by Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians and the Lord  asked the people through the prophet Haggai: 

Who is left among you 
that saw this house in its former glory?
And how do you see it now?
Does  it not seem like nothing in your eyes? 
But now take courage...and work!"

Haggai then recalls the covenant God made with the people when they left Egypt and began their journey to the promised land. Through the prophet, God said to the Israelites: "I am with you...This is the pact I made with you when you came out of Egypt. And my spirit continues in your midst; do not fear!"

God says the very same things to you and me on our journey of faith to the Promised Land of eternal life. Number 1: Do not fear! Continue to work in building the Lord's Temple that each of us is.  Do our lives, our choices, we might ask ourselves, radiate God's glory, as in the lives of those who have gone before us?  Number 2: God's spirit continues in our midst by the way each of us follows God's Son Jesus the Christ!

In today's Gospel, Luke 9: 18-22, Jesus asked the disciples who people are saying he is. The disciples tell Jesus that some people believe that he is John the Baptist come back from the dead, others believe that he is Elijah, while still others believe that he is some ancient  prophet.  "'But who do you say that I am?'  Peter said in reply, 'The Christ of God.'"  You and I need to answer Jesus' question, as well!  Who do you (who do I) say Jesus is?

For me, Jesus is God who dwells in our midst and who dwells in the very core of my being. Jesus is the Son of God Incarnate whom I receive in Holy Communion at every Catholic Mass or Liturgy. Because God dwells among us in the Eucharist, in all of creation, and in the core of our beings, for that reason, you and I are able to reflect God's glory here on earth.

What covenant has God made with you?

Given a Spirit of Power

In his second letter to Timothy,  2 Timothy 1: 1-8, St. Paul reminds Timothy “to stir into flame the gift of God that you have[been given] through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.”  We, too, at our baptism and confirmation and in the sacrament of the sick, have been given “a spirit…of power and love and self-control,” not “a spirit of cowardice”.  However, believing Satan’s lies that we are unable, we can allow fear to control our lives. We can shrink from acting courageously and cooperating with grace. We do just that when, for instance, we avoid asking for forgiveness from God and from those persons we offend by our words or by our coldness, by our harshness and/or  judgments.  When Satan whispers into our ears that “it is too hard,” or that “we are weak,” to do the good to which we are called, we are then being lied to by the Father of Lies.  On the contrary,  as  Paul tells us, we are able to “bear[our] share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.”  God never inspires us to do a good without giving us the grace needed to do that good.

And how do we “stir into flame the gift of God” that we have been given by the imposition of a priest’s hands at our baptism and confirmation?  By doing good, by serving others, by taking time for prayer and reflection upon the Scriptures, by receiving the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation, by engaging in reading that nurtures our spiritual growth, by gazing upon God in the Blessed Sacrament or in other places where God’s peace abounds and by letting God gaze upon us in love from the Crucifix, from the Tabernacle, from the eyes of an innocent child, by looking for God in all of creation, in all of His beloved children, and in all of the events of our lives.
 

Going forth "in the power of the Spirit"

In today’s Gospel, Luke 4: 14-22a, Jesus returns to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit.”   He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, as he always did, “stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage that actually spoke about his mission. It reads:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

The same Spirit that gave power to Jesus gives power to you and me.  Like Jesus, we, too, through baptism and confirmation, the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation are authored to “bring glad tidings to the poor”.  We are sent to “proclaim liberty” to those enslaved to evil, in bondage to sin, corruption, and deceit. We, too, are sent to “give sight to the blind,” to reveal the Truth to those directed by misguided beliefs. We are “to let the oppressed go free,” especially if we are the oppressors. 

Can others with whom I live and work and pray say, as Jesus said, “”Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”?  When we engage in conversation with others, are they excited because they know that we are bearers of good news, not gossipers, not naysayers or cynics, not manipulators plotting to exploit us or take advantage of us, or others,  in some way?  When we take leave, will others “speak highly” of us and be “amazed at the gracious words” that came from our mouths, as they did of Jesus? If not, why not?  If yes, then let us thank the Lord for working through us and ask for the grace to continue to go forth “in the power of the Spirit”.

A generous request being answered

“As the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave you,” Elijah says to Elisha  in the first reading of today’s liturgy (See 2 Kings 2: 1, 6-14).  Knowing, however, that his life on this earth is drawing to a close, he says to Elisha: “Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.”  Elisha asks for “a double portion” of Elijah’s spirit and it is given him.  That may surprise us but let us move forward in history to the time of Jesus’ death.  Just prior to going to Calvary, Jesus leaves us His very self in the form of bread and wine—a gift far greater than Elijah giving Elisha a double portion of his spirit. Following His resurrection, Jesus tells the disciples that He is returning to the Father: “I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth….In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you…I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom  the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything…Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you….” (John 14: 16, 19-20, 25-27)--all of this foreshadowed by Elijah and Elisha in today’s first reading.

Elisha receives double Elijah’s spirit. You and I receive the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son, a Spirit of courage and boldness,  in Baptism, Confirmation and all of the sacraments, a Spirit that changed the apostles from men who cowered in the upper room prior to Pentecost to men who gave their lives for the sake of spreading the news of Jesus’ resurrection and the Good News of the Gospel to all nations. Nothing now was too much for them. They embraced discipleship completely!

My prayer: May my life reflect the fact that God has given me more than a double portion of His Spirit. He’s given me Himself, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, and the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity! Does my life reflect the fact that God the Father, God the Son,  and I are one in the Spirit?