Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

Paul’s Conversion: January 25th

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Caravaggio, Conversion of Paul

Our yearly church calendar celebrates saints from every age and place because saints are examples of God’s grace present always and everywhere. But some saints are singled out in the liturgy for their importance. One is St. Paul the Apostle, whose dramatic conversion is celebrated on January 25th. His martyrdom, along with Peter, is celebrated June 29th and we read extensively from his writings throughout the church year.

An account of Paul’s conversion ( Acts 22: 3-13) – one of three found in the Acts of the Apostles – is read first at his feast day Mass. St. Luke devotes much of the Acts to Paul’s  missionary journeys ending in Rome. In Mark’s gospel for the feast, Jesus, appearing to this disciples after his resurrection, tells them to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16: 15-18)  

Paul fulfilled that command of Jesus. He writes to the Corinthians: 

“I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the others: or rather, not I but the grace of God that is with me. (  1 Corthinians 15:9-10)

St. Paul is an example of how far we can rise, from the depths to the heights, and for that reason the church celebrates his conversion.  Paul never forgot that God’s grace raised him from the dust to become  a powerful force in his church and in the world. Paul never forgot he was a Pharisee, intent on eradicating the followers of Jesus who became one of his most loyal disciples. His conversion gave him a boldness that carried him fearlessly to the ends of the earth 

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  Jesus says to him from a blinding light. From that meeting Paul received the gift of faith and a mission to bring faith to the gentile world. He never forgot the moment he was blinded by a light that made him see.

  

“Paul, more than anyone else, has shown us what we really are, and in what our nobility consists, and of what virtue a human being is capable. Each day he aimed ever higher; each day he rose up with greater ardour and faced with new eagerness the dangers that threatened him. He summed up his attitude in the words: I forget what is behind me and push on to what lies ahead. When he saw death imminent, he bade others share his joy: Rejoice and be glad with me! And when danger, injustice and abuse threatened, he said: I am content with weakness, mistreatment and persecution. These he called the weapons of righteousness, thus telling us that he derived immense profit from them… ” ( St. John Chrysostom)                                                                                             

O God, who taught the whole world

through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul,

draw us, we pray, nearer to you

through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today,

and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

The Spirit Works in Green Time

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Green is the liturgy’s color for ordinary time. Not white, the bright light of Eastertime, or red the color of blood and fire. or purple the color of penance. Green is earth’s color, color of slow growing trees and grasses, of ordinary time.

An unknown 4th century spiritual writer describes the ordinary ways the Holy Spirit works in us. “In varied and different ways” invisible grace leads us. Ordinary time doesn’t mean that every day’s the same.  Sometimes we find ourselves sad at the state of things; sometimes we joyfully hold the whole world in our arms. Sometimes we feel helpless; sometimes we think there’s nothing we can’t do. Sometimes we’re brave; sometimes we escape into the supposed safety of ourselves looking for peace.

“… The soul becomes like any other human being.” Which means, I guess, that we don’t feel spiritual at all.

Far from taking us away from the human condition, the Spirit leads us by human steps in human time. Ordinary time is the natural roller-coaster of life, all right, but the Spirit leads us on.

That’s why the psalms are such wonderful prayers. They’re the great prayers of ordinary time. They take us from one human experience to another. If you don’t experience what a certain psalm describes, wait awhile–you will.

Green is the Season

Green is the season after Pentecost.
The Holy Ghost in an abstracted place
spreads out the languid summer of His peace,
unrolls His hot July.
O leaves of love, O chlorophyll of grace.
Native to all is this contemplative summer.
The soul that finds its way through Pentecost
knows this green solitude at once as homeland.
Only the heart, earth held and time engrossed,
dazed by this unforeknown and blossoming nowhere,
troubles itself with adjectives like “lost.”

Jessica Powers, 1954

Like a Dove

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The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus at his baptism in the form of a dove, the gospels say. Scholars like Luke Timothy Johnson in his commentary on St. Luke’s gospel seem puzzled by the description. What’s the explanation?  “Such is the nature of symbols–all are possible,” Johnson writes.

May I hazard an explanation? Doves are regular visitors at my window and at our bird-feeder outside. I notice how confident and unafraid they seem to be, so different from the nervous sparrows flitting from place to place. As far as I can see, the doves are without the usual signs of power, sharp talons and strong wings. What’s their secret?

