Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 293

He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me....

 I f God the Father is the most familiar of the three persons in the Trinity, and Jesus is the most approachable for being one like us in all things but sin, the Holy Spirit remains as the most mysterious. And the one who shrouds our knowledge of God in mystery lest we think we have God figured out. 

And yet the Holy Spirit is the one who brings the mystery of God to us, and the one who draws us into the presence of God. The Spirit of Jesus opens our minds to understand God's Word, and especially how we might live gracefully by his word in the present world with our limited understanding, Barred from eating the fruit which would give us a comprehensive knowledge of Good and Evil, we must rely on the Spirit's counsel, guidance, and forbearance. Very often, when we misread all the signs, zigging when we should zag, because we mean well, the Spirit of God makes things right. 

I have sometimes compared the Holy Spirit to team spirit, as in athletics or business. An enthusiastic pastor may inspire a parish or diocese to explore new ways to announce the Gospel, or revive old devotions that had become hackneyed through idle repetition. The comparison may be apt, but we should remember there is an impassible gap between heaven and earth, between divinity and humanity. 

The Holy Spirit reveals himself especially through the martyrs who speak while others remain silent and obstruct when others go along to get along. A hostile world may recognize that challenging, obnoxious spirit even when the devout do not, and take steps to suppress it. The Church might recognize the martyr's integrity and fidelity only in retrospect. As Jesus said,

The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

Saint Paul also reminds us of the crucial difference: 

For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want. (Galatians 5:17)  

 

And so the Church, and every faithful member, humbly begs the Spirit to lead us through the darkness of this world. We are easily misled by things we consider good, but we cannot see the long  term consequences of every action, nor can we manage the mischief of human desire. Rather we beg the Lord to keep his promise of sending us the Spirit from his place beside God the Father.