The Promise

-




In the Liturgy this weekend the emphasis changes from looking at the Resurrection and focusing on what is to happen after the Ascension we see the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit the Advocate. In a few weeks’ time we will see the power of the Holy Spirit and how it transforms peoples’ lives.
A few weeks ago a parishioner cam and asked me why the Church never seems to promote or talk about the Holy Spirit. “After all” he said “it hardly ever appears in the Mass.” Although one can be quite dismissive of this statement at first it is true that the Church sometimes has looked upon the Holy Spirit as there but never really spoken about.  I gently reminded him and asked him to look out for the action of the Holy Spirit during the Mass. After Mass he admitted that in fact it is there quite a lot more than he had first thought.  From the opening dialogue to the epiclesis through to the dismissal the Holy Spirit flows through our liturgy.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit is quite difficult to get our heads around. We can know the Father and have an image in our heads. Sometimes this is a man with a big white beard. We can have an image of Jesus and know him in the Scriptures.
 
The word Spirit in the Bible is ruaḥ. This is a feminine word. When we look through the scriptures it has always been there. The Spirit hovered over the water for example in the story of creation.  I like to think of the Holy Spirit as the creative love of God. Jesus promise is that he will never leave us that he will send an Advocate the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit dwells within us given to us at our baptism and confirmed in us at confirmation. It gives us the courage to proclaim God’s love to others.
Now there is a very simple test we can do to see the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Have you ever for example been in a situation when someone is talking to you and you have no idea what to say? Then some words are formed and we think where did that came from? This is the Holy Spirit working within us. It is this dynamic Holy Spirit that helps us all through our lives. So the Lord’s promise to always be with us is a reality. It is always with us at work in the world today.

But we must allow ourselves to be “worked by the Spirit” and be sculpted into the image of God. The Catachesism of the Catholic Church says:
 “Through the Power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ’s passion by dying to sin and in his resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself” (CCC1987)
It seems to me that this is the essence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We become part takers in the divine life and strive our best to die to sin and rise to new life. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit we are slowly transformed to be like Christ. In the scriptures we see this that we are sanctified by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:4)


I wonder how many of our people really believe in this. The gift of the Holy Spirit given to them as their baptism and confirmation. If as we saw at the beginning of this reflection a parishioner could not see it in liturgy how much more difficult will it be for people to see the Holy Spirit at work within themselves especially as we increasingly become aware that there is a lack of knowledge.  Also as I have become aware there is also no easy answers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Year of Service

-
Image
  This last weekend I was able to look back with friends at the wonderful year I had with the Vincentian Volunteers. Looking back I can see that there are many elements to this year that have remained always with me. These I can now see and after reflection have shaped my life since this most formative year. From this year I went on to train for the priesthood and became a priest. After 16 years I left ministry and now try my best to live my Christian values and life in the world. In a recent upgrade to my CV I realised that my whole adult life has been in some sort of service to others and usually to the most vulnerable and those on the fringes of society. From working in Top Shop to ministry to the Hospital to the work I now do in education. This all stems from this year I had with the community and putting Love in action. Yes I have made mistakes on the way and my human frailty has been evident but this life was never going to easy and straight forward.  When I look back on that yea
Read more

Easter

-
Image
  Over the last few years I have had major issues with the Catholic Church. I think that my issue is the authority of the Church and how many clergy, not all, use and abuse their power and class the laity as stupid idiots. I can say this as for 16 years I was a priest and caught up in the system. When you're in the middle of it you can't aways see what is going on around you. I could not see what the Church as a structure was doing to peoples lives. Until I was out I realised that the Church and Im talking about the Catholic Church here is full up of repressed men who are scared of change scared of themselves and scared of the laity. Those who speak out especially clergy who want significant change are laughed at by others and classed as trouble makers. This includes Pope Francis himself who wants change but sometimes can't get it because of what he has inherited. It is an issue that has gone on your centuries.  This does not allow for a healthy functioning Church. There ne
Read more

What have we learnt? Covid and the last year.

-
Image
Over the last year since the start of the Covid pandemic there has been much in the press about the affects on society. We have seen that there are many people who are anxious, feel alone and worried about the future. So I looked on the Internet for the Christian response to the Pandemic. I was not surprised to see that there were many articles to suggest that the Christian Church as a whole has failed in this time.  In the first Lockdown the Churches were asked to close and there was no public worship. As the infection rate went down the Churches could open for private prayer. In the recent lockdown many places of worship have remained open although the infection rate being a lot higher. I have maybe been a thorn in peoples sides by asking why. I even wrote to the Cardinal  to ask him why. I argued that they should be left shut because of the demographic that tend to go. I got a standard reply back. When I looked in newsletters I read many times about how to give your collection and t
Read more