I think the Holy Spirit is the least understood person of the Trinity. God the Creator, Jesus the Christ - we can imagine by virtue of the relationship between them something of their “persons”. The Spirit seems so much more nebulous, intangible. I read a book on the Spirit once called, “The Left Hand of God.” I loved the title – so clever. If Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, well, then…
To dwell on the Spirit is really to dwell on a very great mystery. Jesus had to leave the world physically to be more powerfully, intimately with us in the Spirit. The Ascension left the apostles in confused grief but Pentecost brought a new mode of relationship – an even deeper experience of his risen love.
Where you are not we have naught. This line from the Pentecost sequence has lodged somewhere in my heart. In it there is a truth about the Holy Spirit. Freed from the confines of human flesh, the Spirit of Jesus can be everywhere – reach every human heart. The Spirit of Jesus permeates all life and dwells particularly in the souls of the baptized. The Spirit is the source of our desire to pray and the giver of peace. Perhaps we have trouble understanding the Holy Spirit because without the Spirit’s presence we would not even wonder or question or seek. So deep in us is the Spirit’s home – so holy our flesh as her temple. If we could see the Holy Spirit, it would be like seeing the air we breathe or counting each heartbeat.
Jesus said, “I will be with you always until the end of time.” The Spirit is the fulfillment of that promise. The Spirit carries the Church in its brokenness – assures Christ's mission of compassionate love will succeed in spite of our sins and blunders. The Spirit has no voice but ours. As the Church moves forward toward some day of great wholeness and wonder – the reign of God – may we each reverence the voice of the Spirit in the events of our lifetime, in the moments of great clarity within each of us and, most especially, in the faithful who bear the wounds of the Lord in this day and age. There is a breeze blowing…a wind gathering strength in the Church. It is the breath of God hovering over our chaos – making something beautiful and good. For nothing, nothing is impossible for God.
- Sister Vicki
