Thirsty for the Holy Spirit

Feast of Pentecost
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

Today we celebrate Pentecost, the last day of the Easter season. Pentecost is the feast day of the Holy Spirit—the day that God’s Spirit came down upon the apostles and the birthday of the church on earth.

The Holy Spirit, of course, is one of the three persons of the Trinity. I think he’s the most mysterious of the three.

God the Father is the person that most people think of as God. I vividly remember having a children’s bible or picture book when I was very young. It showed God with flowing white hair and a beard to match. He sat on a throne and looked very majestic… both intimidating and grandfatherly at the same time. I could relate to that, and that mental image remains with me to this day.

And Jesus, of course—the Second Person of the Trinity—is easy for us to visualize, because besides being divine, he’s human like us. He has a face like us, talks like us, has emotions and feelings like us… except that he’s perfect in every way. The times that I get upset about things in the Church, I try to remember that the human beings who lead and serve the Church—and the human beings who occupy the pews in our churches… none of us are perfect. That perfection is reserved to Jesus Christ. Maybe that’s why even the popes, who can at times exercise their papal office with infallibility, have used that power so few times in 2000 years that you can count them on the fingers of one hand… and only for things that are so well established and widely believed and undisputed, that they’re for all intents and purposes self-evident. Just about everything else always has nuance.

But the Holy Spirit—the Third Person of the Trinity! Now there’s a mystery beyond all mysteries!

The Holy Spirit is the embodiment of God who dwells in our soul. No disrespect, but it’s not like we have to fix up our heart with a tiny La-Z-Boy recliner or a high-definition TV…or stock the fridge with his favorite snacks and drinks! No, the Holy Spirit is a perfect guest—and God’s absolutely free gift to us—and what a gift he is!

Some of us might find it disconcerting, maybe even creepy, to think about, but the fact of the matter is, we live in a world that is more spiritual than physical. As impossible as it is to gauge, if I were pressed, I would say that our world is 90% spiritual and just 10% physical. We focus so predominantly on the physical, because as earthbound creatures, we are tied to the physical: we’ve got to eat, and stay warm, and look out for our health, and earn a living, and have a place to live, and so on and so forth. But when we pass out of this life into eternal life, those physical things won’t matter any more and we’ll see reality as it really is.

Before man’s fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve didn’t worry about the physical things either. God took care of everything. And that’s how it will be again.

Yet now, in our present state, God continues to take care of everything—just, we may not always realize it. In the spiritual realm, we are constantly being barraged by dangers and temptations and yes, evil spirits. But the Holy Spirit watches out for us by strengthening us against these onslaughts. Remember, the devil’s program to take down the human race is an ongoing effort. He won’t quit until the end of the world. The Holy Spirit is our protector. And frankly, we can’t begin to get enough of his help!

I was reading a spiritual reflection the other morning, and the author said that we should graciously accept God’s gift of the Holy Spirit because (quote) “we have no right to selfishly refuse God and his gift.”

I thought about that and shook my head. No. Don’t “guilt” me into accepting a gift from anybody, including God. Maybe it’s my old advertising training, but sell me the benefits rather than try to ram something down my throat!

Last week in my homily, I said that Jesus wanted the apostles to go out all over the world and preach the good news to all creation. I also said that the Lord realized that it wouldn’t be easy to sell salvation, because people can be afraid or stubborn or skeptical. Well, here it is again!

Do you want the Holy Spirit? You see, that’s the first question you must ask yourself. In St. John’s gospel, Jesus says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit…” (Jn 7: 37-39).

So, I ask again: are you thirsty? Do you wish you could have a closer friendship and more intimate relationship with God? Is your life partially or totally a mess, and you know it’s going take more than dumb luck or human power to fix things? These are signs that God the Holy Spirit is knocking softly at your door, asking if you’ll let him in.

The beauty of the Holy Spirit is that you don’t have to tell him how to solve the issues in your life. He doesn’t need your specs or blueprint… or even your ideas and suggestions. I love Paul’s words in his letter to the Romans: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will (Rom 8: 26-27).

In other words, all you need to do—ALL you need to do—is pray: God, come into my life. God, help me.

May that be our joyful, hopeful prayer—for ourselves and for the whole world—on this, the great feast of Pentecost. Or in the beautiful, mystical and beloved words of the Church:

Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Amen! Alleluia!