Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (5/20/2007)

Dear People of Holy Name,

“Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” “Are you saved?” At some point we’ve probably all been asked one or both of these questions by one of our Fundamentalist brothers and sisters as we passed on a street corner. It seems a quick and glib question and turns salvation into simply pronouncing the words, “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” But what does it really mean to believe in Jesus?

In the Acts of the Apostles (16:22-34) there is a wonderful recounting of Paul and Silas praying and singing to God while in prison. An earthquake delivers them from captivity as the doors open and the chains are pulled loose. The guard is about to kill himself for losing his prisoners, better that than being killed by his superiors, when Paul stops him as he speaks from the darkness to let him know they are still there.

The guard realizing his life has been spared by those he guarded is so moved by the spirit he encountered in Paul and Silas that he asks what he must do to be saved. Paul tells him to believe in the Lord Jesus. He believes in Jesus, not because he met him, but because he experienced his spirit in two men who were willing to stay where they were for his sake.

For us, believing in Jesus is more than acknowledging his earthly existence, but a believing in his Name, all that he was about. It is a believing in his Spirit!

To believe in Jesus is to believe in everything he was about; forgiving one’s enemies, bringing healing to others, and allowing his Spirit to dwell in us, to make us whole and effective servants of God. The guard took the disciples home and tended to their wounds. In that action he was sacrificing his life, security and career for others and was probably overjoyed to do so.

There is no limit to how the Holy Spirit can transform us, in ways just as unimaginable as an earthquake, in the middle of our turning to God at any time of day. It is the Spirit who accomplishes everything in us, and it is good for us to pray for the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and fill them with the spirit of the living God.

Next week we celebrate the feast of Pentecost; the descent of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray this week for the gift of the Spirit in our hearts and in our community, and as a sign of our prayer through the week let us wear red on Pentecost to celebrate the fire of the Holy Spirit that is with us, in us and among us.

May the Holy Spirit set us on fire with the fire of his love and may God breathe new life in us through the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit that we may be filled with his power and his love. We make our prayers in Jesus name as we pray through the week, “Come Holy Spirit……”

May the Lord send his Spirit upon you and your household!

In Christ’s Spirit, Fr. Leo