How does the
Spirit dwelling within us transform our world?
Left to
themselves, humans tend toward self-centeredness. We read in the Book of Genesis the story of
Babel, in which the people build an enormous ziggurat, not to deepen their
relationship with God but to make a name
for themselves. The end result? God scatters
them over all the earth, and any hope for union is lost.
Paul recognizes
the dangers of self-centeredness in his epistles to the Corinthians and to the
Romans when he notes that if we remain in
the flesh, self-centered, self-focused, our only concern is what we can
accomplish ourselves, and we will remain disconnected, isolated, separate,
without anything larger that connects us.
But if we drink of the Holy Spirit,
and allow our existence to be defined in terms of God rather than of ourselves,
then it is possible for love to be eternal.
For no one can say, Jesus is
Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Paul also notes that we know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now
– we long for forgiveness, long for redemption, long for union, but have not
yet found them, and so we wait for adoption. But the Spirit allows us to transcend our own
self-centeredness when it intercedes for
us with inexpressible groanings and enables
an ever more full relationship, and union, with God.
All of this is
only possible because Jesus, by his death and resurrection, promised to create
an open passage between God and us, such that, as he says in John’s Gospel, rivers of living water will flow from within
him who believes. This is the work
of the Spirit that those who come to believe
in him were to receive at Pentecost and beyond. Later in this same Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples
in the upper room to transfer his mission to them: As the
Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive
the Holy Spirit. The disciples are thus
tasked with opening the way of salvation to all by going out and loving their
world through a love facilitated by the
Advocate, the Spirit. It is the
Spirit that will allow that love to flow from them, that they might renew the face of the earth (Psalm 104),
fostering union among all peoples. The Pentecost
story as told in the Acts of the Apostles is different, but with the same
ultimate result: the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit, which will
dwell in them and flow from them as they proclaim the mighty acts of God.
We are called to
no less! May we too be filled with the Holy Spirit every single
day, that we might proclaim God’s manifold
works and bring his forgiveness to all, fostering union as God’s love flows from
us to the world.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
