With the gift of the Holy Spirit, something brand new has happened in the history of humanity. No longer is God merely present in all things as Creator and Sustainer, in a generic way. Now, in every soul that is united to Christ by faith and grace, God is present as friend, guide, and personal companion. Every Christian soul is a Temple where God truly dwells.
There is a story about a Roman soldier from the first centuries of Christianity. He went off on a long military campaign, leaving his wife with child. While he was gone, she gave birth. Soon thereaftr, she converted to Christianity, was baptized, and had her child baptized as well.
Meanwhile, the soldier also met some Christians and heard their explanations of what it meant to be baptized into this new faith. But he was not able to receive baptism before the campaign ended. When he returned home, his wife was overjoyed to see him, but nervous about what his reaction would be to her baptism. She decided to break the news gradually.
First she showed him their child, mentioning in an offhand way that he had been baptized as a Christian. The husband looked shocked and became quiet. He looked again at the child, thoughtfully. Then knelt down beside the crib, he bowed his head, closed his eyes, and, silently, began to pray. His wife was puzzled.
She knelt next to him and asked what he was doing. He looked at her and said, "I am praying to the one, true God, for if our son has been baptized, he has himself become a holy place. Christ the Lord, his Father the Creator of all, and the living Holy Spirit have made their home in his heart, so we can pray to God there."
This is the gift Christ has given us, the prize He won for us on Calvary: the transforming, renewing, life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit within us. Unfortunately, we often forget about this. We often live as if our Christianity were something outside of us, like a membership in a club. That forgetfulness handcuffs God's power in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is polite. He respects our freedom. He chooses to be a guest, not a dictator. He sits in the living room of our souls, loving us, eagerly waiting for us to put away our cell phone, shut down our computer, and pay attention to him for a few minutes, to listen to him, to ask him for guidance and strength. And whenever we do, he is able to increase what is good in us, and cleanse what is bad.
Why don't we pay attention more often? Is his voice really that hard to hear? If it's hard to hear, that's not his fault. He knows how to speak in the depths of our hearts, beyond the need for words. He speaks by inspiring us to choose what is right and good for ourselves and for those around us. We all hear those good inspirations. We know we do.
The problem is, they usually demand some self-sacrifice. They demand following Christ on the way of the Cross in order to have a bigger share in His resurrection. That's why we pretend not to hear. But today the Church reminds us that the peace, meaning, and fruitfulness that we long for, search for, and try to manufacture in a hundred different ways - can only come from following Christ:
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you," Jesus tells us. "Not as the world gives do I give it to
you."
God dwells in our souls, eager to guide us to that peace. Will we trust Him? Will we be docile to His inspirations? To that inspiration He has been insisting on lately?
Today, and everyday let us tell Him that we will.
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