Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Among men, who knows what pertains to the man
except his spirit that is within?
Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God…

Saint Paul alludes to the mysterious depths of human experience as he presents his notion of the Holy Spirit. I say “notion” because the Scriptures do not give us a consistent doctrine of the Holy Spirit. That there is such a mystery called the Holy Spirit is often cited but never defined. The scriptures don’t even refer to the “Holy Spirit” with any consistency. It may be Spirit or fire or blessing or power or logos or innumerable other words.

“Who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?” What really goes on in the mind of your spouse, child or parent? Do you think you know everything there is to know about him or her? Do you know how he feels about work, people, play, prayer, or affection? You might have a pretty good idea of what that person thinks, but where do those thoughts come from? How are they formed?

When I presided over Eucharistic Devotion during our weekend retreats in Minnesota, I would place my prayer bench in front of the altar and sit there for a half hour, as the congregation sat behind me. I kept my eyes closed; a kitchen timer signaled the end of the allotted thirty minutes.

Was I praying? Or was I just waiting out the time? Could anyone tell the difference? Was I sincere in my attempts to lead the contemplation, or just making a show of it?

If someone apologizes to you, is he sorry for what he did? How can you tell? How deep does that remorse run? Will it change his future behavior? What makes you think so – or not?

“Who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?” And even that may not be reliable, for the man may have fooled himself.

In our relations with others we often have to live by faith, and let both satisfaction and disappointment shape our experience of them.

Likewise in our encounter with God we let the Holy Spirit shape our hopes, desires, expectations and beliefs. We cannot know what to believe about God except by a lifetime of experience. A religious tradition teaches us to pay attention to here or there, to expect this or that; but only the Spirit who knows the depths of God can reveal God to us.

Likewise, trusted others within the Church – parents, family, ministers and catechists – offer their own experience of God; but their testimony only raises expectations which God’s spirit might fill.

In the end we live by faith, a mute faith which waits upon God, struggles to find words and longs to prove itself worthy of trust.