17 May 2023 - Spirit guide

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

We humans are not like the angels in that our movements, including movement to knowledge, progress through stages. Perhaps some very smart individual might look at a complicated math problem and see the solution at once without working through it. This is a human approximation of the way angelic minds probably work. But for most of us, we would need to go through the proper steps if we were to solve it at all. We take this for granted with solving math problems, or with the development of science. Yet we expect something different from theology. We expect ourselves to be able to perfectly understand the message of Jesus all at once without engaging with it and growing in it. And then we are disappointed, either in ourselves, or in his teaching, when we fail to do so. The teaching of Jesus is a bit like math and science in that we need to engage the material with our own effort and study, but unlike math and science something more than our effort is required for our growth.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,

he will guide you to all truth.

The Spirit is a guide that helps us move to ever deeper understanding of the things Jesus said and taught. He works with us, patiently waiting for life and learning to correspond in us in such a way that previous teachings take hold, moving us to the next level when we are ready for it. He is the best of teachers not only because of his mastery of the subject matter but also because of how deeply he knows each of us who are his students.

The classroom of the Spirit is the word of God, with the Catechism as an important supplemental text. We ought to do our part to ensure this learning happens, that mostly being the fact of showing up. The Spirit will not overload us and then demean us for not getting everything right immediately. He himself knows what we can bear and when. 

The promise of the guidance of the Spirit is primarily to the Church as a body as she learns to ever more deeply appreciate the multifaceted reality of the truth she was given once and for all. But we will most definitely not be enjoying our full birthright as members of the Church if we do not avail ourselves of the promise of the Spirit to us as individuals. Just as the Spirit guided the Church on the correct understanding of the Trinity, the human and divine natures of Jesus, the Sacraments, and many other things, so too does he desire to help us as children of the Church to understand. Unlike math and science, these truths are not mere abstractions, but realities that can transform our lives as we come to understand them more. They are primarily interpersonal, focused on relationship. And it is for this reason that the Spirit of truth is also the Spirit of Sonship and of adoption. His desire is not truth for the sake of abstract understanding, but truth empowering us to live as sons and daughters of the Father.

In our reading from Acts we see Paul building on the truths of Greek philosophers and poets with the revelation of Jesus Christ. In this we see that the Spirit himself had been building, and patiently overlooking times of ignorance, waiting for the moment when the listeners would be ready, and then moving them to the next step. From this we can see that the promise of Spirit of truth has an additional layer to the Ecclesial and the individual. There is also the missionary aspect. We are naturally disappointed when our efforts to evangelize don't meet with immediate success. And yet this is only rarely how it happens. We must learn to be patient as the Spirit as patient and to build when the Spirit says to build with the materials the Spirit himself has provided. Some might not be ready today, but perhaps tomorrow they will be able to bear it. The Spirit never gives up on anyone and so neither must we.

When they heard about resurrection of the dead,

some began to scoff, but others said,

"We should like to hear you on this some other time."

And so Paul left them.

But some did join him, and became believers.

Rich Mullins - Sometimes By Step

16 May 2023 - convicted

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"Now I am going to the one who sent me,

and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'

But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.

Jesus saw in what was about to happen a bigger plan and a larger picture. His disciples, however, only saw the negative signs of a gathering darkness, and heard Jesus own predictions about his coming Passion. They were saddened, but were afraid to ask Jesus what all of this meant. They assumed their entirely negative read of the situation would only become worse if they learned more. We see in them hearts that were unwilling to allow Jesus to reinterpret a negative situation according to his divine light. Fortunately, Jesus did not leave them closed in on themselves and sorrowful. He explained how this seemingly terrible thing that was about to happen was actually good news, and in fact the very core of the good news.

But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.

For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

Only humanity redeemed by the atoning death of Jesus would be capable of receiving the Advocate. God desired to dwell in the hearts of his people as spiritual temples. But unredeemed hearts were too full of other idolatrous things to have room for the Spirit of God. Only the Passion could liberate humanity from the dominion of darkness and make them free to serve the living God (see Hebrews 9:14). 

