2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Fr. Leo
There was a sentence that caught my attention while I was reading the “Parochial and Plain Sermons,” of St. John Newman. He wrote, “ For us Christ died; on us the Spirit has descended.” While this is what our creed confesses, the simplicity struck me that being a Christian is to live in the Holy Spirit!
John the Baptist proclaims the same when he recognizes the One who will baptize in the Spirit. This was Jesus’ mission then; to open our minds, bodies and souls to the indwelling of God who makes us one with him and all that is God’s. Our baptismal calling then, is to be faithful to the Holy Spirit-to God who is the “ground” of all being.
How do we do that; how do we live in the Spirit? First, we begin with the gift of Knowledge, to know the Holy Spirit. And just as all knowledge must be sought, so too, does Spiritual knowledge. While textbooks and lectures serve learning in our universities; the Scriptures, prayer, spiritual reading and understanding the teaching of the churches experience of God, serve to make us aware of the Holy Spirit. All to bring us to a living experience of God’s Hoy Spirit.
The knowledge of science, for example, is always changing. We know the world and the universe, and how physical nature works, far beyond those who lived just a generation ago. Such knowledge will continue to grow. Old ideas will be replaced by newer and better one’s, until they too will give way to greater knowledge in return.
Spiritual knowledge is a bit different. What was true in faith and morals in Christ time, is still the same today. We may come to understand more fully the teachings of the Gospel as time goes on, but the basic truth, which is God himself, does not change. To honor thy father and mother is as reasonable today as it was in the time of Moses.
In seeking Spiritual knowledge, we are seeking the changeless values of what love requires. It is only in prayer, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, that this knowledge becomes clear. It is also in prayer that this knowledge gains the longing in us to live it as we live more deeply in God who is the “ground” of all being, as Meister Eckart would describe.
So let us seek God, that his Spirit may bring us. and all peoples, to the fullness of his life now and forever. Amen.