Day 49. Access in the Spirit
You have not approached …a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them…. No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Hebrews 12:18-22
The reality of the indwelling Spirit will begin to take on a new immediacy as you discern your particular place in the body of Christ. In the aftermath of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Christians developed a new relationship with God and a different sense of how to relate to him, a different expectation of his direct action in and through their lives. The word or concept I would like to focus on here is “access.”
Access to God in the old covenant was limited and exclusive. Through his abiding presence in the temple, God dwelt with his people, but he was remote, secluded and shrouded in mystery. A pilgrim or worshiper seeking entry to the temple could approach only to specified boundaries based on his relationship to God and his place in the community of the Israelites. Non-Jew? This far but no closer. Jewish woman? This far but no closer. Jewish man who is not of the privileged tribe of Levi? This far but no closer. Son of Levi who is not a descendant of Aaron? This far but no closer. Only one man, the High Priest selected by lot, could enter the inner sanctuary – the “holy of holies” – once a year to offer the atoning sacrifice for the people.
The conditions for the High Priest’s annual audience with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were of strictest exactitude. If he came before the Lord with any impurity in his conscience, any physical defect, or any fault in his ritual offering, he could be struck dead on the spot. He could suffer the fate of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu who offered “profane fire” before the Lord and were consumed in flame (Lev. 10:1ff). The law prescribed that golden bells be woven into the hem of the High Priest’s robe (Ex. 28:34f), perhaps to serve as an audible signal that he was still alive inside the curtained enclosure of the sanctuary. Along these lines there is a tradition that holds that the other priests would fasten a rope to the High Priest when he entered the veil that separated the main hall of the temple from the holy of holies [1]. If he remained inside too long and no bells were heard, they could pull him out by the rope, assuming he’d been found unworthy.
Sobering, I know. The great reverence of old covenant temple worship is rooted in the fear of the Lord; the conviction, to put it in plain words, that the God of Israel was neither “tame” nor “nice.” The word “awe” (from which we so casually take the word “awesome”) originally referred to the intense mixture of terror, wonder, and devotion inspired by an experience of the presence of God.
Awe. That awe should now be turned toward the Spirit who dwells in each of us as baptized Christians. Our baptism and our confirmation were in fact events of awesome power. God came into us and has made his dwelling within us. God gifted us and equipped us for service. The God who once dwelt apart, removed from his people in remote and mysterious separation, now lives in you and in me. This indwelling gives us access to the most intimate heart of God. So that, in the words of St. Paul, “he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19, emphasis added).
Our access is now complete. Through the indwelling Spirit, we may be “filled with the fullness of God.” Did you notice the odd phrase in the passage above? What does St. Paul mean when he says we may comprehend “what is the breadth and length and height and depth?” This was a reference to the holy of holies, which was a perfect cube equal in all its dimensions (1 Kgs 6:19, 20). Once an external place, a secret room to be approached with fear, it is now an interior reality. God’s own heart united with our hearts and enkindled with the fire of God’s love.
God has not changed. We still hold him in great awe. Our fear, however, is fundamentally different. Our relationship to the indwelling Spirit, though reverent, is characterized by a new kind of joy. Life in the Spirit is dynamic and transforming. The Spirit imparts a deep awareness of our eternal destiny and this suffuses the Christian soul with comfort and peace. The perfect, atoning sacrifice of Christ has changed the fearful relationship we, the human race, once had with God. The breaking of Jesus’ own body on the cross has reconciled all humans, Jews and gentiles, to God by “putting that enmity to death by it” (see Eph. 2:14-18).
