We have to continually listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit who always intervenes in our life. And that’s because it is actually the Holy Spirit, more than us, who shapes and directs our life, who deepens, widens, if not purifies and corrects our understanding of things.
This truth of our Christian faith is brought out in that episode in the Acts of the Apostles where St. Peter was made to understand that he was not only meant to work on the Jews, but also on the Gentiles. (cfr. Acts 11,1-18)
We have to be wary that we already know everything and that we are already doing things right because we have studied our faith and have been religiously following a plan of life consisting of many practices of piety, like daily prayers, recourse to the sacraments, etc. That would easily make us fall into a certain state of self-righteousness that would blind us from what God in the Holy Spirit would actually show us.
Let’s always remember that authentic Christian life never puts limits in our concern and love for the others. No matter how undeserving the others may be, we should be willing to bear their errors, sins and offenses, even going to the extent, like Christ, to offer our lives.
For this, we always need the help of the Holy Spirit who actually is constantly intervening in our lives. We just have to train ourselves how to recognize his voice and follow it as promptly as possible.
Christ himself said it very clearly. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (Jn 14,26)
We have to understand that the Holy Spirit perpetuates the presence and redemptive action of Christ all throughout time, with all the drama, vagaries, ups and downs that we men make in our earthly sojourn.
It has been prophesied that God will pour out his Spirit upon all men. The Holy Spirit is intended for all of us. We are all meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But this divine will obviously has to contend with the way we receive and do things, and that is, that we take to this reality in stages involving a whole range of human means of teaching, evangelizing, etc.
We need the Holy Spirit because only in him can we truly recognize Christ. Only in him will we be able to have Christ in our life, to remember all his words and even to develop them to adapt them to our current needs and situations.
Only in him can we see things properly. Especially these days when truth, justice and charity have become very slippery, and people are left confounded and vulnerable to fall into skepticism and cynicism, we need to be in the Holy Spirit to be able to sort things out properly and avoid the mess.
I am amused to note that in today’s political debates, a growing awareness is felt by more and more people that myths and lies, with shreds of truths and facts cleverly inserted, are exchanged. They talk about a surge of fake news. It’s not anymore about what the truth is. It’s more about who is followed more.
This is what happens when we are not in the Holy Spirit and we rely only on our human resources that sooner or later will be twisted and exploited to suit personal or partisan interests, and not anymore the common good.