Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Pentecost is a couple weeks away. What a great opportunity to seek the Holy Spirit and pray for a fresh filling of the Spirit’s truth, power, and presence. In my experience, the Holy Spirit often becomes the forgotten Person in the Holy Trinity, as our tendency is to focus on Father and Son to the exclusion of Spirit. When was the last time you prayed specifically to the Holy Spirit? Perhaps part of our prayer today can be addressed personally to the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel, Jesus identifies the third Person of the Godhead as “the Spirit of truth.” Allowing the Spirit to be our guide today, let us seek God’s truth and ask for a reignition of the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Jesus tells us today, when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” During Jesus’ Passion, an incredible exchange occurs between Christ and Pilate as Pilate attempts to figure out Jesus’ identity and role. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate (John 18:37-38). I’m always floored by Pilate’s response, What is truth? because Truth himself stood right in front of him and yet Pilate could not recognize him. How many times are we blind to Christ the Truth, even as we stand in his presence? We affirm in the Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so we know that this Spirit of truth guides us to Truth himself. In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises, He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Through Christ, we can be confident that we have access to God’s truth. Pilate’s question is critical: What is truth? How do you define truth? How do you know what is true? Who or what do you consult when you want to know the truth of a matter? These are important questions for us as disciples of Christ. Perhaps today’s Gospel can influence us to seek the Spirit of truth more consistently to guide us in interpreting the world around us and in making daily decisions.
As we approach Pentecost, it’s a great time to ask the Holy Spirit to reignite the Gifts of the Spirit that we received at Confirmation. Today let us ask for a fresh anointing of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. As these gifts well up within us and we access them more intentionally, we will become more receptive to the Spirit of truth and his guidance. The more established these gifts are within us, the more we will bear fruit accordingly in our lives. Specifically, this fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). Let us pray today to the Holy Spirit, asking for help and graces to live out our giftedness and bear fruit accordingly.
As St Paul reminds us, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Amen!
- Elizabeth Wourms