St. Gregory of Nyssa seems to point to a fearless love in his Commentary on the Song of Songs:

“When love has entirely cast out fear, and fear has been transformed into love, then the unity brought by our Savior will be realized, for all will be united with one another through their union with the supreme Good. They will possess the perfection ascribed to the dove, according to our interpretation of the text “one alone is my dove, my perfect one.”

A fearless, humble love, unafraid of chaos, brings peace. Is that why Noah chose the dove to go into the world engulfed by the flood and not a lion or an eagle? Such is the nature of symbols–all explanations are possible. We could use that kind of fearlessness today, couldn’t we?

Behind the Chair of St. Peter in the Vatican Basilica in Rome, the artist Bernini created a beautiful alabaster window where a steady light pours into the dark church through the image of the Holy Spirit, in the hovering form of a dove. Light is also a favorite sign of the Holy Spirit.

Day by day, the light comes quietly through the window. Day by day, the Holy Spirit dispenses light for the moment, graces for the world that is now. As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit dwells with us, his final gift.

The Feast of Pentecost is this Sunday.

The Spring Rains Come

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 April showers. Spring rains.

Cyril of Jerusalem has a wonderful sermon on water that he preached to catechumens centuries ago. Here are a couple of lines:

“Water comes down from heaven as rain, and although it is always the same itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, another in the vine, and so on throughout the whole of creation. It does not come down, now as one thing, now as another, but while remaining essentially the same, it adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it.”

The saint goes on to say that just as water adapts itself to every creature, the Holy Spirit gives life to each one according to its needs and to benefit the common good. The Spirit’s coming is gentle, not felt as a burden, with tenderness, as a true friend, to save, heal, counsel, strengthen and console.

So back to spring rains. Will they come this year?  The magnolia trees outside my room testify they’ve come, and the other trees and plants in our garden testify too. The rain falling on the earth does what it always does. Like the Spirit of God, water brings life.

And it brings life to all the varied plants, all shapes, all sizes, even some we might think useless or poisonous. Might we learn from the spring rains?

Send the spring rains, Lord, on our varied earth and human family.

Kingdom of the Little Ones

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Fra Angelico, Coronazione delle Vergine (1435)

Deuteronomy 7:6-11, 1 John 4:7-16, Matthew 11:25-30

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

“God is Love.”

Like an owl squinting in sunlight, the eyes of humankind open gradually to the truth of who we are as a people and who God is. “You are a people sacred to the Lord,” Moses told the Israelites. Bending to the weakness of human mistrust, God made an “oath,” a covenant with his people, though Jesus would later exhort them not to swear at all. No gap lies between a divine word and its fulfillment, after all. The oath was for Israel, not for God.

The engagement between God and his people was also very fuzzy, like a picture out of focus. The “I AM” of the burning bush was personal, but faceless. “No one has ever seen God,” and yet, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus said (John 1:18; 14:9). 

The identity of the mysterious YHWH began to focus a little bit more as Jesus shared with his disciples the heart of the Father, and promised to send them the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. 

As God’s identity was revealed, Israel’s began to sharpen into some clarity. God is not only One, but Three. Israel, the precursor of the Church, is not only a people, but persons. 

Moses consecrated Israel as a “sacred people,” a nation set apart. The Holy Spirit consecrated the disciples as unique persons when he descended upon each one with a distinct tongue of fire.

“Love” is not an abstraction, but a concrete reality with concrete faces—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each unique person baptized by the Spirit in one Body of Christ. The finite and the infinite, the created and the uncreated are united in communion in a way beyond conceptual grasp.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Anne, St. Joachim, the Holy Innocents, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. John, St. James (son of Zebedee), St. James (son of Alpheus), St. Andrew, St. Philip, St. Bartholomew, St. Thomas, St. Matthew, St. Simon, St. Jude, St. Matthias, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Paul, St. Barnabas, St. Timothy, St. Titus, St. Priscilla, St. Aquila and all the saints to the present day each shine with unique splendor in heavenly communion.

The eternally young, ever-begotten Son of the Father who became the microscopically small son of Mary with a tiny beating heart invites us to become little with him. Mysteries that elude the “wise and the learned” are revealed to “little ones.” 

-GMC

A Summary of Pentecost

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Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

When the Holy Spirit descends,
Fearful fishermen
Become fearless preachers.
Tongues of fire
Replace the babble of Babel,
Uniting in Christ
What Adam fragmentized.

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,”
Except by the Spirit,
And it is the Spirit who cries out,
“Abba, Father!”

One Spirit,
Many gifts.
One Body,
Many parts.
One Christ,
Many brethren.
One Father, 
Many children.
One communion,
Many persons.

