Encouragement

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“The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4)

Laying of hands has always been considered as one of the means of imparting the Holy Spirit.
Whenever we pray over a sick person, we lay our hands on them to invoke the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit either comes to us gently as a light breeze, a sweet fragrance or it can come with great power and gust like the wind blowing or as tongues of fire, the way it descended on the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

The power of the Holy Spirit can never be underestimated. It is the spirit that gives us life. Without this spirit, we can do nothing. It is only when the spirit is strong within us that we can accomplish great things. The spirit enlightens us, gives us wisdom and understanding to perceive things, protects us from danger and harm, teaches us how to love and forgive, how to thank and praise God. We have to welcome the spirit into our lives. When we hold on to the spirit, it will mold and melt us to follow in the footsteps of Christ and lead us to eternal life.
Somehow today, we have grown remiss, we do not have the same fervor, the desire to be highly charged with the spirit and hence we do not see tongues of fire coming down. Only when we crave for the spirit with all our might, will it be given to us in a heavy dose. We have to jolt and make the spirit move within us.

We read in Joel 2:28, "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Again, in Romans 5:5, “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Jesus also taught the apostles in John 6:63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” and in John 4:12-13, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”

The parable of the Bridegroom and ten virgins is a beautiful depiction on the power of the Holy Spirit. We all know that Jesus is the bridegroom and the ten virgins are we who have the Holy spirit within our hearts. But again, there were five virgins who had carried extra oil whereas the foolish five had not taken sufficient oil to trim their lamps. It means that though they had the spirit within them, it was not active in them, they had allowed it to become dormant by clogging it with their sins.
Whereas, the wise had kept the word of God alive in their hearts, they always let the Holy spirit shine in them so there was never any question of having less oil. They always shone brightly.
We see that these ten maidens arrived very early for the wedding feast. Since the bridegroom was late in coming, they all dozed off. Similarly, how do we doze off ? By enjoying the pleasures of the world, blissful happiness; blissful sleep.

At midnight, there was a cry and a knock on the door that the bridegroom had arrived. The wise immediately trimmed their lamps, i.e. they were ready with the word of God and the fruits of the holy spirit in them which was in enough measure and they safely entered with the bridegroom. But the foolish ones had no oil left as they were not prepared in advance. By the time, they realized their mistake and ran out to get more oil, or rather to repent of their sins and try to save themselves; it was too late, the bridegroom came and the five wise virgins entered with him. Later when the foolish ones arrived and knocked on the door, the Bridegroom denied knowing them.

And, so it will be with all of us.... If we do not honor the word of God and take the spirit seriously we will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. We read in Matthew 7:21-22, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’. “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.”
We may also say the same to our Lord that we went to church, we did charity, we prayed often and kept the commandments, but if we have not honored the life giving spirit, we have lost the grace of God. There are times when we do not do or say the things that we ought to, we waste precious time. If only we would use time wisely for the harvest of our souls.

Today, on the feast of the Pentecost which is also the birthday of the Church, let us recall that First Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles with our Lady in their midst as they were praying in the upper room. This was the promise Jesus fulfilled when He said in John 14:15-18, "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

It is very easy to invoke the Holy Spirit which is a never drying fountain from which we can drink from. All we have to do is trim our lamps with continuous and dedicated prayer, fasting, praise and worship, in gracing the sacraments and reading the Word of God. These acts will go a long way in building up and strengthening the spirit within us so that one day we too can be ready and prepared to safely enter in with the bridegroom into the heavenly feast.

Maria Franco

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