"Risen Lamb Writings"
"Whispers of Light" (part 16)
At the "heart" of the mystery of the
Incarnation is the truth that "God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son" (John 3:16). At the "heart" of the mystery of Pentecost is the truth
that God continued to so love the world that he gave the Spirit of his
only Son. At Pentecost the word of God spoken through the Prophet, Ezekiel, was
fulfilled: "I will put my spirit within you" (Ez. 36:27). The miracle
occurred. The Holy Spirit came to dwell within each of those gathered in the
upper room. He came as 'the Lord and giver of life' coming down into their inmost
hearts: The inmost sanctuary of their humanity (see John Paul II,
general audience, 1-11-98). As St. Louis de Montfort says:
"The Holy
Spirit, finding his dear Spouse present again in souls, will come down
into them with great power; he will fill them with his gifts" (True
Devotion to Mary. St. Louis de Montfort, # 217).
We thank God
for the gift of Mary!
The God who once entered into the
history of the world very personally as Jesus, the Son of God, at
the Incarnation later entered very personally into the hearts of those
gathered in the upper room on Pentecost as the Spirit of the Son. The Holy
Spirit made them sharers in the life of Jesus as Son--"that is, sharers in
his life of love for the Father and for [their] brothers and sisters"
(JP II, general audience, 2-1-98). He
changed them forever. This love of the Father and of humanity is precisely what
empowers an intercessor!
The Holy Spirit enters into the
history of the world through the heart of humanity. He is the author of
the interior life, the spiritual life. He awakens a new thirst for God, a new
hunger for prayer and God's word, and a new desire for holiness within the
hearts of those whom he possesses. Then as now, the Holy Spirit comes to us
as love: "The love of God [who] has been poured out into our hearts"
(Rom. 5:5). As intercessors we, in turn, are empowered by this love to "pour
out [our] hearts to God" (Ps. 62:9) in intercession. For, "In some way,
then, the Holy Spirit transfers into our
hearts the prayer of the Son, who raises that cry to the Father" (JP II,
general audience, 4-17-91). Jesus desires to live now in Spirit within us,
continuing to commune with the Father and offer to the Father through us:
"God has sent the spirit of his Son into
our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" (Gal. 4:6).
For, as St. Paul says in Gal. 2:20, "Yet I
live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me."
In a sense, Jesus is living again in the flesh, but now he is living
and praying from within our flesh (our human nature) to the Father:
"In those
days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with
loud cries and tears" (Heb. 5:7).
We are again
living in 'those days'. Jesus desires to cry out--to travail--from
within us in the presence of the Father.
The Church was born from the
wounded side of Jesus on the cross: Born from the pierced heart of the Lamb
on Calvary and revealed on the day of Pentecost, "made one spiritual and mystical
body with Jesus" (JP II, general audience, 2-8-98). We come from "this
heart" that was wounded out of love for the Father and for humanity. This
truth reminds us whom we belong to, who we are in our true identity, and what
we are called to: We are to be "the love" of the wounded-resurrected heart of
the Lamb in the world.
Pentecost involved a life-changing
anointing of the Holy Spirit for mission. It is now Jesus who lives within
us and who desires to continue his mission of redemptive love through us. Both at the Incarnation and at Pentecost
Jesus came into the world only to do the Father's will. He continues to come
into the world today through each of us to do the Father's will again: "The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me"
(Is. 61:1).
Questions:
1) Am
I 'pouring out' my heart to God in prayer for someone or some situation
currently?
2) Is
there an area of my interior life that I would like the Holy Spirit to change
within me?
Scriptures:
Any scripture from the text; Luke 11:13; Rom. 8:26-27; Eph.
3:16; Eph. 6:18
