2nd Week of Easter/St.
Athanasius
Fr. Philip Neri Powell,
OP
NDS, NOLA
In
the midst of some horrible situation – final exams, Capstone
project due in ten minutes, you've missed your homily tutorial – in
the midst these horrible situations, have you found yourself crying
out to God, “O Lord! Please help me! I'll pray three rosaries a day
for a year; give up coffee for a week; and read all of my assignments
next semester if you help me!” This cry from the heart is a cry for
grace – divine assistance, and I've no doubt that all of us here
have at one time cried out to God in such desperation. We might
imagine a distant, mostly indifferent deity wafting around in heaven
oblivious to our (mostly) self-inflicted wounds, a deity whose
attention we must attract and whose pity we must entice with
promises, bargains, and offers of sacrifice. So, we begin. We
promise. We bargain. We offer sacrifice. And, inevitably, we slink
away in confusion and disappointment when our rich bounty of
proffered spiritual loot results in nothing more than a Grand Silence
from the heavens. The problem here is this: this
is how the pagans pray.
John teaches us, “[God the Father] does not ration his gift of the
Spirit.” And neither do those who follow His Son.
When
we pray, we testify; that is, when we open ourselves to commune with
the Divine, we bear witness to the reality of God's presence in our
lives, and we manifest the Spirit of God who animates everything we
think, say, and do. Because God does not ration His Spirit, His
Spirit is freely given in infinite abundance to any and all who will
receive Him. There is no promise, no bargain, no sacrifice that is
worthy of this gift. There is no created thing that can be offered to
Divine Love Himself that equals the generosity of this gift to the
believer. The only proper response upon receiving the Spirit is
infectious joy, copious praise, and perpetual thanksgiving. To be
clear: in receiving
the Spirit there is no necessary exchange btw God and His creature.
We have nothing to give Him that is not already His. For our sake, we
are allowed to speak as though there is an exchange – a way for us
to grasp imperfectly the nature of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross.
But truly – what we have to give ultimately comes to nothing: our
sin, our disobedience, our rebellion. So, when desperate, do not
promise or bargain or sacrifice. Instead, receive.
Open your heart and mind to the abundance of the Spirit and bear
witness in prayer to the Divine Love Who created you, who re-created
you in Christ, and who will make you perfect as He Himself is
perfect.
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