Monday, May 9, 2016

Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 19:1-8; John 16:29-33)

The paintings of Alice Dalton Brown often depict the Holy Spirit.  They do not show birds or fire but wind and water and sunlight.  They tell us that the Holy Spirit makes life delightful.  They indicate how needy we would be without the Spirit like the disciples whom St. Paul meets at Ephesus in today’s first reading.

Often people consider Christian faith as dreary.  They see some followers of Jesus as joyless.  They wonder if being a disciple of Jesus is just about making costly sacrifices.  Of course, they are wrong.  They need to see that Christians have the Holy Spirit who makes their lives eminently happy.  In the reading when Paul imparts the Spirit, the disciples’ joy is expressed in their becoming ecstatic.  They immediately speak in strange voices like mountain men yodeling.

We too have the Holy Spirit as our greatest gift.  He is God Himself singing, as it were, within us and radiating happiness.  We know that close to God, we are safe from all harm.  We will conquer even death itself.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 19:1-8; John 16:29-33)

The paintings of Alice Dalton Brown stand out for their airiness and lightness. A typical illustration shows a window through which pours sunlight on top and a sturdy wind at its opened bottom. Outside is pictured a pool of water. More than likely the painter is portraying the Holy Spirit that comes in Baptism to enlighten our minds to know Jesus and moves our hearts to love him.

In the reading from Acts today Paul meets some disciples who do not know the Holy Spirit. It has been speculated that these people followed Jesus before he went to Jerusalem that last and fateful time. They realize the need for repentance as Jesus preached. But they lack the grace of the Holy Spirit which turns the need into an unquenchable desire to delve more deeply into relationship with the Lord. Paul, of course, does not allow them to tarry longer. He imparts the Spirit so that they may know the fulfillment of life in Jesus.

It is not impossible that we are like those disciples who do not know the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Spirit has entered into our lives, but have we taken notice of his presence? We have to pray that he touch us again – very deeply this time – that we experience the fullness that Jesus promises his disciples.