The Holy Spirit is rightly called the Sweet Guest of our souls because He is the loving God of power and consolation dwelling within us. Yet He is also called the Great Unknown because we do not know Him as much as we should. He is the powerful guest with us and within us always, yet we often fail to remember Him.
Because we do not know the Holy Spirit, our lives cannot be pleasing to God. St. Paul writes to Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). When we are ignorant of the Spirit within us, we lack the courage and strength to be faithful in the face of difficulties and challenges in our world. We cannot make good decisions and maintain our focus on God and His will for us in times of great emotional turmoil. We are easily overcome by our fears because our love is weak.
Therefore, the first thing we must do is not simply multiply our spiritual practices: receive more sacraments, accumulate more prayers, or read the bible more. Our first task is to deepen our relationship, to know the Spirit well so that we can respond to His movements in our spiritual practices and daily choices. He is the one who makes us good, inspires us to do good out of love for God, and makes our efforts supernaturally effective. He will direct and guide us in our religious and spiritual practices so that we experience His powerful life and love through them.
Our lives are pleasing to God and beneficial to others only when we know the Spirit as we should and do all things under His gentle impulse. Here are six truths to know about the Holy Spirit at all times if we are to glorify God with our lives.
1. Spirit of Sanctity
By the abiding presence and power of the Spirit, we belong to God as His beloved children, and we participate in His holiness. Our identity as God’s beloved children does not depend on our performance, experiences, or conditions in this life.
The Holy Spirit sanctifies us and moves us to live truly holy lives. We have this hope of holiness through the Spirit.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope based on Him makes himself pure as He is pure. (1 Jn. 3:2-3)
By the power of the Spirit, we too can be truly holy in this impure world. We can please God in our thoughts, words, and deeds by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can no longer excuse ourselves from striving for personal sanctity because of the sinfulness of our world or the temptations to conform to the world.
2. Spirit of Love
In the words of St. Paul, God has generously poured His love into our hearts: “The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). We can enter into and participate in that very love between the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
By the presence of the Spirit, we are always and unconditionally loved by God. Are we living as God’s beloved sons and daughters? Are we still living in fear while possessing that “perfect love that casts away fears” (1 Jn. 4:18)? Are we confident in the love that God has for us, no matter our experiences in life?
Do we also realize that, by possessing the Spirit of love, we can also be truly loving people who love God and others as Jesus did? We, too, can and should love, pray, serve, obey, forgive, and endure like Jesus because we have His Spirit of love within us.
3. Spirit of Truth
Jesus assures us that the Spirit will “guide us to all truth” (Jn. 16:13). He will teach us truth about God, ourselves, and others, and how we are to live out our relationship with Him. The very first words that the disciples spoke after receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost were the truth about God and His deeds in Jesus; “We hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God” (Acts 2:11).
What is our attitude towards truth today? Have we fallen for the rampant relativism of our times, in which truth is a social construct or based on our feelings and moods? Are we people who listen to the voice of the Spirit of truth, believe this truth, speak this truth with boldness, and act on it faithfully? Do we buy into the lie that truth is the opinion of the majority?
The many examples of spiritual slavery in our time show that we do not have the truth of the Spirit in our lives. Jesus assures us that the truth from the Spirit alone makes us free, teaching that “If you continue in word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:32).
4. Spirit of Jesus
St. Paul said to the Corinthians, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). The Holy Spirit enlightens and convicts us of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and moves us to submit to Jesus as the sovereign Lord of our lives.
If Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we will do and endure all things for Him, to please Him and to give Him glory. We will deny ourselves even legitimate pleasures and privileges to show our complete submission to Him. We will depend on Him and live for Him. We will not allow ourselves to be mastered by sins, created things, or human love and respect. We will use all that we have to do His will and do so for His glory.
5. Spirit of Peace and Unity
The first gift that the risen Christ offered to His disciples was peace; “Peace be with you.” Then He offered them the Holy Spirit who makes this peace possible by reconciling us with God and with one another: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn. 20:19-23).
Through the Holy Spirit, we receive divine forgiveness for our sins and the grace to labor for unity with others. Through the Holy Spirit, we can begin to participate in that unity between the Father and the Son.
How are we enjoying and sharing with others that inner peace that Christ has won for us? How are we allowing the troubles of life to diminish our inner peace? How are we futilely searching for peace in this world, though Jesus has told us that “in this world we will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33)? How are we agents of deeper peace and unity in our families, Church, and world?
6. Spirit of Generosity
St. Paul reminds us that “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.” We have specific gifts from the Holy Spirit for the good of the body of Christ: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” (2 Cor. 12:4-7).
So, are we in touch with the specific gifts that the Spirit has given to us for the building up of the body of Christ? What are the excuses we make for not making good use of these gifts? How are we trying to deny our gifts because we are afraid of the responsibilities and duties involved?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit in us from the moment of our baptism. His presence within us was intensified with the sacrament of Confirmation. He is again poured into our hearts through the Eucharist and sacramental confession. He is present in us so that we live truly godly lives in godless times.
If we still do not know Him, there is no way that we can resist the pull of the world towards the godlessness of our times. We will give in to the sinful indulgences of our times in their many forms. We will give in to pornography, greed, homosexual unions, corruption, divorce and remarriage, abortion, contraceptive mentality, etc.
We cannot possess the Spirit and still live worldly lives under the dominion of our fleshly desires. St. Paul tells us why this is so, because “The flesh in its tendencies is at enmity with God; it is not subject to God’s law. Indeed, it cannot be; those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” We are called and gifted to live in the Spirit because “we are not in the flesh; but we are in the spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom. 8:5).
Indeed, the Spirit of God, the Great Unknown, dwells in us all the time, pouring His love, power, and self-control into our hearts.
As we encounter this Spirit again in each Eucharist, let us strive to know Him better so that our lives are truly pleasing to God, even in ungodly times.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Image from The Met
