Come Holy Spirit!
ME
To better understand the importance of Jesus’s words I thought it would be helpful to provide some historical context.
The narrative of today’s Gospel is situated in the context of the Jewish Festival of the Tabernacle. This was an eight day celebration. It was regarded as the most popular of the three yearly pilgrimage festivals to Jerusalem and thousands of people participated.
The words that Christ spoke in this Gospel passage were spoken to the thousands of pilgrims gathered for this feast.
It was a fall celebration both to thank God for the fruits of the harvest of grapes and olives, and to ask God’s blessing for rain for future crops. On each day of the feast the people held a procession and march around the Temple altar and sang hymns, while the priest drew water from the ancient pool of Siloam and poured it over the altar as an offering and a prayer to God, thanking him for the harvests and asking him to bless them with sufficient rain for the coming months.
In the jewish tradition water was rich in symbolism. Water was essential for many Jewish cleansing rituals, some of them were daily rituals. Also flowing water for the Jewish people was a sign of God’s fidelity and fecundity, of happiness and promise.
Now, on the eighth day, on the last day of the feast, water was not used for the rituals. And, it is in the context of the last day, that Jesus stood up in front of thousands of people and proclaimed in the temple that He is the provider for this water.
“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As scriptures says:
Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”
On this last day of the feast celebration Jesus is proclaiming that there is no need to perform these rituals anymore, he is the source of this water that purifies, blesses, heals, and He is the fount of lasting happiness.
YOU
Is Jesus the go-to for the living water you need in your life?
GOD
John the evangelist is telling us that the flowing water that quenches our thirst for meaning and lasting happiness will come from within the individual heart, for those who come to Jesus and believe in him.
The fountain of living water within us is the Holy Spirit, which we celebrate this weekend of Pentecoste. John knows this intimately. He experienced himself the effect of receiving the Holy Spirit. And he witnessed what happened to the other Apostles when the tongues of fire and the wind ruptured through the room. John knows that the coming down of the Holy Spirit is transformative.
Once the Holy Spirit became part of them a living water flowed constantly in their life helping them to find meaning for their life and lasting happiness.
You and I have received the Holy Spirit with the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation and it is constantly at work helping us through our groaning and weaknesses in the same way it did for John and the other Apostles.
This is what Saint Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans: “... the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness, for we do not know how to pray …”
Paul refers to this innate thirst, groaning we have for meaning and lasting happiness.
YOU
Do you have this yearning in your life for meaning and lasting happiness? If you are like me, you do. You wouldn't be in Church if you didn't have it.
The Holy Spirit does not take over our human nature, it does not decide for us or act for us. The Holy Spirit gives the impulses of love, gives us attraction towards the things of God like beauty, truth, and goodness. It is a wind that orients our being towards new things. It is a fire that starts burning and makes us uneasy, and unsettled with Truth. It is fulfillment and joy when we witness the beauty of God’s creation or an act of goodness beyond our reason.
The Holy Spirit flows in us as unspeakable sights or as providential whispers.
The Apostles were able to be attentive to these movements of the heart, and draw from them to inform their lives. Their purpose in life changed, their friends changed, the way they used their money and time changed. They let the Holy Spirit inform their lives and through that they found their purpose and lasting joy.
WE
We too can get there, the Holy Spirit is already in us, we need to learn how to listen to it, how it moves our heart and allows those movements to inform our lives.
You will know when you live in the Spirit because the majority of your thoughts and actions will not be about you. You will have more room to listen to others, you will be more authentic, you will have empty inner space rather than a cluttered inner space. You will relate to people rather than deal with people, your being will be more oriented to others than to yourself.
The Holy Spirit has been called different names in scriptures and tradition. I will end this homily with a litany of the Holy Spirit, as I go through the list, notice which one moves your heart the most, which one inspires you to get closer to God.
Bring that movement of your heart to Jesus when you go and meet Him in the Eucharist and ask Him how this movement, attraction, should inform your life. How can this movement of your heart flow out into your daily life.
Holy Spirit
Good Spirit
Paraclete
Eternal Spirit
God’s breath
Divine Spirit
Advocate
Consoler
Redeemer of the world
Spirit of the Lord
Spirit of Counsel
Spirit of God
Spirit of Patience
Spirit of the Living God
Spirit of your Father
Spirit of Joy
Spirit of Christ
Spirit of Life
Spirit of Understanding
Spirit of Grace
Spirit of Living Water.
Spirit of Prophecy
Spirit of Truth
Spirit of Love
Spirit of Peace
Spirit of Holiness
Spirit of Wisdom
Spirit of Justice
Spirit of Fire
Spirit of Glory
Spirit of Healing
Come Holy Spirit!
