THE HOLY SPIRIT WITNESSING WITH US


MONDAY, Sixth Week of Eastertide

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Acts 16:11-15; Ps 149:1-6,9; Jn 15:26-16:4

The Holy Spirit witnessing with Us

It is difficult, if not impossible, to bear witness to Jesus Christ without having a new beginning in the love of God. This statement follows from our reflection yesterday. The man Jesus Christ steadfastly kept the Father’s will or commandment because he was born of love. This is a fact as regards his eternal birth as the Son of God. But our reference is to his birth as a man in time. The Father willed his incarnation with the same love he loved the Son from all eternity. Thus, his conception was the activity of the Holy Spirit as described by the holy Angel of God. “The Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.” The Virgin Mary, who heard these words, was already on fire with the love of God, for she is the favoured one of God. The angel said to her, ‘The Lord is with you.” God is love and cannot be with someone without setting him on fire. So, Jesus was born of the love of God and kept the Father’s commandments through love. 

To keep the commandment of Jesus Christ, we must have a new and spiritual birth in love. This need is why the Holy Spirit has a central place in the whole redemptive work of Jesus Christ and a Christian’s vocation. What the Eternal Word of God accomplished, as the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit works with us to realise them in our lives as individuals and collectively as a Church or Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is active in our lives to foster the two unions we have extensively discussed. He unites us with the Son of Man, Jesus Christ our Lord, through our faith in the word of God, and also unites us to the Virgin Mary in the order of grace through the love of God. Through our union with Jesus Christ, he makes the risen Lord present with us. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the bond of communion or fellowship. Thus, just as Jesus Christ is the Sacrament of God who saves humanity, the Virgin Mary is the sacrament of the saved humanity. Hence, the Maiden and the Son is the sign of the Saviour and the saved. The Holy Spirit is central to the realisation of the prophecy. “When the Advocate comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness. And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the outset.”

We see the two witnesses in the first reading, where St. Paul preached the word of God, and the Holy Spirit convinced the heart of Lydia. He did this by making the word of God spoken by Paul burn in the heart of Lydia, thereby making her fall in love with what she heard. Invariably, the Spirit made her fall in love with Jesus Christ through the story told by Paul. An instance of a Christian and the Holy Spirit bearing witness to Jesus Christ. Why was Lydia the only one to fall in love with what she heard? Maybe some others also fell in love. But falling in love is a personal decision and never automatic. We decide to love or not to love. When we decide not to love Jesus Christ, it is a decision to continue in self-love. The Spirit can only show us the truth as the Spirit of truth, but he will never force the truth on anyone. So many who love themselves go through the ritual of religion and go by the name of Christians while they are serving themselves and the father of lies. What Jesus said in the gospel applies to them. “They will expel you from the synagogues, and indeed the hour is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy duty for God.” In conclusion, the Christian evangelization is through love, and that is why love is commanded by the Lord.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to meditate daily on your word which is spirit and life, so that we may be renewed in your love and be your witnesses everyday in all we do and say

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