Monday of
the 2nd Week of Easter
April 28, 2014 8:30am
At times I say to persons who
come for the Sacrament of Reconciliation: “God
is already alive in you.
The Holy Spirit is already at work in you.
It was the Holy Spirit who even brought you here for this sacrament.”
I suppose I say this especially when
someone feels that they are very far from God for whatever the reason may be.
I believe this very much.
God, the Holy Spirit is working
in and through us.
Jesus is conveying today that
there is something uncontrollable about the Spirit.
The Spirit works independently of
us, but always for us.
The Spirit is at work within us,
moving us to do good.
So the Spirit is at work within
us from the moment of our baptism.
This is the initial way that we
are “born from above,” or “born of the Spirit.”
Our job now is to be receptive to
the Spirit, to allow the Spirit to transform us as persons, to remove the
obstacles from that.
That is really what the Sacrament
of Reconciliation or the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass or an Act of
Contrition is all about.
Being receptive to the Spirit,
allowing the Spirit to transform us as persons, and removing the obstacles to
all of this – this is all we can do.
The initiative, that part of the
action comes from God, the risen Christ, by imparting his Spirit to us.
And the goal, of course, is to
conform ourselves more and more to the person of the risen Christ.
