Tuesday the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
In the first reading this morning, from First Corinthians, St Paul wants us to think about something. He asks, “Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?” As if to say, Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? And then he applies that to God: In the same way,” no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God”. God not only knows what he’s thinking and planning, but he lets us in on it.
Read in the context of the present crisis in the Church and in the world, St Paul is saying we don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions, or on Church leaders who speak in words taught by human wisdom. The Holy Spirit is there from the very moment that we call upon him, and we can call upon him only when he is present. When called upon he comes, and he brings many divine blessings with him. As soon as he is there, if he finds you humble and open to him, he will rest upon you and will reveal to you what God hides from the wise and the learned of this world.
If you want to receive and learn the meaning of the crisis in the Church and the world, it’s useless to expect from the mouth of a human being what he was not able to receive or learn from the lips of Truth himself. Christ who is Truth had said that God is Spirit, and just as those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, so also those who desire who know how to live through this crisis must seek the meaning of it only in the Holy Spirit.
In the darkness and ignorance of these times, it is the Holy Spirit is himself who acts in Christ to cast out unclean demons. It is the Holy Spirit who, in one incident after another, reveals the hand of God to those who believe, and for those who wait in faith for him, he gives understanding. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics.
Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.
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