THE SPIRIT OF FAITHFULNESS


SAINT CHARLES LWANGA AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

Act 20:17-27; Ps 68:10-11,20-21; Jn 17:1-11

The Holy Spirit of Faithfulness

We mentioned yesterday that our new birth through the Holy Spirit is our rebirth in the likeness of God. In other words, our new spirit is Jesus Christ conceived in us, and we, in him. Through the new spiritual life which we draw from the Holy Spirit, we are united more and more with the Son of Man. So, the more we live in the spirit, the more the Son of Man is made manifest in our members, and the less we live in the spirit, the less we manifest the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. The life of God nurtured in us by the Holy Spirit transforms us into another Christ in our different spaces. The presence of Jesus Christ in the world through our faithfulness to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit is the glory that Jesus asked from his Father. It is the same way he glorified the Father by his faithfulness to the will of the Father through the Holy Spirit.

The Father was in the Son of Man, reconciling the world to him through the Holy Spirit poured out on him. Now, Jesus Christ is in the believers continuing the work of reconciliation of the world to the Father through the Holy Spirit he pours out on us. His prayer was, “Through the power over all mankind that you have given him, let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him. And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Our spirits grow in the knowledge of the Father through a deeper understanding of the mysteries of the Son of Man, which is eternal life for us. The Holy Spirit confers the grace of faithfulness to our knowledge of the Father and the Son of Man. By the same faithfulness to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and the plan of God for our lives, we make God present to others for their salvation. Saint Paul’s speech to the elders of the church in Ephesus is replete with this understanding. “You know what my way of life has been ever since the first day I set foot among you in Asia, how I have served the Lord in all humility, with all the sorrows and trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I have not hesitated to do anything that would be helpful to you; I have preached to you, and instructed you both in public and in your homes, urging both Jews and Greeks to turn to God and to believe in our Lord Jesus.” Paul reflected the life of Jesus Christ in his stay and work in Ephesus, steadfastly and faithfully presenting the Gospel of reconciliation to the people.

The Holy Spirit produces this faithfulness and steadfastness in us through attentive, regular, and consistent prayer life. We use ‘prayer life’ here to mean that our prayer and life become one in the Spirit since we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our prayers and our lives. The Church, in this Pentecost novena, prays for the renewal of this grace of faithfulness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit for all her children. If we live by our spirit or the inner man, we will have our focus on Jesus Christ and fulfil his mission. “But life to me is not a thing to waste words on, provided that when I finish my race, I have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me—and that was to bear witness to the Good News of God’s grace. Only the Holy Spirit reveals this mission and makes the grace available to us, as he did to Paul and the martyrs of Uganda, Saint Charles Lwanga, and his companions. By their faith in Jesus Christ and the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they resisted and rebuked the king’s life of debauchery and murder of an Anglican missionary. They also refused to be ritually sodomised by the king. For these, the king killed them between 1885 and 1887. Most of them burned alive in a group after being tortured. We pray through their intercession for the grace to remain faithful to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit daily so that we may faithfully and consistently present the Good News to our people, families, foes, and friends alike.

Let us pray: O God, who have made the blood of Martyrs the seed of Christians, mercifully grant that the field which is your Church, watered by the blood shed by Saints Charles Lwanga and his companions, may be fertile and always yield you an abundant harvest. Through our Lord Jesu Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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