To the Ends of the Earth: Witness – Week 8, Day 3 – Only the Breath of God Can Restore the Dead

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 2:1–4 

Just as God breathed his life into the first man, so too, the Holy Spirit breathed life into the first members of Christ’s Church. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word used for “breath” can also mean wind and spirit.¹ God’s Spirit, the Wind that blows wherever it wills (Jn 3:8), breathes life into the hearts of the spiritually dead so that they can turn (or turn back) to salvation. Without the Holy Spirit, animating our souls, we remain like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision.

Because we as Catholic men have received the Spirit, we are living witnesses of God’s life-giving breath in this world. The message of our Catholic faith is simple: Christ alone holds the power of life and death. Just as Adam and Eve were blessed by the Creator to be fruitful and to fill and subdue the earth (Gn 1:28), so too are believers blessed by Jesus’ resurrection power and sent out into the whole world to teach and to share Christ with searching souls until the end of the age (Mt 28:19–20).

Questions for reflection

Where do you see evidence of the Spirit of God moving in your life?

How do you see the Church living out the resurrection power of Christ in a lost world?

How specifically can you breathe a little of God’s life into the heart of another today?

Praying with Scripture

Let all the earth fear the LORD, / let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! / For he spoke, and it came to be; / he commanded, and it stood forth. (Psalm 33:8–9)

^1. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Genesis, Chapter 1, Note [1:2], www.usccb.org/bible/genesis1:327; Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D., “The Holy Spirit in the New Testament,” Electronic New Testament Educational Resources, www.usccb.org/bible/ genesis1:327 (accessed October 8, 2018). See also Daryel A. Nance, “The Hebrew’s beliefs about the nature of God’s Ruah,” www.danwebs.com/ruah/1NaturRuah.html (accessed October 8, 2018).

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