The Season of Eastertide is coming to its final weeks and as it does, we begin to think about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the community of faith. The coming of the Spirit as described in the scriptures shows that its presence is not limited in terms of spatial or temporal reality. Jesus himself spoke in such terms about the Spirit in his conversation with Nicodemus when he said: The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound but cannot tell from where it comes or to where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit. The Book of Wisdom speaks of the Spirit of the Lord filling the whole world and of how it holds all things together, knowing every word spoken by man. All of us therefore, who have through our baptism, been re-born in the Spirit, are endowed with gifts of life in the Spirit and through the action of the Spirit we are called to express such life in all its abundance and beauty.
In the readings from Mass today we are given an insight into how the Spirit will help and assist us in our proclamation of the Gospel. We are to speak about our faith with reason, offering our arguments for why we believe, with courtesy and respect. In such a way the Spirit will guide our words and thoughts to show and demonstrate the truth of what we believe about God and about Jesus Christ, and why we believe it. This advocate, will be alongside us in our task, giving us the knowledge and wisdom, strength and clarity of understanding, to enable the message of the gospel to be sown as a seed that will enlighten those who receive it as they grow in the ways of the truth.
Reading John’s Gospel, you get a sense that the Spirit is pervading every page, every line and every word. When John uses the words completion, fulness, remain, in describing Jesus’ actions you feel the Spirit behind the impact and consequences of those actions, crafting, working and moulding them to provide deeper and more prescient understanding of their meaning and relevance to our world. Each sign has been chosen with care to display the power of the Spirit at work in Jesus. Indeed, John’s purpose in writing his gospel was so that we would be able to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing this, we would have life through his name. It is by the real presence of the Spirit alive in the actions and deeds of Jesus that makes it so.
The Spirit is coming to open our minds to this truth. Let us prepare a good and fulsome welcome for such a bountiful advocate.
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