Living in the Spirit
“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive a spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but a spirit of adoption through which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’”
Romans 8:14-15
The fiftieth day after Easter the Church celebrates Pentecost Sunday. It is on this day that the Church is born. In other words, Pentecost is the “birthday of the Church.” I have always found it interesting that some other feast or solemnity is not the “birthday” of the Church, such as the Annunciation or Easter. However, it is most fitting that Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the Church for on this day, the Holy Spirit, the promised Advocate, descended upon the Apostles and all those gathered with them and all were able to understand what each other was saying in their own language. You see, it was on this day that the Holy Spirit broke through the barrier that separated the people, liken to undoing the effects of the Tower of Babel, where now they all spoke one language, a language that transcends words, a language that is rooted in THE WORD, a language that is love and God Himself.
In God, all are one. Jesus prayed “that all might be one,” and it is the Holy Spirit that will guide all peoples to this reality. Just as Jesus appeared to the Apostles in the Upper Room despite the doors being locked, the Holy Spirit breaks through the barriers that keep us from experiencing the love of God. Our fallen human nature keeps us from allowing God to love us because it is prone to believing in the lies of the Enemy that we are not worthy or that God simply cannot love us in our sinfulness. But we must remember that though that may be true, Our Lord has assumed our human nature and has redeemed it! Jesus restored to us the likeness after which we were created. We are not just another creation of God, we are His sons and daughters.
St. Paul reminds us that if we are truly to live as sons and daughters of God, we must be led by the Spirit. We must be honest with ourselves. What are the spirits or voices we allow to dictate our daily lives? Do we pay attention to the voices that cause division and that breaks us down or do we find comfort in the voice that says, “You are my beloved and with you I am well pleased”? Do we listen to the voice that calls us by our sins or the Voice that calls us by name? How about our actions? Do our actions show that we are followers of Christ or do they show that we are still enslaved to the world?
Brothers and sisters, we must reclaim our identity in Christ. We must remember that we are co-heirs with Christ, we are sons and daughters of the Father. We have been made new the blood of Jesus Christ and washed clean in the waters of baptism. We ought dwell no longer in the shadows cast in darkness. It is time for us to live in the Light, to live in the Spirit, that which animates us, that breath that God breathed into us that makes us living. The Spirit comes to us today once again. The Lord breathes on us. He breathes into us His very life, His very Spirit. May we cry out today, “Abba, Father!” and choose to live as beloved sons and daughters of the Father. When we choose to live as such, then truly there can be no barriers, for then we are truly free in our love and we become one in Christ, one in the Spirit.
