Rise to the Level of our Times

To Whom Does God the Father Give His Spirit? 

Today’s session will focus on a simple but fundamental dimension of the Christian faith, the Holy Spirit.  And there are two dimensions of that presence we want to focus our attention; one is the communal and historical dimension while the other is personal.

We are going to arrive at the communal and historical dimensions by asking a simple question, To whom does God the Father give his Spirit?  Before reading further, you might want to write down your answer.  The words that you actual choose matter, for they reveal something of who you are and the world in which you live.

“Catholic” Responses that reveal the Communal and Historical Dimension

Dionzio: I always interpreted it as being when you received Holy Communion.

Rosemarie: One of the ways of receiving the Holy Spirit, I believe, is to become confirmed in Christ and receive the gifts of the Spirit and become the Temple in your soul and body.

Roseann: Well when we first get the Holy Spirit is when we have our babies baptized.  And that’s when the Holy Spirit is in you as a baby.  And then in Confirmation you reaffirm that.  You dedicated yourself to Christ.  You reaffirm your faith and the Spirit is reaffirmed in you.

Tim:  I guess the people who receive the Holy Spirit now are supposed to be when you receive Confirmation.  But back then it was when the tongues of fire came down from heaven on the Apostles, and the disciples in the room.

Fivepin: Isn’t it at baptism?  At Confirmation, aren’t you just renewing what you are accepting?

Dick:

If you listen carefully, pay attention to the actual words, it is possible for the whole world, a world with a traditions shared by many, to come to light.  For me then a number of features of the Catholic world come to light.  First, there is the sacramental world of the Catholic, Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion. This shared language is one of the sources of the life of the community.  Secondly, a family bringing their infant child to be baptism reveals a faith that has a tradition and, therefore, a history.

We can change the word Catholic, to Christian, to Jew, to Muslim, to Hindu, etc., in other words one’s tradition, history makes an enormous difference. It also very important to keep in mind that no human being chooses their parents, their sex, their country of origin, the year of their birth, etc.; all of the most formative aspects of everyone’s life is merely given, a gift.  This leaves us with another question, if all these formative aspects of our life are a gift, is there a Giver?

Conditional Responses

Annette: Anybody who asks.

Carol: Those who open their hearts and accept what Jesus has to offer them as the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Dick

These responses raise another, and in some ways deeper, question, if one “asks,” if one “open your heart and accept” what role does the Holy Spirit play in those actions.  Can we ask, can we open our heart, without the prior gift of God’s Spirit?  How would you answer this question?

Universal Response

Michael: Everyone

Dick

Michael with a single word response raises the discussion to a meaningfully different level and that from two different aspects.  Is his answer correct, true?  And, if it is, what are the implications for how everyone understands everyone else?

The Issue of Truth in a Modern Pluralistic Society

We have seen that there is a range of opinions which is pretty normal in any gathering of adults. But on the assumption that individuals will hold different opinions, especially on substantive issues, here are a few more questions to ponder.

Is there a difference between opinion and truth?  Yes? No? I don’t know?  What are the reasons for your answer?

How is truth to be governed in a modern pluralistic society?  Who decides what is true? Is truth a matter of a majority rule?  What are some of the strongly held issues in our society that are rooted in truth claims?  How is the Spirit of God manifested in the concrete events of these truth claims?

It might prove interesting to talk with your friends about this statement: Truth without love becomes a weapon and love without truth is false.

An Existential Response Reveals the Personal Dimension

Mary: I just . . . I guess I have the Holy Spirit.  But I always thought in the back of my head that it was going to be like this lightening strike or something.  I’m not a good Catholic person because I don’t feel like I have the Holy Spirit.  I try to live my life, you know, to be good to others, to be a good wife and a mother.  And, you know, do unto to others as you want them to do to you. But I don’t know if that’s the Holy Spirit?  I think that is one of the reasons I’m here.  I was brought up in the Catholic faith.  I was baptized, receive First Communion, Confirmation.  Did the marriage prep and all that stuff. And, you know . . . Do I have the Holy Spirit?

I would like to think I do.  But it’s not like something I feel. I believe in God.  He helped me through some really crisis in my life.  It was the only thing that would have gotten me through; the faith that He gives me, the faith and courage and the wisdom to get through that.  But what the Holy Spirit is, I don’t know.

Dick

Mary’s comments open up an existential question, a personal question.  Even if the “church” teaches that we receive the Holy Spirit, how do I know?  In the question is a searching, a wanting to know.  Have you ever asked a similar question?  Like Mary, how would you talk about  your circumstances?

Discerning the presence of the Spirit within us is a delicate matter.  I would suggest that we first turn to a passage that Paul wrote to the Galatians who may very well have been feeling the very feelings that Sarah expressed.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Gal. 5:22

Each of Paul’s words deserves our attention.  He begins by identifying each of them as a “fruit,” that is, what is present within us as from the Holy Spirit.  Each is not what we achieve, they are what is given.  Let me take one example, peace.  This is the peace that the “world” cannot give.  It is a peace that is present even when we fail, fall short, are overcome with sorrow, grief; is more determinate than the Holy Spirit.

Your comments are welcomed.

Background Session 1

If you happened to have read the project description for this website: http://rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com/?page_id=27, you might have noticed that I think history plays a critical role in shaping the religious world of believers. To start with Christians believe that God entered into history in the person of Jesus the Christ. But history by its very nature is about the concrete and the changing. So one of the goals of this website will be to bring the concrete history, as best we can come to know it, into our concrete lives as best we can live them.

Let me offer one small example of this history. The example is in the second sentence in the paragraph above. In that sentence, I could have written “in the Person of Jesus Christ” but instead I wrote, “in the person of Jesus the Christ.” It is encountering these small, and sometimes quite significant, changes that reveal the shape of our world. Jesus began his public ministry, and only over time, that is in history, was identified with “the Christ,” the Anointed One, a title. This title had a whole range of meanings, which had their origin in the Jewish Scripture and were alive at the time of Jesus and immediately afterward. Some of the concrete meanings of this title were identified with Jesus and others were not. Over time his very name was changed to Jesus Christ. And we who follow him have been named “Christians” ever since.

As you read the previous paragraph and because of the world shaped by your concrete living, you could have had a wide range of responses to it. “Of course.” “What is the author talking about?” “I didn’t know that.” “So what?” Or “What difference does that make?” Etc. And these responses are merely intellectual. You also could have experienced a whole range of feelings. Your feelings may have been welcoming feelings, hostile feelings, uneasy feelings. Only you know what feelings you had. To identify the feelings you actually had, either you would had to have paid attention to them as you were reading the words or you would have to recall them now. But feelings are tricky, sometimes we have feelings that we don’t attend to or don’t even want to acknowledge. This is our lot . . .  To confront the Christian scripture is this paying attention in wonderment being led forward in our decisions.

Week by week we will be challenged to rise to the level of our times; to become historically attuned to who we are as Christians and to the world in which are invited to live that call; to learn as Jesus did, not to do our own will but to do the will of the Father; and like Jesus to discern the Father’s will in the concrete circumstances of our life.  It wasn’t an accident that in the only prayer Jesus taught us we are asked to pray very clearly, “your will be done . . .” Now the context in which we are to do the will of the Father is in the promotion of the Kingdom [Reign] of God.

Keep in mind through it all that God loves us, wants us, each and every one of us.  And in his wisdom has created each and everyone of us in the history of the very world in which we concretely live out our lives.   And through it all God will continuously invite us to rise to the level of our times.

I can guarantee you that I will invite you to think, the rest is up to you.