God Remains with Us Always!

In today's Gospel, John 14: 15-21, Jesus speaks about His returning to heaven. He ascend to His Father and send us the Holy Spirit, "another Advocate to be with [us] always, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees me nor knows him. But," he says to us, "you know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. I will  not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while," he says to  us, "the world will no longer see me, but  you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day,  you will realize  that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you."


What a promise! And how real! All around us and within us new life is emerging every day. We wake up renewed from sleep! Our life has been restored during sleep!  We wake up with new energy, a new zest for life, a new hope, new faith, deeper love because "another Advocate" has been sent to us in the Spirit, a "Spirit of truth" and life whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees the Spirit of God nor know God's Spirit.

How do we grow in knowledge of God's Spirit within us and around us? By spending time in solitude, seeking God's face within and around us and in others and in the events of our lives;  by spending time in prayer and in reflection upon the Scriptures--the Holy Bible--and the Scriptures of our lives and of the events of our lives!  God is in both and in all of life, hidden from the naked eye, from the eyes that simply look at problems and how to solve them without bringing them to God or asking for God's help!

Let us remember that Jesus is in God the Father and you and i are also in the Father, as St. Paul tells us: We live and move and have our being in God. Let us also remember that Jesus dwells in our very being itself and if Jesus dwells there so, too, does God and Father and God the Spirit, as they  are one in love and truth and life!

Who Am I to Question God's Ways

As with Peter in today's first reading, Acts 11: 1-18, God frequently challenges us to rethink issues, to move beyond boundaries to which we might be clinging that actually are not what God desires of us.  In Peter's case it was, for one,  refusing to eat certain meats that the law pronounced as clean. God said to Peter in prayer:  "What God has made clean, you are not to call profane."  Secondly, there was a law not to enter the house of the uncircumcised, which Peter had done when "three men appeared at the house where [he] was...The Spirit told [Peter] to accompany them without discriminating."  As Peter was speaking to these men, "the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord,  how he had said, 'John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God [by refusing to go into their house because they were uncircumcised]?

We might ask ourselves two questions: 1) Are we clinging to laws that may actually be hindering us from doing what God desires of us and 2)  Do we avoid going into other peoples' houses or speaking to other people because they are different from us or have beliefs that differ from ours?

St. Stephen's Faith and Ours

Today, Dec. 26, we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr.  "Stephen," we are told in Acts 6: 8-10; 7:54-59, "filled with grace and power,  was working great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke...[Stephen's debaters] were infuriated, and...ground their teeth at him.  But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God....[Stephen's persecutors] threw [Stephen] out of the city, and began to stone him...As they were stoning Stephen, he called out 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Like Jesus on the cross, Stephen asked God not to hold the sin of his executioners again them. WOW! A man unafraid to stand up for what and for whom he believed!

Jesus tells us in the Gospels that, like Him, we will meet opposition, that we will be persecuted for our faith and testimony to the Father, just as Jesus was.  We will encounter the cross--misunderstandings, hatred, and an onslaught of  obstacles on our way to eternal life.  Will we, like Stephen, keep our eyes on Jesus! Will we look up to heaven from whence comes our help, as we are told in the psalms, or will we downplay our faith, water it down, to avoid difficulties that are likely to arise from detractors, unbelievers, or those who have chosen other gods? Will we join the "Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians" of our day and throw "stones" at those who disagree with us?

May we, like Stephen, stand up for what we believe,  especially when others want to debate us. Let us also hold on to God's promise that He will instruct us on what to say when we are dragged before the "tribunals" of our day!  God is with us always!  Let us not be afraid!

Confidence in God through Christ Jesus

In today’s first reading, 2 Cor. 3: 4-11, St. Paul shares the confidence he has through Christ toward God—a confidence each of us has as well.  God has given us the qualities needed to be ministers of a new covenant, the covenant of the spirit.  Moses was qualified by God as a minister of the letter of the law, the old covenant given on Mount Sinai and written in stone.    The “letter brings death,” Paul tells us. The spirit “gives life.”   The law condemns us. The spirit does not.  We have an example of the latter—the law bringing death—in the Pharisees, whom Jesus confronted many times. Paul himself was practicing a law that brought death to people until his conversion on the way to Damascus.

 

Each of us has a choice to be involved in “the ministry of righteousness,”  or of being a minister of the old covenant,  adhering to the  letter of the law, as did the Pharisees, as did Paul until his conversion, using the law to condemn others. In other words, like the Pharisees and like Paul before his conversion, we can choose to stand on a pedestal of self-righteousness, depleting life instead of giving life.   Or, we can acknowledge the Righteous One as our Savior, who alone justifies and glorifies those who walk humbly with their God (cf Micah 6:8) doing what is right in God's eyes, following the law of the Spirit. That is the confidence of which Paul speaks .

What choice are we making?

Led by the power of the Spirit

In today’s Gospel,   Lk 4: 14-22a,  we are told that “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit” (Lk 4: 14).  When Jesus was baptized, John “saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him” (Mt. 3:16).  Following His baptism, “…Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness” (Mt. 4:1).  In today’s Gospel, Jesus is “lector” at the synagogue service and opens the Scriptures to a verse from Isaiah: 61: 1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me….”  Again, In Mt. 12: 18 Jesus  asked those He healed not to make him known in order to fulfill the prophesy in Is 42:1: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, the favorite of my soul. I will endow him with my spirit,…”  (underscoring mine).

Jesus knows he is God’s servant sent here to fulfill God’s plan for our salvation.  Do I know who I am? Do I recognize that I, too, am a servant of God, upon whom, in Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, the Spirit of God descends, enters into my very being? Do I realize that I, too, have the choice of walking “in the power of the Spirit,” as Jesus did? Or is my heart hardened to the point that I do not recognize God’s Spirit directing me, inviting me to go here, go there, do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t go there or stay here, speak up, remain silent, etc? And if I am not following the Spirit's direction, whose direction am I following?