Locked doors 
And fearful hearts
Cannot bar Love
With pierced hands and side
Bringing peace, joy,
And life eternal.

“As the Father has sent me,
So I send you.”
With the breath of the Spirit
Bring back to life
Those dead in sin.
With the power of the keys
Comes great responsibilities.

-GMC

The Eyes of the Heart

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Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:17-23,  Matthew 28:16-20

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”

Both at the empty tomb and at the Ascension in Luke’s writings, two men dressed in white suddenly appear and ask, “Why?” Heaven seems to be amused in these scenarios. 

Jesus defies death and now gravity as well. In the forty days between these two astonishing events he also popped in and out of spaces, walked through walls, and effected a miraculous catch of fish. In the face of such wonders, it is rather amusing that the disciples’ parting words are, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

With infinite patience Jesus redirects them to the source of true power and authority. In the space of a novena, they will receive “the promise of the Father” when the Holy Spirit will come upon them, giving them grace and strength to be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth.” 

The fire of the Holy Spirit is necessary because seeing is not always believing. In the Gospel of Matthew today, the eleven disciples gathered at the mountain in Galilee saw Jesus but doubted. 

Empirical evidence is apparently weak when it comes to matters of the spirit. Spirit must ignite spirit to open the eyes of the heart. 

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,” St. Paul prays for the Ephesians, “that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call…”

Jesus will return in the same way as he ascended, we are told by the heavenly visitors. They leave us in suspense.

-GMC

One Day at a Time

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6th Week of Easter, Wednesday

John 16:12-15

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

With the coming of the Messiah, Israel has been stretched far beyond its comfort zone. What words can express the mystery of God’s hidden, inner communion now being manifested to the chosen people? 

The “Spirit of truth… will take from what is mine and declare it to you… Everything that the Father has is mine.” In these enigmatic statements, Jesus intimates that the Three Divine Persons are of one mind. The truth that the Spirit imparts is one and the same truth possessed by the Father and the Son.

Thus, the Spirit “will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.”

All time is present to the Spirit, for whom a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The new Israel, like the old, will continue its pilgrimage with the Lord one day at a time. With the gentle and patient guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mysteries possessed by the Triune Lord will be revealed in gradual steps. 

-GMC

The Father’s Plan

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6th Week of Easter, Tuesday

John 16:5-11

“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

The One who sent Jesus sees all the generations before and after Christ as one Body in need of reunion and restoration. Yet one earthly life lasts but a brief span. How will the mission be completed after Christ’s resurrection?

In the Father’s plan, persons born again in the Spirit will perpetuate the life of Christ on earth, bringing it to completion. This new life in grace would cause St. Paul to exclaim, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Such a close union was not experienced even by the disciples during Jesus’ entire earthly sojourn. A deeper, more interior union and communion needed to be effected.

“And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation…”

From east and west, north and south—every tribe, nation, people and tongue—the Advocate will convict human persons of the truth of Jesus Christ, of his eternal Sonship, and of the futility of a world separated from the Father. 

In the fire of the Holy Spirit, the second Adam, with all of his brethren gathered into one, will reopen the Paradise of personal communion in the heart of the Father. Eternity begins in time, in each human heart.

-GMC

The Spirit of Truth

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Simon Ushakov, Last Supper, 1685

6th Week of Easter, Monday

John 15:26-16:4a

At the nexus between heaven and earth, the Son and the Spirit orchestrate our grand return to the Origin. From the Father and to the Father, the Holy Spirit conceived the Son in the womb of the Virgin. By baptism “with the Holy Spirit and with fire,” He now conceives the Son in the hearts of human persons, commencing their return to the Womb of the Father. 

“When the Advocate comes… 

Or Paraclete, Counselor, Comforter, Intercessor, Strengthener… “he will testify to me. And you also testify…” 

As one, synergistic team. The Holy Spirit does not testify apart from us, nor we apart from Him. 

The apostles have a special role to play “because you have been with me from the beginning.” 

The transition from the Old Covenant to the New will be filled with turbulence as centuries-old traditions violently resist change. 

“They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.” Religious zeal, as in the case of St. Paul before his conversion, may be sincerely wrong.

“They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.” The apostles, too, need to be strengthened in this truth in order to give it to others.

Before Pentecost, the disciples may feel like “orphans,” but when the Advocate comes—“the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father”— they will know with certainty, in union with the Son, that they have a Father in heaven.

-GMC