|
The
Kiss of the Spirit
June
4, 2006 Homily
John
15:26-27, 16:12 -15
Fr.
George Smiga
We
all know the kind of person we want to be, but what happens
when we fall short? We all know the kind of life we want to
live, but what happens when our real life does not measure
up? The short answer to this question is that God adapts.
Adapting one's self for the sake of another is a profound
sign of love.
Tom
and Alice were young and deeply in love. They had been married
for four years and their friends had given up on waiting for
their love to fade. These two had the ability to keep their
love fresh and alive. They were easy at showing affection
in public, and many people would point to them as an example
of a couple who knew how to maintain romance in their relationship.
Then tragedy struck. Alice suffered a severe stroke that paralyzed
half of her body. She was confined to a wheel chair. Tom became
the primary care giver. The two struggled to continue loving
each other in these new circumstances.
One
day as Tom entered the room, he found Alice crying. “I'm so
discouraged,” she said. “How can I be a partner with you when
I am in this condition? I can't love you like I did in the
past. Even the simplest things are taken from me. When you
enter the room I want to smile, but I can't do it. Only a
part of my mouth turns upward, whereas the paralyzed part
remains a crooked little frown.” Tom thought for a moment
and then knelt down in front of his wife's wheelchair. He
carefully twisted his own mouth until it mirrored hers. Then
he gently kissed her. “See,” he said, “We still fit.”
Adapting
oneself to the needs of the other is a profound sign of love.
This is exactly what God does for us. In fact, this is what
we celebrate today on the feast of Pentecost. On this feast
we celebrate the mystery of how the love of God comes into
our lives. Pentecost is the conclusion of the Easter Season.
We have already celebrated Jesus' dying and His rising and
His ascension. But all of those powerful acts of salvation
are irrelevant if they do not impact our lives. Unless we
can carry within us the affects of Jesus' dying and rising,
all the power and grace of that paschal mystery is wasted.
Today
on the feast of Pentecost we celebrate the truth that God
has given us God's own Spirit to unleash the power of Jesus'
resurrection in our lives. Jesus breathes on the disciples
in the gospel and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It is God's
own Spirit that allows the effects of the resurrection to
match our circumstances.
It
is not by chance that many of the great mystics of the Christian
tradition have imagined the Spirit of God as a kiss. God's
Spirit is that place where the love of God touches our lives.
The Spirit of God is flexible in that touch. A spirit by definition
does not have bodily form. It is not a concrete thing. Therefore,
the Spirit of God is fluid and can adjust to our personal
conditions. The Spirit of God reshapes herself to meet the
contours of our lives.
The
good news of Pentecost is there is no place, no situation
in which we find ourselves, into which the Spirit of God cannot
come. Are you a sinner? The Spirit of God comes to you in
your sinfulness and prompts you to repentance. Are you an
addict? The Spirit of God enfolds you in your addiction and
steels your will to say “no.” Have you experienced a loss?
The Spirit of God comes to you in your sorrow and plants a
seed of hope. Have you lost the zest for living? Is everything
ordinary and routine? The Spirit of God comes into your heart
and opens your eyes to see the wonder of creation. Are you
experiencing divorce or rejection? The Spirit of God holds
your heart and makes you patient to believe that love can
still be in your future. Are you dying? God's Spirit comes
to you in your fear and opens your heart to live each day
and surrender yourself to God.
There
is no place into which the Spirit of God cannot come. There
is no circumstance which the Spirit of God cannot invade.
The good news of Pentecost is that God takes the power of
Jesus' death and resurrection and adapts it to match the conditions
of our lives. This is God's promise. This is God's intention.
This is God's gift. To make sure that in every time and place
the kiss of the Holy Spirit will always fit our lips.
|
