People of the Spirit - Knowing the Spirit

WORD 2day - Monday, Last week in the Eastertide

May 13, 2024 -  Acts 19: 1-8; John 16: 29-33

We celebrated an important solemnity yesterday - the Ascension of the Lord. It is important because it marked a definitive change of a phase! The Salvation plan had reached its climax with the death and resurrection of the Son of God, and Ascension is an epilogue bringing that phase to its fulfillment and announcing a all fresh new phase! We could be reminded of a regular experience for some of us: that of making an annual retreat, at the end of which they usual wish - "happy life after retreat"! That is what Jesus seems to tell us: happy life after my life.

Jesus, as he promised his disciples before ascension when he prepared them, does not leave us 'abandoned' but had promised and has sent the Divine Counselor, the Paraclete - the Holy Spirit. This week the Word prepares us towards yet another grand solemnity, the coming of the Spirit. And today, the question is: do you know the Spirit? 

We may immediately say, 'yes, we know', unlike the people who say in the first reading today: we do know if anything as such exists! But there is a danger. When Jesus spoke plainly to the apostles they said, 'now we understand'...and Jesus asks them: do you understand, or do you think you understand? It is one thing to know, or not to know, but it is more important a need, to know truly whether we know or not. At times, not knowing is much lighter than not knowing that we do not know!

The call is to strive to know, yearn to get to know the Spirit. It is not a set of data or information to be gathered and stored, but a personal relationship to be developed with the person of the Holy Spirit - that is to what the Lord who ascends introduces us. To know the Holy Spirit and to grow a special relationship with the Holy Spirit.