Homily for 24 Oct 2015

24 Oct 2015

Having the Holy Spirit within us is pretty important.  If the Spirit of God dwells in us, we’re able to be at peace with God, we’re able to be raised up with Christ from the dead, we’re able to live a life of goodness [Rom 8:1-11].  Having the Holy Spirit within us is like having blood flowing in our veins—we need it to be alive.

And yet, often times we can feel distant from God; separated from the Holy Spirit.  How do we know the Holy Spirit is still in us?  Well, aside from faith that God is always with his people, we pay attention to our souls.  The psalm [Ps 24] speaks about “the people that longs to see” the face of God.  The desire for God; concern for our relationship with God is itself a sign that the Holy Spirit is working in us.

Also, today Jesus really impresses the importance of repentance.  And with that we see that a certain amount of guilt and sorrow for the wrongs we’ve done is another sign that the Holy Spirit is working in us; it’s a sign that we have a conscience and our conscience prizes what is right and just over what is wrong and unjust.  Repentance is a sign that we want to do what’s right; and it’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is working with us to live a good life.

Jesus also talks about “cultivating” and “fertilizing.”  Those are other ways we know the Holy Spirit is working in us—God supports us and he makes us grow as human beings, as children of God, as loving neighbors to one another.  The fact that we sin is not a sign that God has left us.  On the contrary, the Holy Spirit works with our sins.  The question is: Will we let him?

Having the Holy Spirit within us is pretty important.  The Spirit gives us peace, life, and virtue.  And the surest way to know the Spirit is within us is simply to pray, with all sincerity: “Come, Holy Spirit.  Come, and show me how to live.”