Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Lectionary: 297

He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”
They answered him “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

Now there’s a scary thought! Some Christians have “never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Perhaps, given the illusive nature of this undefinable doctrine, they can be forgiven for not knowing the Third Person of the Trinity.

Saint Luke is particularly troubled that some baptized persons do not know the Holy Spirit. It is a constant presence in his duology, the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles.

Who would Jesus be to us without his Holy Spirit? He might be an interesting historical figure, a contemporary of Caesar Augustus, Suetonius and Virgil. Scholars of Jewish history might recall his name from their reading of Josephus. They might even – and this is a stretch – compare his opinions with those of Gamaliel and his famous disciple, Saul of Tarsus.

To most people Jesus of Nazareth without the Holy Spirit would be a nonentity, one man among many wasted in the long tragedy of human history. His death on a cross between two other criminals, were it to appear in a dusty, ancient manuscript, would record the death of three criminals. At best, his resurrection would be an old joke, like the appearances of Elvis Presley and the Czarina Anastasia.

The Holy Spirit is the life of the Church; it is the breath of Jesus that still animates his Body. We know the Lord only because his Spirit moves in us.

A flood of words cannot describe the works of the Holy Spirit. We can speak of healings physical, mental, spiritual, social, familial, cultural and financial. We can speak of wisdom acquired by scholarship, schooling and hard experience. We might speak of institutions, their founding and maintenance; and of revolutions, their origins and persistence. Nor can we neglect the creatio ex nihilo from the stellar Big Bang to the latest, microscopic MRSA. The Holy Spirit creates beauty and gives us the senses to apprehend beauty. It reveals horror and gives us the sense of revulsion. Have I cited the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church yet? There is no end to this reflection.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest, and in our hearts take up thy rest. Come with thy grace and heavenly aid, to fill the hearts which thou hast made; to fill the hearts which thou hast made.