WORD 2day: Thursday, 27th week in Ordinary time
Supplying the Spirit, would mean that we are given the assurance of the continued presence of the Lord, all our life! 'The Spirit is the mark of God's ownership on us', St. Paul would declare elsewhere (cf. Eph 1:13). Supplying us with the Spirit, therefore, is God's way of defining our identity, our call and the meaning of our life. We are called to be sons and daughters in the Spirit and the Spirit does not leave us even a moment. We are accompanied all through.
Therefore, being Spirit-filled is not a special manifestation of anything... all of us are... we are given the Spirit and when God gives, God gives it abundantly. We are Spirit-filled. The question is, do we realise that? Do we believe in that? Do we manifest that? Do we draw all the strength that this fact can give us?
The porblem is when doubts assail us, when we fall into temptations, when we lax into lower standards of human living, give into the vile pressures of the evil one and the vices of the distraught world - moments when we shun the Spirit of the Lord! What are we to do then... ask, knock, seek... says the Lord.
However, we need to understand that asking, knocking and seeking are acts of faith, they are not some acts of desperate effort to get something by all means. They are acts of faith by which we live our convictions that, even before asking the Lord knows my needs; to knock is to surrender oneself totally, come what may; and to seek is not a call to seek in vain or in all-emptiness but to seek the person who lives within us, who dwell within us, who makes us the dwelling places of God (cf 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19).