The Holy Spirit - the passionate Love between Father and Son - sustains us through every storm so that we are not blown over and destroyed. The Holy Spirit uplifts us so that we can sing God's praises with gusto, filled with trust. The Holy Spirit fills us with awe when we see the quiet miracles that happen in our everyday lives - the birth of a child, the end of a feud, a morning sunrise when our hearts barely survived the night, the rich perfume of a lilac bush, a robin hopping and singing on a dew-lit front lawn. The Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual transfusion whenever we are weak and listless and ready to give up.
The Holy Spirit sings in our hearts, if we only listen. Sings of a Jesus who lifts our sins off of our weary shoulders and says "I've forgiven you. Now you are free to forgive the one who has hurt you." Sings of a Jesus who loved without counting the cost so that we, rooted in him, can have the discipline to keep lifting one foot and then the other to go about our daily work. Chants of a Jesus who ate with sinners and outcasts so that, rooted in him, we count every man and woman as someone with dignity and eternal worth. Hums in our hearts so that we have a constant, bubbling sense of humor even on the darkest day, because we know that, rooted in Christ, our lives will produce good in spite of our anguish and doubts.
The Holy Spirit sets us on fire daily, and removes any negative inclination to withdraw from our world out of fear or passive resignation. We are not quivering branches, blown here and there helplessly. We are strong in the Spirit which casts out fear and ignites passionate conviction, melts hearts that are frozen, warms hearts that are chilled. Even if we are numbed by tragedy, we can still choose to love. Even if we are depressed by grief, we can still choose to care about what's going on around us, in our families, our neighborhoods, our world.
Even if we've lost so much, we can choose to hold on to God for our dear lives, knowing God will never let us go. We may have deep sadness in our hearts because of loss, but our deepest self, rooted in Christ, is a joyful self - because of our hope in Christ.
Pope Francis says, “And here the first word that I wish to say to you: joy! Do not be men and women of sadness: a Christian can never be sad! Never give way to discouragement! Ours is not a joy born of having many possessions, but of having encountered a Person: Jesus, in our midst.”
If we live Spirit-filled lives, we encounter Jesus every day in our midst. In our family. In our co-workers. In our neighbors. If our heart's vision travels outward, we know that Jesus lives also in the refugee, the prisoner, the immigrant, the person of a different color and creed. We cannot love Jesus in the abstract. We have to love Jesus in the flesh, with absolute respect in our words, our actions, our attitudes. A follower of Jesus, infused and alight with his Spirit, cannot call people demeaning names, cannot use fear as an excuse for prejudice or hatred or rejection. The Spirit of Truth does not see national boundaries, but a world without borders alive and rooted in Christ.
Be the tree, not the branch. Be the tree whose roots go down deep into the circulatory system of the Body of Christ. Live rooted in the community of God, share its joys and sorrows, drink deep of its wisdom, share ministry in charity. Lift one another up, and, in turn, be lifted up. Live in love, and the Lord of Love will give you his Spirit and Life forever.