This Spirit was the Spirit of both the Father and of the Son, and was himself their mutual love. He would therefore be sent by the Father and the Son together. As Jesus, in his glorified humanity took his throne in heaven and began his reign over the earth, he kept his promise not to abandon his creatures or to leave them orphaned. As Jesus receded from the sight of his disciples history was transitioning to a new age, the age of the Spirit. 

it is better for you that I go

Only by taking these words seriously will we come to grasp just how great the promise of the Holy Spirit is meant to be for us. The external and visible form of Jesus was limited in time and space. The ability of the Spirit to be present to us is unlimited by time and space and he dwells within us in the depths of our beings rather than outside of us. Hence the Spirit can give us what the disciples often lacked: conviction. Our dearest friend, Jesus himself, seemed to be leaving, departing, sadly and perhaps forever. But in actuality he was preparing a new means to be even closer to his disciples than ever before. What they had known of him in the flesh was nothing compared to what they would experience through his Spirit.

he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation

The Spirit is the one whose gift of conviction makes us desire to believe in Jesus and his Word. He makes it possible for us to share in the righteousness of Jesus himself, righteousness that was not evident to the world that condemned him, and which the world is still unable to recognize. Worldly ideas of righteousness are incompatible with the righteousness that comes from God, which is only accessible and comprehensible to us because the Spirit makes it so. Finally, the Spirit will clarify for us true versus only apparent condemnation. The suffering and death of Jesus appeared to be condemnation that proved that he was not righteous. But the Spirit teaches us instead to see the cross as a victory, and the only true condemnation as that which awaits those who obstinately refuse to answer the invitation of Jesus to place their trust in him. To see this in action we need look no further than Paul and Silas in our reading from Acts. It was the conviction of the Holy Spirit that let them praise God even in their chains, who assured them that it was right to remain in their cell even  once they were freed, and who empowered them to share their conviction with the guard and his family.

When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell

and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying

and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened

Matt Maher - Every Little Prison (Deliver Me)

15 May 2023 - Spirit of Truth

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,

the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,

he will testify to me.

The Spirit of truth is the one who guides us into all truth (see John 16:13). He is the one who teaches us all things and reminds us of all that Jesus taught (see John 14:26). The consequence of this truth is conviction, specifically in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment (see John 16:8). The guidance of the Spirit happens at different levels in the Church. The Apostles who had been with Jesus from the beginning had a unique vocation to testify. The authors of the books of Scriptures had a unique charism of the Spirit in order to teach "solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings" (see Dei Verbum 11) because "everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit" (ibid). The Spirit himself still guides the Magisterium of the Church. He does not give her the power to add to revelation, because revelation was given once and for all (see CCC 66, 67, Dei Verbum 4). But he does give the guarantee that the highest levels of teaching from the Pope and ecumenical councils will always be, not necessarily as clear as we would like, but at least free from error. This high level ecclesial presence of the Spirit is the guarantee for individuals within the Church to be sure that they do not go astray. The three guarantees allow the Spirit within us to properly triangulate are own position. 

And you also testify,

because you have been with me from the beginning.

But it is not only to the Church hierarchy, nor only for the sake of the institution that the Spirit is given. As Paul taught, to "each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit" (see First Corinthians 12:7). As individuals, we obviously do not enjoy the same guarantees of being protected from errors as does the Church as a whole. But by remaining faithful to the Spirit at both an individual and ecclesial level we do have a solid foundation where we can have certainty of the truth we possess. Spending time in this place in the heart of the Church experiencing the presence of Jesus is how we ourselves become molded to give testimony. Giving testimony is clearly a priority of the Spirit. And this means that the Spirit is not just a gift for helping the faithful to remain faithful. He is a gift meant for us to go out and share. This is not the job only of a professional missionary class, but of every faithful disciple. Some of us may be called to go on great missionary journeys like Paul, Silas, and Luke. But many more of us will be called to bear witness in places we have been planted. The promise that "the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you should say" (see Luke 12:12) is for all everyone.

I have told you this so that you may not fall away.

It is a bad idea to try to live the Christian life without availing ourselves of the power of the promises of Jesus. The alternative is to try to fend for ourselves, to assembly our own truth from such scraps as we can piece together, to convince ourselves about such few relatively unimportant sins as we can stand to do without, to rely primarily on our own righteousness, and to ignore the idea that of future judgment.  If we try to bear witness to Jesus at all under these conditions we will hardly be persuasive. Even if the audience was not hostile they would not be impressed with what we, of ourselves, have to offer. All the more, then, since we are called to testify and to love even those who would kill us to offer worship to God, ought we rely on the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of truth knows what such hearts need to hear. Only he can give them the conviction that can yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

They will expel you from the synagogues;

in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you

will think he is offering worship to God.

