It is easy to recognize people who take the Holy Spirit’s lead. There is joy dancing in their eyes and there is peace in the timbre of their voices. Their actions and directions deflect from destruction (of themselves and others), but point towards authenticity and “life-giving truth.”
In last Sunday’s homily, our affable parish priest deadpanned: “Today is the birthday of the Catholic Church”. I felt myself stiffening and chanting, please, please don’t make us sing Happy Birthday. He didn’t, thank goodness. He did say though, that Pentecost Sunday remembers the huddle of men and women who received the Holy Spirit, began the Church and transformed the world. Today’s gospel reading continues in the same vein. In the gospel of John, it proclaims that Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”
It all seems so dramatic and surreal, with the imprinted imagery of “tongues of fire” hovering over our heads. Yet, it is more common and everyday than we think. We receive the Holy Spirit during the Sacrament of Confirmation, and the sacramental grace to profess our faith in the different paths that we take in our life. And so it makes sense, actually, that Catholics in the Philippines are required to have received the Sacrament of Confirmation before receiving the Sacrament of Matrimony. Yes, Bridezilla and Willing Accomplice a.k.a. Groom, this is much more than a box to tick off on your To-Do list for your wedding. In receiving Confirmation, you are bestowed with the Holy Spirit to be a man or a woman who will constantly do “the best thing for the other person”. Over. Your. Own. Comfort. And in the fortunate case that you have children, you choose to be responsible for the lives of teeny tiny persons until they themselves can be responsible for themselves. (Still interested? I digressed here for a bit, but we are nearing the marrying month of June and it just needs to be said.)
In the daily motion of our lives, we can be in constant touch with the Holy Spirit as well. Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit works first through the Scriptures and we learn how to act by reading about the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. Lectio Divina, which is Latin for ‘sacred reading’ is a centuries-old tradition that can be done everyday, in the comforts of your home, for about half an hour a day. (https://lectio-divina.org) That’s pretty much the daily time we spend Facebooking and Twittering.
Discernment seems to be a word and a practice that is entering mainstream vocabulary. Fr. James Martin, S.J. in his recent article for Time magazine (https://ideas.time.com/2013/03/11/does-the-holy-spirit-choose-the-pope/), has a succinct definition of it. He calls it the “process of listening to the Holy Spirit”. In making decisions through discernment, we listen to the inner voice that gives us “a sense of hope” and we “ignore what leads us to despair”. The Holy Spirit helps us make decisions that are free of worry and guilt.
And this is why we, as Christians believe that every life is significant, every life is intended and every life is purposeful. We believe that every life is a vessel of the Spirit – who transforms, who empowers, who is God.