Our Living Spirit within us is God

We follow our desires of holiness and forgiveness, not because of anything good we have accomplished, but through the grace God has given to us. Receiving that grace will come from our faith that exists in our belief in God. Here is where the presence of the Holy Spirit, who lives within our being, is actively guiding, accusing our wrong direction, and creating blocks that will keep us safe from failure to sin.

None of this is ours to hold onto and give ourselves credit for receiving from our wilful efforts. Neither can we boast of learning the truth then telling others how we are chosen because of our own doing. The one mistake any of us can produce is to believe we were chosen by God from what we do, and not what we can become. When Jesus, after his Incarnation, chose the twelve, none of them had college degrees, were wealthy from commerce, or were like the Pharisees with all biblical knowledge. He chose men who could learn and not be the know-it-alls. As they grew in grace, they also retained a spiritual inclusion of eternal peace that no man can find without the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The header to this article is not a mistaken use of pronouns. The spirit that lives within each person is Holy and personal and is God. Yet, our spirit is now a real member of the Holy Trinity in the sense of what Jesus asked his Father in the Priestly prayer found in John’s Gospel; “And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” (Jn 17: 22 - 23).

No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now God’s Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who “has spoken through the prophets” makes us hear the Father’s Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and disposes us to welcome him in faith. The Spirit of truth who “unveils” Christ to us “will not speak on his own,” Such properly divine self-effacement explains why “the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him,” while those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them. (CCC 687).

It was no mystery to me when the Spirit used me to depend upon him the morning I forgot my homily. As I wrote before, my homilies were never written, although I was always well-prepared. I preached a homily, never knowing what I said. When getting back home, I looked up and directly asked God, “what are you doing to me?” His answer, clearly and succinctly, “You’re always talking about faith - today I tested yours.”

This became my mantra believing that the Holy Spirit was even speaking through me to prove a point that he is always there to assist us when it is necessary. Today, as I write like being in a pulpit, I know the Spirit is constantly inspiring me to choose words that he wants printed for someone to read. This is what we call trusting in the Lord and never doubting his presence.

Ralph B. Hathaway