Come, Holy Spirit

1. OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATIONS

In planning these presentations, I plotted out many organizational schemes, most of them developing the topic in a rather logical, systematic manner. While it’s certainly possible to present the material in this manner, after awhile it just didn’t feel right. When I studied my reactions, what I noticed was that my own experience and education concerning the Holy Spirit has been anything but straightforward through the years. I was reminded of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, where he states, “the wind blows where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes; so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit.” (Jn. 3: 8)

What I’ve learned from this passage through the years is that the Spirit works with us on many levels at once, and that it’s generally impossible to “organize” what’s going on into systems and stages without considerably distorting the reality. That’s kind of what it’s felt like writing these conferences as well: inspirations and enthusiasm for one aspect of life in the Spirit would come at one point, then something seemingly unrelated would follow. Things just didn’t flow in an orderly manner, so I finally quit trying to force things into that mold. If Jesus says that no one can predict where those born of the Spirit come from and where they go, then how much more the kinds of thought processes prompted by the Spirit?

This is not a bad thing, however, for while the Spirit doesn’t seem to be opposed to reasoning and logical approaches, She’s not especially enamored of them either. She (and I use the feminine pronoun as it resonates with several Old Testament references to the Spirit) seems to much prefer working on many levels at once, and of keeping one just a little off-balance in the process. Control is not a high priority for Her, but organization that enhances creativity is. Problem is, sometimes, we mistake the former for the latter and that’s what I don’t want to do in these conferences.

So I will jump around a bit—actually, a lot. If it doesn’t hang together or seem to flow from one thing to the next, well, trust your perception, for it will be correct! Nevertheless, I am confident that, on the whole, we will cover the relevant topics and explore the important issues. If you find me negligent in an area, you can always bring it up on the discussion forum and, hopefully, find a helpful response there.

Opening Statement and Conclusions

This opening statement is a good example of what I was referring to above. It’s an introduction to the topic and a concluding statement as well. Everything that follows in the conferences to come will elaborate on this opener, to some extent. In a way this is good, I think, for you’ll know from the start where I’m coming from and where I’m going. You can relax and enjoy the process and the study the material; hopefully, you will also contribute by sharing your own thoughts and experiences on the forum. So here we go . . .

It’s pretty clear from the witness of the New Testament that the gift of the Holy Spirit is what makes it possible to live a Christian life. The Christian “way” is never presented as a matter of learning Christ’s teaching and using one’s mind and will to conform to his values. Without the Holy Spirit, living the life that Christ taught through word and example is not considered possible.

Amazingly, it seems that the Christian life is often presented today as a kind of philosophy or system of values that Jesus modeled perfectly. Little mention is made of the Holy Spirit, or if it is, this is only understood symbolically—as in some kind of “spirit” of Christian love. A case in point, here, would be a conversation I had recently with the head of a religious community. We were talking about the meaning of the life of Christ and he said that, for him, the primary meaning was to reveal to us God’s loving nature. That’s true, of course, but when I asked if that was the main thing, to him, he said that it was. “What more do we need than to know that God is love?” he stated, rhetorically.

The answer to this question is what we need is POWER. It’s not enough for us to know that Jesus was the incarnate Son of God who died for our sins and revealed to us the values that really matter. We need the power to live the kind of life he revealed and taught, and that’s what the Spirit makes possible. In fact, it’s not stretching things at all to say that one of the main reasons Jesus came was to bless us with the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s true that he also came to break the hold of evil and sin, but without the gift of the Holy Spirit, the human race would have fallen right back into its old ways. That is why Jesus said; “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn. 16: 7). Certainly, it was good that Jesus came, but even Jesus says that it is better that he go so that he could send the Spirit. Somehow, his death, resurrection and ascension opened the way for the Spirit to be showered on the whole human race in a way that did not exist before his coming. (We will reflect more deeply on this mystery during a future conference.)

As breath is to the human body, regulating its operations and rhythms, so is the Holy Spirit to Christ’s Mystical Body. The Spirit “breathes” the divine life into us and “engineers” a transformative process that changes us from cancer cells in the cosmos to living cells in the Body of Christ. This process—the spiritual journey—is nothing we could accomplish using our own will, intelligence and behavior; it is pure gift, and it is given to all people who belong to Christ either through implicit or explicit faith. All that the Spirit needs from us in order to accomplish this work is our ongoing cooperation in living a life of love and a commitment to spiritual discipline, especially prayer. The rest is a work of grace.

As cells in the Body of Christ, we each have a contribution to make unto growing and maintaining the life of the Body. To accomplish this, the Spirit blesses every individual with charisms, or spiritual gifts, to be used for the good of others. These gifts might be similar to what we can do with our natural talents, but often they are not. Some people, for example, can’t really carry on a good conversation with others, but put them in a position to preach the Word of God and amazing things come from their lips! Through the exercising of spiritual charisms, we grow in the Spirit and we help to build up the Christian and human communities around the world. It seems to be the delight of the Spirit to move people to form communities and it seems to be our joy as well to belong to a Spirit-filled community. As we all know, however, finding such a community is sometimes difficult; the local Christian parish or congregation is often little different from any other kind of secular gathering, and I think this grieves the Spirit greatly.

We can grow in the Spirit and become more attuned to the Spirit’s direction and influence in our lives. We can also learn to better identify and develop our spiritual gifts; we will address these possibilities in sessions to come. Finally, we can learn more about Who the Spirit Is and how She relates to Christ and the Father in the story of creation and redemption. That will be part of our study in the weeks ahead as well, and I think it can help us to come to a deeper love of God. As Frank Sheed once put it, the more we learn about God, the more reasons we have to love God.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. What kinds of thoughts and feelings were awakened in you from this conference? What questions?
2. What is it you hope to learn during this series?