Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest
When I was growing up I knew a woman who came to our house to help my mother clean once a week. Her name was Shirley and we all loved her. Shirley always lived on the edge of poverty. She did not have a car and relied on the bus for transportation. She was a single mother providing for four children and faced many serious challenges while they were growing up. But Shirley had a way about her that I had never seen in anyone before. She was always happy, full of joy, and had a radiance that filled the room. “As clear, transparent substances become very bright when sunlight falls on them and shine with a new radiance, so also souls in whom the Spirit dwells, and who are enlightened by the Spirit, become spiritual themselves and a source of grace for others.” This is a quote by St Basil the Great and explains exactly what it was about Shirley that so attracted me to her. She was full of the Holy Spirit. It was nothing specific that she said or did but I knew she loved Jesus with all her heart and her radiance was because of the Spirit of Love. Her very presence was a powerful testament to the Risen Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit
In today’s passage from the Gospel of St. John, Jesus tells his disciples he will send the Advocate from the Father. This Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will testify to him and to the Father and, through the power of this Spirit, they will testify with their lives as well. Jesus gives them a solemn warning of the resistance and persecution they will face after he leaves. Jesus says, “I have told you this so that you may not fall away.” (Jn 16:1) Nothing about this life in the Spirit will be easy. Each and every one of them will be subjected to rejection and many will be killed for their witness. While I do not face the same obvious threat to my personal safety in this day and age, I daily encounter challenges and risk rejections in the struggle to fulfill my calling as a disciple of Jesus and make my life a testimony to him. How many times each day am I faced with opportunities to witness? How many times do I complain about the circumstances of my life? When I look at the ordinary day to day stuff of my life, how many opportunities are repeatedly placed right in front of me that I have chosen to ignore? How ‘lukewarm’ have I allowed myself to become?
I have been gifted by the Holy Spirit in unique ways just as every single one of us has been. No other human being can testify to Jesus in the manner I can testify to him. My friend Shirley lived her life as a testimony to Jesus—in other words, an encounter with Shirley was an encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God. Even all these years later, that testimony affects my life in a profound way. I pray I can allow the Holy Spirit to transform me so my life can become a powerful testimony to the Risen One, Jesus Christ.
O Holy Immortal One,
Send your Spirit to me this day,
Grant me the desire and openness to receive your Spirit.
And, just for today, make my life a powerful testimony
to your son, the Risen Christ.
With the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Amen.
--Gail Lyman