Listening to the Spirit of the Living God

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." - John 16:12-13 To be where God wants us to be on life’s journey; to obey God’s will even if it means relinquishing our fondest hopes; to gaze one day on the face of God with a look of love that lasts forever—all such actions are formed, reformed, and transformed in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Listening to the Spirit of the Living God in all that we are and do keeps us humble; detached from illusory promises of fulfillment; and charitable in our encounters with the people entrusted to our care by God.

The Spirit puts on our lips the language of longing and on our minds a reminder that the empty space in our heart can only be filled by God. We receive the blessed assurance that no matter the obstacles strewn on our path or the weight of the crosses we may be asked by God to carry, we are never alone.

With the help of the Spirit, we let go of what is not of God. We leave the comfort zone of self-centered living. We ask for and receive the courage to foster radical obedience to God’s will. Thanks to the grace of Trinitarian intimacy, we feel carried by the force of God’s love to new depths of prayer and new heights of apostolic zeal.

Facilitating our desire to listen to the still, small voice of the Spirit are three aspirations of our Christ-formed interior life, the first of which is abiding. We find that cultivating inner stillness becomes second nature to us. We want to remain in Jesus as Jesus remains in us (see Jn 15:1).

The second aspiration is to grow in awe for the sacred dimension of reality. Standing, for example, on the edge of the Grand Canyon, we might inhale a gulp of air and in wordless wonder exhale, “Ah!” The majesty of this overwhelming site of God’s creative power moves us from a moment of awe to a life of awe-filled worship, reverence, and adoration of the Holy.

The third disposition focuses on our aspiring to pay attention to the sacred beauty of every moment of life from a newborn baby’s fingers to a painted sky at sunset, from a table set to receive guests to the celebration of the Eucharist.

When we abide in awe-filled attention, we aspire to know, love, and serve God on earth that we may be with God forever in heaven. The Holy Spirit inspires our human spirit to praise and glorify God’s infinite goodness in us and in all of creation. Such aspirations give way to an outpouring of good works that manifest our commitment to honor Christ by modeling a life of sanctity and service.

In response to the universal call to holiness, we pray to persevere amid present-day challenges and to be ready to meet those set before us in the future. We appreciate the richness of the ordinary as much as those occasional uplifts in our life of prayer that confirm why we say with conviction, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

Tempted though we may be to build tents on a mountaintop radiant with ethereal light, we listen to Jesus, return to the valley of everydayness, and rededicate ourselves to the routine tasks that await our attention (see Mk 9:2-10).

The more we listen to the Spirit, the more the most common of these chores shimmers with significance. Here is the Lord—in this basket of dirty laundry we have to wash clean; in this meal we need to prepare with the few ingredients we could afford; in this classroom of distracted youngsters in whom we strive to instill a love of learning and a desire for God. The more mystery-centered our life becomes, the more we appreciate the truth that the Spirit is there to encourage and console us, to renew our faith, bolster our hope, and increase our love.

Having been enkindled with the fire of the Spirit, we can proclaim in thought, word, and deed that we have not only been reformed by grace, but also that we are being transformed from glory unto glory (see 2 Cor 3:18). Our task is to transform our heart so we may be used by God to transform the world, thanks to the wonderful gifts and fruits we receive from our Advocate, the Holy Spirit.