Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
“The Spirit scrutinizes everything” (1 Cor 2:10B). Does that make you nervous? Or are you looking forward to a good look-over from the Spirit? Personally, I don’t enjoy it when someone is looking carefully through my personal business, because I think it’s none of theirs. But we all belong to the Lord, and we were made to serve God by working for the Kingdom. Jesus has redeemed our lives from sin and death, and so our lives and everything that pertains to us is God’s “business.”
So what is your business? To say it another way, what keeps you ‘busy?’ Is it hobby, sport, education, work, children, aging parents, maintaining a household, etc.? Or perhaps it’s Feeding the Hungry, Praying for the Living and the Dead, Visiting the Imprisoned, Counseling the Doubtful, and the other Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy? Rereading what I just wrote, I see there’s some overlap between my first and second lists. The Spirit is scrutinizing our business.
Jesus demonstrates the power the Holy Spirit has over ‘everything,’ by speaking with authority and giving commands to an unclean spirit. We who are Confirmed have received the same Holy Spirit. When we live in the Spirit, news about us will ‘spread everywhere in the surrounding region.’ Doesn’t that sound great? What if our Church was known far and wide for its spiritual life, works of mercy, and peacemaking?
Today, let’s invite the Spirit to ‘get all up in our business,’ to scrutinize our lives, and to live in us. Amen!
- Chris Nieport