The Inspiration of the Holy Spirit

Dear Friends,

Happy Pentecost – the feast of the hovering of the Spirit over all of our lives without exception!

Because the Holy Spirit is freely given, we are tempted to believe and to act as though no work on our part is necessary. Wrong! The Spirit can act within us only if we are open to meet and accept the Awakener along the way.

Susan, a cleaner I know at the YMCA, has some handicaps which she could spend her days bemoaning. No bitterness in her. No self-pity. She says her ministry is hugs and encouragement for people she meets. She says she is moved by the Nudge. Just a daily welcome of the people who come her way. I see it in her each time I am at the Y.

I visited Barbara at the hospital last week. She is vastly incapacitated by a stroke, and unable to speak. In 1986, Barbara, who was volunteering at St. Mary’s Church, made me a multi-colored filing system for my homilies and talks. In our recent hospital visit, I told her that I was still using her system to my everlasting gratitude. Her face lit up with an angelic smile. The Spirit led me to her, to say words of gratitude that have been crowded in my heart for all these years. It’s never too late to speak of the gratitude that wells up in us.

How about you? When were you in the right place at the right time? When did you ask the perceptive question and didn’t know it was the right question? When did you act courageously and didn’t know why? When did you speak and have no idea you thought what you voiced? When did you see a person become strong in outlook and action when they had been timid or uninvolved before? Whom have you seen – a public figure or someone you know personally speak and act under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

The Mexican poet Armando Nervo (1870-1919) gives us a picturesque sample of the vast and endless ways the Holy Spirit draws us in if we are willing:

            Alone we are only a spark, but in the Spirit, we are a fire.
            Alone we are only a string, but in the Spirit, we are a lyre.
            Alone we are only an anthill, but in the Spirit, we are a mountain.
            Alone, we are only a drop, but in the Spirit, we are a fountain.
            Alone, we are only a feather, but in the Spirit, we are a wing.
            Alone we are only a fraction, but in the Spirit, we are one with everything.

Without the Holy Spirit, God seems far away, Christ is relegated to the past and there is no message of love to be heard, no compassion to be felt in our day. With the Spirit, the universe is fresh and vital, and all creation is involved in giving birth to the new, the holy. Together, today, let us greet and celebrate the Holy Spirit who rejoices to be one with all creation.

~Sister Joan Sobala