We must learn to listen the voice of the Spirit of truth speaking to us in Scripture, and through the the voice of Tradition and of the Magisterial teaching of the Church. We must spend time in prayer with Jesus so that he can fill our us more and more with his Spirit in the call and response of his heart to our own. This is how we sheep, not overly intelligent creatures, can come to know and trust the voice of the shepherd. And only if we know his voice can we be the witnesses we are meant to be, witnesses the world needs.

Dan Purkapile - Come Holy Spirit

14 May 2023 - love language

Today's Readings

(Audio)

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

It has been said by others that obedience is the love language of heaven. We can see the truth of this in the way Jesus himself demonstrated his love of the Father by his obedience to him. As with how love often seems to us generally, these demonstrations of obedience seemed like things that would diminish or weaken the one who did them but that in fact nourished him deeply.

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (see John 4:34).

Even though he was the God-Man his human nature most fully expressed itself in all it was meant to be through obedience. Although one might speculate that a perfect individual would not need commandments but could act freely under the impetus of one's own will, recognizing and choosing the good with no outside influence, Jesus himself did not act this way. Rather, he "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (see Philippians 2:8). And was this important? Would things have gone differently for Jesus without this obedience? Such a thought experiment is impossible to answer since the premises would require Jesus to be someone other than he was. But considering it does highlight the beauty of Jesus prayer during the agony in the garden that the will of his Father and not his own human will be done. Jesus treasured the Father's command as something that empowered him to do what he himself knew he was meant to do, what his love was driving him to do, but that from which his human fear of suffering and death recoiled. Obedience empowered love for the humanity of Jesus in a way that the humanity itself simply did not have the resources to muster. But this obedience did not mean God the Father was merely using Jesus as a pawn to fulfill his own desires. Rather his Son himself desired to take this role and his Father was, as it were, giving him something more solid and definite as a basis for doing so.

And I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept

If we are willing to enter into this interplay of love between the Father and the Son we can be open to the presence of their Spirit, the Advocate, in our lives. This Spirit is the Spirit of adoption through whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (see Romans 8:15). Therefore it is precisely through the indwelling of the Spirit that we experience the truth that we are not orphans. We learn the unexpected and profound fulfillment of God's promise that "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (see Hebrews 13:5) and that, "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (see Matthew 28:20). He fulfilled the promises of his presence in a more profound way than we could have guessed. Though he is no longer visible to the world at large in his humanity, he continues to live, not merely in our midst, but in our hearts.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father

and you are in me and I in you.

When we express our love for Jesus we are responding to his own invitation to us. Because it is a response it is also a revelation of the one who is within us, prompting us, drawing us to more and more follow and his steps.

For Christ also suffered for sins once,

the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,

that he might lead you to God.

We who are humans have often been burned by merely human obedience and are reluctant to follow anything we can't prove or authenticate for ourselves. But this does not change the fact that God has made us for himself. The lower things of this world were never meant to be the center of our lives, never meant to command or dominate our path. Lesser things are always inevitably too limited and finite themselves, too needly in their own right to direct us to our true good. But God is different. He is unlimited, in need of nothing. He does not command in order to satisfy any need of his, but rather so that he himself can direct us to our good. He does so, not as an hostile influence from without, but sweetly from the center of our own souls. As Augustine wrote, "You were more inward to me than my most inward part; and higher than my highest" (Confessions, Chapter 6 Paragraph 11). 

When we come to understand why it so right and good for God to sit on the throne of our hearts rather than ourselves we begin to understand the joy people took in our reading from Acts when the Gospel was proclaimed and their great desire to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in power. And as we understand that we begin to grasp the urgency of Peter when he wrote that we should always "be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope". There is always more to this hope we have received than we yet realize. The Spirit is always to lead us ever deeper into the depths of its reality. And as he does so we become better able to convey it to a world that is itself starved for hope.

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare

what he has done for me.

Blessed be God who refused me not

my prayer or his kindness!

Songs In His Presence - Prayer Of Augustine

Paul Wilbur - Let Your Fire Fall

Bryan and Katie Torwalt - Holy Spirit

13 May 2023 - if the world hates you

Today's Readings

(Audio)

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.

