God will lead us and equip us if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us
The formation of a disciple of Jesus is a lifelong process. The Scriptures from the solemnity of the Ascension notice that even to the last moments, Jesus is teaching His disciples and urging them to continue to learn what it means to follow Him.
His instruction as He was about to leave the Earth rings true. I encourage each of us to take the Scriptures from this weekend and find out, through prayer, meditation and observation of our lives, how these Scriptures can apply to us.
I tend to react quickly to what I think needs to be done, often motivated by a strong emotional reaction. I’ve learned that there’s nothing wrong with strong emotional reactions. Still, without thought, reflection and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I have been and could be misleading or destructive in my responses in certain situations. Might that be true for others, as well?
In my younger years, I had a conviction about how wrong discrimination is, no matter the group or individual. I experienced that primarily through the civil rights movement and gained valuable lessons for life as I interacted with people much more experienced than I in that movement. They taught me that justice must be accompanied by mercy and love, and anyone who advocates for justice should not act primarily out of anger. Those things should be taken care of so we are sure we are acting out of love and mercy.
As I grow older, I have a pretty clear idea of how life should be lived, what it means to be loved by God and the fruits of that love. I want so much for everyone to experience the freedom of God’s love, but sometimes my commitment to that vision is more a short sprint than a marathon of accompaniment with those who might be different from me. Do we recognize that in ourselves? How often do we try to fix someone else so they can be the way we want them to be? We often call this love, but isn’t it usually making people in our image rather than in the image of God? Isn’t it often our need to control the world rather than love and take the world as it is?
We are awaiting our celebration of Pentecost on June 8. Just as the early disciples waited in a locked room, we are locked in our unconsciousness and lack of openness to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Could we use this week to prepare to act on the urging of the Holy Spirit rather than our need to control or to tell others how they’re wrong? Living with the understanding that we control only one life — our own — gives us true freedom to act in love toward others, no matter how different they are from us. It is that unconditional love we have learned from Jesus that we can give to others. That love is the only power that might open someone’s heart to the formation Jesus is offering them at that point. We have the gift of love to give, but it should not be connected to control or manipulation.
Openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit necessitates our being willing to be open, empty and available to be prompted in directions we might not be comfortable with or feel unequipped to do. God will lead us and equip us if we allow the Holy Spirit to come into us, guide and direct us. Let us prepare, each of us in our best way, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Father Donald Wester is retired and serves as lecturer of homiletics at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
