WELCOME LIFE
To speak of the «Holy Spirit» is to speak of what we can experience of God in ourselves. The «Spirit» is God acting in our life: the power, the light, the breath, the peace, the consolation, the fire that we can experience in ourselves and whose final origin is in God, source of all life.
This action of God in us is almost always produced in discrete, silent and quiet form; the believer herself only intuits an almost imperceptible presence. Sometimes however certainty, overflowing joy and complete confidence invade us: God exists, God loves us, everything is possible, even eternal life.
The clearest sign of the Spirit’s action is life. God is there when life is awakened and grows, when it’s communicated and expanded. The Holy Spirit is always «giver of life»: the heart expands, what is dead in us comes back to life, what’s asleep awakens, it puts in play what had gotten blocked. From God we are always receiving «new energy for life» (Jurgen Moltmann).
This recreative action of God isn’t just reduced to «intimate experiences of the soul». It penetrates in every level of the person. It awakens our senses, brings the body to life and revives our capability to love. To put it simply, the Spirit leads the person to live everything in a different form: from the deepest truth, from the greatest trust, from the most disinterested love.
For quite a lot of people, the fundamental experience is God’s love, and they say it with a simple phrase: «God loves me». That experience returns their indestructible dignity back to them, it gives them power to rise up from humiliation or discouragement, it helps them to face themselves with what’s best in them.
Others don’t pronounce the word «God», but experience a «fundamental trust» that lets them love life in spite of it all, confront problems eagerly, seek always the good for everyone. No one lives God’s Spirit privately. In all, the Spirit is drawing our being toward life. We welcome the «Holy Spirit» when we welcome life. This is one of the most basic messages of the Christian feast of Pentecost.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
