Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts today as we reflect on the Good News together: +Come, Holy Spirit; Come, Holy Spirit; Come, Holy Spirit.+
It always amazes me to see how God works. As I look back on my own life, I could never have predicted the people God would use to draw me closer to Himself. One of those people was my good friend, Andrew Kebe. From the outside, we had certain things in common: both Catholic, both from big families, both millennials. But beyond that, we were pretty different. Andrew was a few years older than me, more athletic in high school, playing football and lacrosse. I was more into the arts, spending most of my time singing in choirs and doing theater. He was a Catholic school kid, I was a public school kid. He was big and muscular, I was skinny. Andrew majored in Philosophy at Ohio State, I majored in Technology Education. But despite all of these dissimilarities, God drew us together to be brothers in Christ and to live and serve Him together.
I can still remember the first time I was really drawn by the Holy Spirit to be Andrew’s brother in Christ. It was at a Catholic Men’s Luncheon in downtown Columbus. I was there because I knew my parents were excited about this new Catholic group, Saint Paul’s Outreach, that Andrew was starting at Ohio State. Andrew was there mainly to encourage these older Catholic businessmen at the luncheon to financially back this apostolate that he was trying to start at Ohio State. At that time, Andrew and I were essentially strangers. I knew who he was, but I really didn’t know him. But then, as Andrew spoke about God’s work in his own life and showed a video where other students involved in Saint Paul’s Outreach spoke about their experience, something changed in me. In that moment, I recognized that Andrew and these other people my age had a depth of relationship with God that I desired. Even without fully understanding it, I saw that the Holy Spirit was at work in them and it stirred me to want the Holy Spirit to move in my own life.
So the next year, as you may remember from my previous stories about life in college, I joined the Saint Paul’s Outreach men’s household as a freshman at Ohio State. The guys in this household were different from each other in many ways. They came from different backgrounds and family situations, with a variety of skills, talents and interests. But they all had the same goal in mind: trying to follow Jesus together and inviting other people to do the same. This commonality bonded us in a way that nothing else could. We came together in living a life with the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us, and consequently were able to enjoy a deep and real unity as brothers in Christ. I am still so grateful for their brotherhood and lasting friendships. In fact, later this week I will be concelebrating the wedding of my old SPO friend Dominic to his fiancee Giovanna. Dominic is one of those brothers in Christ I met during my college years, and we still remain close over a decade later because of how the Holy Spirit brought us together.
This same Holy Spirit has been at work in the Church from the very beginning. We hear St. John the Baptist speak about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel today. It is clear that the Spirit led St. John the Baptist to make the bold proclamation that I repeat at every Mass when I hold up the consecrated Sacred Host: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.” The Holy Spirit allowed St. John to have the insight that Jesus Himself was the Lamb of God who would be the sacrificial offering of perfect love to cleanse away the sins of the world. The Holy Spirit also let St. John know about the great gift of Jesus’ Baptism, which would allow all of us to experience the Holy Spirit in a deep way by connecting us into the very life of the Trinity. St. John the Baptist testified: “I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” This message undoubtedly was the Holy Spirit at work in the depths of St. John the Baptist’s heart, speaking to him of the incredible blessings that his preaching and call to repentance would pave the way for people to receive.
This interaction between St. John the Baptist and Jesus shows us once again the way that the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit Personifies the love between the Father and the Son. Just as He is the Person springing through all eternity from the perfect union of God the Father and God the Son, so when the Spirit works in all of us, He draws us together by giving us new spiritual eyes. He gives people the eyes to see Him at work in the Church, and for we who are in the Church, He gives us eyes to see those who need God the most. So at the end of the day, our call is to draw people to the love of God that conquered death on the Cross, to draw people to the love that was poured out on Pentecost through the Holy Spirit coming upon the Church, to allow the power of that Holy Spirit to rest on us through our Baptism, just as He rested on Jesus when He instituted Baptism for us. The Person of Perfect Love desires to bring all people together into unity with the triune God Himself.
We see this new spiritual depth in how St. John the Baptist sees Jesus. St. John is led by the Holy Spirit to see Jesus with faith, to see that Jesus wasn’t just his relative, a carpenter’s son and at that point a relatively obscure new preacher. The Holy Spirit let St. John the Baptist see to the Heart of who Jesus was and is for all of us: the Son of God, the Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world. In a sense, the Holy Spirit opened up the eyes of St. John the Baptist’s heart to see to the depths. By the power of the Holy Spirit at work in him, He was able to see the Holy Spirit at work in God the Son.
Our call is to be like St. John the Baptist. Notice how twice he says about Jesus, “I did not know him.” But clearly he did know him, their mothers were cousins and close to each other. There is little doubt that St. John the Baptist knew Jesus in the natural sense. But he is talking about the type of knowing that the Holy Spirit gave him, a knowledge of the depths of who Jesus was and is–God with us. This is one of the ways the Holy Spirit works. He deepens our vision. To those inside the church, He gives us eyes to see those who are open to the Gospel, open to the work of the Spirit in their hearts. To those either outside the Church or less attuned to their faith, the Spirit gives the ability to see Him at work in those in the Church. This happened for me with my friend Andrew from college, and with many others since then. I look out and see the Holy Spirit working in all of you! We have all been blessed to have seen and been drawn by the light of the Holy Spirit shining through someone in our own lives. So many throughout the centuries of the church have experienced this as well.
So I invite you to look to your right and left. Look at all of your family and fellow parishioners sitting with you in the pews. Some of you may say, “Father, I’m sitting on an aisle, there is nobody on this side of me.” That is the point! the Holy Spirit wants to put on your heart those people who are outside your pew, outside the church, those He can draw in through you, and who in turn can draw in others. That is how the light spreads! And that goes for you all in the middle of the pews as well. As we hear from the prophet Isaiah today: “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
The Spirit of God wants to help us all to have that same gathering force that St. John the Baptist had through his openness to the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit desires for us to be people who look at others not with our human judgment, which tends to get all too caught up in the differences and especially the flaws in others. Instead, with the eyes of faith, He wants us to see others’ potential to respond to the Gospel through the Spirit already at work in them.
Even now, the Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of those around us who need God the most, preparing them to see Him. Will we open ourselves to be those humble lights that allow the Holy Spirit to shine through us? This is our call: to let the Holy Spirit open our eyes to those around us in need, so that He can show Himself to them through us. May we be inspired to imitate St. John the Baptist and the other men and women of faith in our lives who have been witnesses to us. May we too invite the Holy Spirit to work in and through us, and then just do our best to get out of His way!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for sending us Jesus and for helping us to recognize Him, the way St. John the Baptist did, as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus, thank you for giving us the incredible gift of Baptism through which we become dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, come! Come into our hearts in a deeper way and help us learn to seek out those who need You, and help us to allow You to shine through us onto them. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.+