The way we tend to imagine Jesus is not nearly as provocative as it seems that he actually was. Certainly he was kind and gentle, but not so kind or so gentle that he would shrink from a hard word when one was needed. He did not allow the merely human good of momentary comfort to obscure the more import good of relationship with God. Hence he was willing to call out hypocrisy when he saw it and to condemn sin for what it was. We tend to imagine a Jesus whose main priority was to never upset anyone. In the (probably rare) instance that correction was indeed necessary our image of Jesus would have predicted only a winsome and persuasive argument that charmed his opponents into accepting the message. But instead we discover that Jesus, the real Jesus, came to set fire on the earth (see Luke 12:49). He was never interested in comfort at the expense of truth. He intentionally upset his opponents because then at least they could not remain lukewarm or indifferent. He did all of this for their sakes, in order to heal and convert them. But that did not prevent them from responding to him by putting him to death. 

If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;

Because we belong to Jesus we are not permitted to compromise the truth for the sake of lesser goods. We must not be hypocrites who wear the mask of religion to conceal a massive compromise with the world and its ways. As Christians we tend to avoid a lot of potentially upsetting ways of proceeding because our main priority is often only to get along with others. We have ceased to be provocative in the way that Jesus was provocative and so have lost his ability to speak in a way that opens others to transformation. 

There are Christians in our world who are intentionally provocative and aggressive, but rather than imitating the style of Jesus and his absolute allegiance to his heavenly Father and to truth, they instead ape the combative and hostile discourse of the world around them. They speak, not to open hearts, but to exercise power over them and in the hope of being pridefully victorious. Jesus, by contrast, was willing to speak what he should even if it resulted in shame, defeat, and ultimately his death. He did not promise himself the reward of temporal gloating in order to say what needed to be said. He said what he did out of love, and no matter the cost to himself personally.

but because you do not belong to the world,

and I have chosen you out of the world,

the world hates you.

We have been chosen by Jesus himself, designated to follow in his footsteps and to be his hands and feet in the world. There is no way to succeed at this task without being provocative to the point that we are in some measure persecuted. We don't seek the persecution itself. But it is a good sign that we are still separated enough from the world to be able to speak to it from a place from which we might have something to offer. The fact of persecution isn't meant to make us feel sorry for ourselves. It isn't meant to make us act as entitled victims. It is rather a given that we are meant to understand so that it doesn't seem unusual or unplanned. The world resists change even though it is also at the same time desperate for it. It is in large measure a self-protective system resistant to any outside intervention. We are meant to be in this world but not of it, because only then can we speak to it as our master did.

If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

The message is not that we are doomed to a hopeless pursuit that yields no fruit. It is rather to expect that their are towns which won't welcome us, the dust of which we will need to brush from our feet. The message is that if we aren't willing to face rejection it is unlikely we will ever find much success. 

Brothers and sisters, we probably all need much help and grace to embrace the provocative Gospel message of Jesus as he would have us do. Most of us have been living on such terms with the world that we couldn't imagine upsetting anyone, ever, for any reason. And it is true enough that we are not called to go out to be aggressive and argumentative just for the sake of provocation. We will only find the right way forward if we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He will know the moments, the audiences, and even the words we ought to use. And he will tell us, if we listen, just as he did for those early disciples in the book of Acts. It is with him and nothing else that the world is meant to be set ablaze.

When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia,

but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them,

...

When he had seen the vision,

we sought passage to Macedonia at once,

concluding that God had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.

Newsboys - I'm Not Ashamed

12 May 2023 - no greater love

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Yesterday in the Gospel we read that if we kept the commandments of Jesus we would remain in his love. Today's reading makes it more clear why that is the case.

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

The commandments are, at their most fundamental level, all about love. First, we are loved by Jesus before we do, say, or earn anything for ourselves. Then we respond by obeying him and loving him, which are perfectly synonymous since we are responding to the one who is all good, all truth, and all beauty. And what should be the priority of our loving response to Jesus according to Jesus himself? He tells us, "love one another as I love you". Because we are loving others as a response to the fact that we ourselves have first been loved by Jesus we become empowered to show genuine selfless love. When we love others for God's sake and love them unto God as their last end we can love them better than if we had to rely on our own resources or were constrained to their limited human view of their goals and desires.

