As we continue our collective march toward Pentecost, it’s been interesting to watch how the Holy Spirit was present and guided those first missionaries, those first evangelizers.
As if they were suited up with the armor of the Advocate, these first generation spreaders of the Gospel were able to spread out over a very dark, cold and often dangerous world. Everywhere they went, they shared the warmth and the light of faith in God and salvation through his Son, Jesus.
They did this with the gifts they’d received … wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.
These gifts helped them overcome the hurdles they faced as they tried to convince a skeptical world of the “taste of heaven” they had experienced with Christ present on earth … a taste that was still available to anyone who desired it in their hearts, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Imagine how they felt when they approached an individual or a group, as they did in today’s first reading. Their hearts still burning with the experiences they has shared – those who had actually been with Christ and others who knew him after his Passion, Death and Resurrection.
They walked with purposed.
They had no fear.
It was as if Jesus walked in front of them, behind them, to their left and to their right.
That’s the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the Spirit was not just a one-time visitor to those whose journeys we are reading these days of Easter.
The Spirit was with God.
The Spirit was God.
The Spirit is God
And He is still with us, guiding our Church and our hearts as we – today – make our own way out into a dark, cold and often dangerous world.
How do we know? What is the source of this faith in a guiding ghost?
Today’s Gospel: “Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
Jesus promised his disciples – and us – that He would be with us always.
We should not fear our journey ahead … He will show us the way.
We should not fear opening our mouths to speak … He will give us the words we need.
In the first reading, we witness to the conversion of Lydia, referred to as the “first Christian of Europe” whose heart had been softened to listen to Paul’s preaching.
More than 2000 years later, there are still soft hearts eager to open up to the love of God.
If only …
