Because breathing is fundamental to being alive, it is not a coincidence that we often use breath as a metaphor for life. For example, in the Book of Genesis, we are told that God breathed life into the first man (Gen 2:7). To be a living creature at all was to have this breath of life (Gen 7:22), a power connected to his own Spirit, which before all of creation moved like a wind over the waters of the deep (Gen 1:2). At other times in the Scriptures, we hear how the Spirit of God comes upon particular individuals at particular times – most notably, the prophets – moving them to accomplish what he has planned. All of these images are connected; breath, and spirit, and wind are all different ways of translating the same Hebrew word: ruah. Throughout the Old Testament, we see how the ruah of God is his Spirit, breathing life, and moving like a powerful wind to accomplish what he wills. And finally, of course, in the New Testament, God’s Spirit comes upon Jesus himself, visibly in his baptism, and then animating him throughout his earthly ministry.
Vigil Mass: But here’s a question: with all of these Scriptural references to the Spirit, why did we just hear in the Gospel that “There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”? The answer is found in our first reading. The prophet Joel says that there will come a day when God will pour his Spirit “upon all flesh.” This isn’t just the general state of being alive, the breath of life that living beings have. This is the Spirit coming upon all persons in the way that the prophets had it, in the way that Jesus had it. God wishes, Joel says, to send out his Spirit so that all persons are endowed not just with the earthly breath of life, but the very Breath, the very Spirit that is God himself.
Mass of the Day: But here’s a question: why did we just hear in the Gospel that Jesus “will send” the Spirit (Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15)? Isn’t the Spirit already present in the world – in all of those Scriptural references that I mentioned, and in the very person of Jesus himself? What Jesus refers to must be something different than the general state of being alive, the breath of life that all living beings have, and it must be something different than the Spirit acting in one particular person. What Jesus means is that God will send his Spirit to all persons – to everyone who knows and is connected to his Son, so that the Spirit comes upon them in the same way that the prophets had it, in the same way that Jesus himself had it. This new gift of the Spirit will endow human beings not just with the earthly breath of life, but with the very Breath, the very Spirit that is God himself.
Today we mark the great Solemnity of Pentecost, the final feast of the Easter season and the celebration of how the Holy Spirit has indeed come upon humanity in a new way. In the first Pentecost, as the Acts of the Apostles relates, the disciples were gathered together when the room in which they were was filled with the noise of a driving wind – a ruah – and the Holy Spirit descended upon them like tongues of fire. The Spirit came forth to teach them, to fill them with zeal, to motivate them to continue what God had been doing by his Spirit in the world, and now would continue to do in a new way, present in human beings.
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| Pentecost (c. 1846) by Fidelis Schabat |
That Pentecost event is repeated, not just symbolically but really, in every sacrament, most notably the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. All Christians, every one of the baptized, has been filled with the Holy Spirit in as real a way as the disciples were in that Upper Room. By God’s grace, by the very presence of God himself, we are alive in a new way – not just with the earthly breath of life, but with the eternal life of God’s very Spirit. Within our very selves, we have the presence of God teaching us, filling us with zeal, motivating us to accomplish his will.
How do we accomplish God’s will? The first step is to seek it consciously. We can breathe naturally on our own, without thinking, as I mentioned before. But breathing with God’s Spirit is different – it can’t be done unconsciously, unthinkingly, but must be engaged with our intellect and our will, for it is in those faculties of the human soul that the Holy Spirit operates. So, if you want to be holier, if you want a deeper relationship with God, if you want to know more fully what God wants for your life, if you want to know how God is asking you to serve him – then there is no substitute for asking the Holy Spirit to show you. The Holy Spirit, breathing within your soul, can show you what he alone knows, if you seek him in prayer. As those who have been given the Spirit, we must be continually asking him – consciously, intentionally – to show us what God desires for us.
Once we have done that, and learned to continue to do that in a habitual way, then the hard part is over – God will act, he will show us, and we only have to trust him enough to be carried along for the ride. The Spirit, the mighty breath of God, will carry us like the wind if we are humble enough to let him do so, to be moved by him in that way. He will teach us his truth, console us with his presence, fill us with us fruits – unless we frustrate his action, unless we turn away from his grace, resist his movement, reject his prompting. That is why the greatest prayer we can offer to the Holy Spirit is to ask him to show us his will and make us docile in accepting it.
Friends, we breathe in and out hundreds of millions of times over the course of our lives, but in the end, the fullness of life comes not from our own powers but from the breath of God, the Holy Spirit. He breathes life not only into our bodies but into our eternal souls, but we will not receive the fullness of that life if we are not aware of it, engaging with him and seeking his will in prayer. May this time of Pentecost renew within us the conscious purpose to seek God’s will each day, so that as we celebrate the gift of him who dwells within us, we may learn to be docile to the Spirit wherever he may lead.
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