No one has greater love than this,

to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Jesus loved us in a way that we didn't really want when he did it. He bore the cross of which we did not want to admit that we stood in need. He loved us with a love that transformed our own hostility and sinfulness, our tendency to be enemies of God, into friendship. He gave us more than we were able to ask for or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20). Before he did so we would not have dared to ask. But not that he has done so, now that he has made us his friends, how can we not now love him in return? How can we not be as good as possible to so good a friend as that? 

I no longer call you slaves,

because a slave does not know what his master is doing.

I have called you friends,

because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

Jesus demonstrated the blueprint of true, genuine, agape style love by giving his life for us and making us into friends of God. Before he did so we were slaves, slaves to our passions, to ignorance, and to our fear of death. But now that we know everything that Jesus heard from the Father we have an obligation to shape our response of love to be as much as possible like the love first shown us by Jesus himself. It was not a task we chose for ourselves, but rather one which Jesus chose for us. And this should actually give us confidence where we might otherwise succumb to self-doubt. It was he who appointed us to bear fruit that will remain, and promised that his Father would provide all we would need to make the name and love of his Son known and to build his Kingdom of love in the world.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (see Ephesians 2:10).

Transformed by the love of Jesus we too have mandate, not to upset others with disputes and disturb their peace of mind, but to spread his love. We do so in a less official capacity than Barnabas and Paul. Yet we too have a part to play in the same mission they undertook because we too have dedicated our lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like them, we now look to love enemies unto friendship not only with us, but especially with Jesus himself.

I will give thanks to you among the peoples, O LORD,

I will chant your praise among the nations.

Israel Houghton - Friend Of God

11 May 2023 - a matter of faith

Today's Readings

(Audio)

As the Father loves me, so I also love you.

Remain in my love.

We are not called to earn or to attain that love, but to remain in it. With God it is always the case that we can only love because he first loved us (see First John 4:19). It is not a matter of becoming good enough for God by way of keeping the law. This was precisely what Peter called "a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear" in today's readings from Acts. The only benefit to trying to attain to God by our own strength is that, in failing, we come to learn of our need for a savior. Once we realize this need God quickly appears in our lives in order to fill it.

And God, who knows the heart,

bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit

just as he did us.

He made no distinction between us and them,

for by faith he purified their hearts.

God did not grant the Holy Spirit only to those who were worthy and could earn it for themselves. Rather, in his abundant mercy, he granted it to all who would put their faith in the Lord Jesus. 

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (see Romans 10:9-10).

This faith would lead to the forgiveness and purification of the heart so that the Holy Spirit himself could dwell within it. What the law was unable to do God himself did in Christ (see Romans 8:3). It was by faith that people, no matter their background, could now share in that gift.

Faith required repentance, a change from a self centered way of life to one that was instead centered on God. This was a radical and revolutionary change. Prior to making this change it seemed that everything came down to the individual, even his relationship with God himself. Such individuals felt that they were the ones primarily interested in their salvation. Individuals who felt this way either despaired of themselves as sinners or else become convinced of their own righteousness in spite of evidence to the contrary. But whichever path they chose, they did so because it all seemed to come down to them and their efforts. After the revolution of faith individuals no longer needed to view themselves as the last line of their own spiritual defense. They realized that God was at work within them, more deeply interested in bringing about their salvation than they were in receiving it. The constant challenge would be to leave this prerogative primarily in the hands of God rather than to try to take things too much back into one's own control.

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,

just as I have kept my Father's commandments

and remain in his love.

By faith it is possible to keep the commandments, motivated by love and empowered by the Spirit himself. To do so requires us something greater than our natural life can supply. That call is meant to cause us to rely on God who delights to provide. To those who have faith the commandments are no longer mere signposts of condemnation detailing where we fall short. They are instead descriptions of the ways in which we can reciprocate the love we first receive from Jesus, ways in which this love must be returned if it is to be genuine.

I have told you this so that

my joy might be in you and

your joy might be complete.

The commandments are not meant to be condemnation, meant to be more than merely obligation. With the indwelling presence of the Spirit within us they become genuine sources of joy as they lead us ever deeper into the life and love of the Triune God.

Announce his salvation, day after day.

Tell his glory among the nations;

among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.

Newsboys - Matter Of Faith (Acoustic)