Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

Lectionary: 212 

We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

In today's first reading, Saint John offers a way of knowing whether we the Church are being led by the Holy Spirit or a lesser spirit like fear, greed, or ambition. 

He begins with the insistence that we are set apart from other people; we are guided by the Holy Spirit and they are not. In the first paragraph of the reading, Saint John lists several of our distinctive traits: 

• we receive from him whatever we ask
• we keep his commandments, and 
• do what pleases him;
• we believe in the name of his son;
• we love one another as he commanded us;
• we remain in him, and he remains in us,
• and finally, "we know that he remains in us because of the Spirit whom he gave us."

Throughout the New Testament, from the appearances of Gabriel to the catholic epistles, the disciples of Jesus felt the palpable presence of the Holy Spirit. When Saint Peter commanded the crippled man to rise and walk he was just as certain as Jesus was when he drove out demonic spirits. He knew this was what God wanted him to do and he acted in obedience. 

This knowing is not like a keen grasp of the facts, which is important and helpful. It is more like the assurance of the fellow who has received the blessing of his betrothed's parents before approaching the altar. 

It is the readiness of an athlete to play the game or a soldier to engage the enemy. "Win or lose, this is the right place and the right time and I am here to do it!" It is the confidence of the parent who knows this child has no other parent and must listen to and obey them. 

It is authority to proclaim, teach, heal, counsel, or challenge. Whatever the circumstances and the moment warrant. 

A history of the church could be written of the challenges of the spirit; it would be a story of change and turbulence, of institutions rising and falling. 

The Spirit of God will always be met and challenged by other spirits, especially those of pride, ignorance, and fear. Factions in the Church will claim their apparent authority and be challenged by authority. 

Saint Francis of Assisi and his disciples prayed continually for guidance of the Holy Spirit even as they recognized the rightful authority of bishops and the pope. If they met resistance upon entering a diocese, they backed away and waited for an invitation to return. Which came when the same Spirit had prepared the bishop to receive them. Hundreds of new congregations, societies, and sodalities have been formed in the history of the church with the blessings of the bishops, although those blessings rarely came easily or immediately. You'll remember the reluctance of the Bishop of Mexico city to build a chapel until he saw the spectacular image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

"Test every spirit!" Saint John urges the Church and we do that instinctively. I have dealt with a few nut cases who declared they were inspired by God and were, for that reason, exempt from ecclesiastical authority. Their stubborn defiance and angry outbursts torpedoed their credibility. But those incidents do not disprove the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. 

We must pray daily for the humility to be obedient before the Spirit that governs, guides, and protects our Church in every age and every place. No Christian is exempt from the authority of that divine presence. God gives us the self-respect to speak our minds, express our desires, and share our dreams. So long as we love one another we know the Trinity abides in our hearts.