One of the attitudes that marks our Western culture is the notion that we are in control of our lives and our future. The powerful tools of science and technology enable us to live lives expecting results that will please and comfort us.
Let’s see . . . today I’ll take my car to the mall where I’ll buy an Ipod which has an app that, with two touches, books a room in a snazzy resort and tells me the water temperature in the hotel pool. My doctor will fix my bad hip. The micro will heat my pasta. And tonight I’ll watch the Yankees play Boston in high def. I’m pretty set. Life is good.
So pervasive is our confidence that these machines will (pardon me, Webster) make my “life worth living” that we begin to expect our life to be what we command it to be.
So who needs God when life can be so controlled and self-directed?
But you and I know it’s not that simple. Life is bigger than that. “Things happen”. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out the way we planned. The comfort and convenience we get from our machines just doesn’t satisfy the hunger we have in our hearts.
You see we were made for something greater than high def TV, and Ipods, and even the Yankees (put your team) winning the pennant.
In short, we were made for God. We were made in the likeness of God. Scripture says we, unlike any other creature in this universe, are God’s Children! How can this be? Because God became one of us when He was born a human being. And this human being, Jesus, God’s Son, has asked that we allow him to enter our lives and “live in us”. (see: John 17:20-26)
How does this happen? By the gift of the Holy Spirit! It is a Divine Person who we cannot see and, un-like our Ipod, we cannot control. This Pentecost Sun-day we hear again about the strong driving wind which first blew over the waters of creation now blowing over the apostles, making them “born again” in the Spirit.
The fondest longing of the human heart is realized today. We belong to God, and one day “we will be-come like Him,” Again, this is not because of any-thing we have done to cause it. We can’t make our-selves children of anybody . . . it has to be given to us. Today we are God’s Children by adoption. The Holy Spirit places in us the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and with that spirit a new life is begun – a life of Faith, Hope, and Love; one which moves us to cry out, “ABBA, FATHER!”
Like a baby!! While we sleep. The Holy Spirit is working in us to bring us to the Kingdom of God where we, in union with Christ, will be with God for-ever. How wonderful is that?!
Dear God, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit.
Peace. All will be well.
Fr. Tim
