The Holy Spirit: A Tongue of Flame, a Breath?

I am unaware of anything in which we believe that is more ambiguous than the Holy Spirit of God. “Spirit” is the quintessentially elusive, vague and immeasurable presence of God. We receive similes, windows through which we get a glimmering of understanding of the Holy Spirit. At times the Spirit is “like tongues of flame,” ever-changing and malleable, fitting into our lives and firing us up at our weakest, or “like a dove,” as mobile as a bird in flight and coming upon us unexpectedly, perhaps a “breath,” so essential that the Spirit’s absence is asphyxiating, or even a “mighty wind,” toppling human folly.

Have you experienced the work of the Spirit on the edges of your own life? Perhaps you have and haven’t recognized it for what it was. Have you ever surprised yourself with your own goodness? Have you ever had just the perfect response to someone else’s struggles? Have you been able to comfort profound suffering? Have you daringly and yet persuasively spoken an unpopular but necessary truth in the face of opposition? How else do we explain our own best, most selfless moments? Scientists, quite rightly, look for a gene, or some biologically adaptive process to explain the good we do. I cherish scientists’ every insight into our goodness. Why wouldn’t the Holy Spirit work in and through everything that makes us most deeply, truly human? So, I recognize that in my best moments, when I’ve been able to do the unexpected, to accomplish the beautiful, and to recognize a profound truth, I’ve been both most truly human and Spirit driven at the same time. Haven’t you’ve gone through the same? That’s the moment we feel the Holy Spirit.

The harsh word that goes unspoken, or the brutally honest email that gets deleted, are both signs of the Holy Spirit. And it’s not only the good that we do. The Spirit’s work manifests in the broken acts we repent of, and the temptations we avoid. The urge to regret unkindness and to turn away from our bad habits clarify that the Holy Spirit is at work. The impulse to generosity in the face of earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis, the sense of belonging to all the world, is the unifying effort of the Holy Spirit. The instinctual love of parents for their children is the Holy Spirit’s action, helping us to express what is best in our
human nature. 

So my encouragement to you, this Pentecost: surrender joyfully to your every good, Spirit driven, instinct to make this world a better place. May the Holy Spirit come upon us fiercely, and enkindle in our hearts the fire of divine love!

Siempre adelante!

Fr. Patrick
​Pastor