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April 23, 2020 - The Holy Spirit is Never Rationed!
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The gift of the Holy Spirit is free, full, and everyone is eligible to receive abundantly the graces of God. As we know from the Resurrection appearances of Jesus, locked doors and closed rooms cannot prevent Jesus from coming to His people. Jesus came to his frightened followers in their distress and concern, even though they were isolated and locked away. He entered their presence and brought them the gift of peace, mercy and love. He breathed on them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit will not be denied to us. The one question we have to ask ourselves is, will we receive it?
Those first disciples were given the gift of seeing the resurrected Jesus in His glorified body and this led them to believe. St. Thomas who was not present when Jesus appeared on that first Easter and so refused to believe, thus refused to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, through the goodness and mercy of God, Jesus returns to remove St. Thomas's doubts. St. Thomas sees and believes and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit! Jesus response is, "You have believed because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen but have believed."
What do we need to truly believe and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Jesus tells us that the Spirit is never rationed - He is freely and fully given always. What camp are we in - do we need to see to believe or do we accept the testimony of others? Right now we are not able to see or be present to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but we do have the testimony of our priests. We don't have the ability to encounter Jesus through reception of Holy Communion, but we do have the testimony that making a spiritual communion will communicate to us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are invited to believe and accept this testimony through the live-stream opportunities and our own intentional prayer and reflection on Holy Scripture. What is our response?
Perhaps we have and are accepting this testimony, believing that Jesus is present to us, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. If so, great, and praise God! Blessed are those who have not seen but believe. However, like St. Thomas, some of us are struggling to believe without the presence of the Sacraments and the open doors of the church. We want to "see" or encounter the presence of Jesus in the Sacraments and to be phsically present at Mass. Perhaps we remain insistent like St. Thomas and are awaiting the re-opening, and finding it hard to believe during this isolation from the Sacraments. Either way, be patient be hopeful and trust; Jesus wants more than we do to dispel our doubts and fill us abundantly with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
In this strange and challenging time, we are separated from the Sacraments through no fault of our own. But fear not, because whether I am accepting the situation of isolation and believing in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the absence of the Sacraments, or if I struggle to believe, Jesus will come to remove all obstacles. Just as Jesus returned to St. Thomas to reveal His true self and lead to one of the greatest and most powerful confessions of faith ever, Jesus will soon return to us in the Sacraments. He will remove our doubts completely and bring the opportunity for us to confess a greater act of faith than we ever knew possible.