Homily for 21 Oct 2016

21 Oct 2016

“Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” Jesus asks.  After all, we can tell when it’s going to rain; we can tell when it’s going to be warm outside—the sky turns dark and the winds change.  So why is it that we can’t tell when the moment of God’s presence in our life has arrived?  Why can’t we feel the changing times and shifting winds of the Holy Spirit?

And I imagine that because it’s hard not to notice the darkening sky; it’s hard not to notice the changing direction of the winds.  We see it with our eyes; we feel it against our skin.  But God isn’t always so obvious in the way he moves.  At most, we might feel a slight twitch in our soul that something’s changing in life.  But it’s easy to shoo it away and to ignore.

Jesus asks, “Why do you not know how to discern the shifting winds of the Holy Spirit?”  And the answer is pretty simple: We’re not always paying attention to God and what he’s doing; and so, his work, his presence is easy to overlook. 

Now, however, St. Paul portrays himself as a “prisoner” for the Lord.  And we know he was literally imprisoned.  But, at the same time, we know he was completely “latched” onto the Lord, in a spiritual sense.  And, in that, he gives us the obvious remedy for our obliviousness to God.  And the remedy is: attachment to God, devotion to God. 

If we’re interested in what God is doing, and how his activities impact us, well, then it’s good to be devoted to him.  It’s good to attach ourselves to him, not as a slave, but as a trusting friend and student of the Master.  And there, at the feet of Jesus, we’ll learn to tell how the Holy Spirit moves, just as plainly as we can read the skies and tell that rains are coming.