If we want to see what this new relationship of indwelling looks like, we can read the book of the Acts of the Apostles. We discover there that it was God’s plan from long ago (Acts 2:16-21) that his people would be “clothed with power from on high” so that we should be his witnesses throughout the world (Acts 1:8). As the new people of God, the Church, our testimony is to be confirmed by miraculous signs through the Holy Spirit. Worship is transformed through the gifts – the charisms – of the Spirit and prophesy, properly discerned and submitted to authority, becomes a gift open to many rather than to a select few (Num. 11:29). God now speaks freely to his people and through his people. And it is clear that the people in the early days of the Church expected God to speak – it was commonplace, not a rare occurrence. In fact, the problem of early Christian worship was how to limit the number of prophets speaking at a particular gathering (see 1 Cor. 14:26 – 33).
This is important for us to understand. In the new covenant, the voice of God speaking prophetically through the Spirit is a normal and expected part of the Church’s life. We should know how to hear the Spirit and recognize his voice. We may not all be prophets, but all can expect to communicate with the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have access to the heart of God and to understanding his purposes for our lives. Be confident, therefore, as we return to our examination of the temple’s floor plan and structure. Allow the Lord to speak in the depths of your heart about his cherished, intimate presence in your life. Do not be surprised at his spontaneous interventions in your daily life; his voice, his encouragement, his correction, his inspiration. Discernment, I will continually remind you, is not a program but a relationship. It is life in the Spirit – an on-going adventure. Open your ears to the voice of the Spirit. Expect him to act and to move with awesome power.
Novena Prayer
RENEWAL OF CONSECRATION TO MARY
Mary, please intercede for me during this Discernment Novena.
You heard the voice of the angel and trusted in the plan of God,
Teach me to listen and to trust.
You pondered in your heart the mystery of God’s unfolding will.
Teach me to silently reflect and discern.
You yielded to the power and grace of the Holy Spirit; gratefully receiving His gifts
Teach me to receive the gifts of the Spirit in my life.
You courageously followed the path marked down for you by God – even to the foot of the cross.
Teach me to be courageous in bearing with Jesus my own cross.
Mary my mother, I consecrate myself to you for the duration of this period of discernment.
Please pray for me that when the time is right, I will respond to God’s invitation in the same words as you:
“I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say.”
Amen.
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
A QUOTE TO NOTE
1. Awe: Sensing the Ultimate in the Simple
Prayerfully reflect on the following definition of awe.
Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme.
Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine...to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.
Abraham Heschel [2]
Can I think of an experience of awe I’ve had in my life? What were the circumstances?
Why do I think the author distinguishes “analysis” from “awe”? What’s the difference?
2. Were Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit Only for Bible Times?
Does the Holy Spirit still bestow gifts on the Church? Many people assume the days of miraculous signs are past. Consider this passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:
To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
1 Corinthians 12:8-11
What do I think? Were these gifts of the Spirit only for Bible times? Using the list of gifts above I try to identify what spiritual gifts are operative in the following true stories – all of which occurred long after the Bible was written, and right up to modern times!
a. St. Ignatius of Loyola – 16th century
The story below is dictated by Ignatius himself, though he uses the third person.
Once he was going out of devotion to a church situated a little more than a mile from Manresa….As he went along occupied with his devotions, he sat down for a little while with his face toward the river, which ran down below. While he was seated there, the eyes of his understanding began to be opened; not that he saw any vision, but he understood and learnt many things, both spiritual matters and matters of faith and of scholarship, and this with so great an enlightenment that everything seemed new to him.
The details that he understood then, though there were many, cannot be stated, but only that he experienced a great clarity in his understanding. This was such that in the whole course of his life, after completing sixty-two years, even if he gathered up all the various helps he may have had from God and all the various things he has known even adding them all together, he does not think he had got as much as at that one time [3].
Using the Corinthians passage, the spiritual gift described here is:
b. St. Don Bosco - 19th century
Don Bosco was a priest who served orphan street children in Turin, Italy. The following comes from the sworn testimony of an eye-witness (c. 1849)
As I took the roll from the hands of Don Bosco I looked into the basket and counted about fifteen rolls, certainly not more than twenty. Then I placed myself at a spot behind Don Bosco, that is, on the steps leading from the church. As the boys filed past, they kissed his hand and he either said something to them or smiled at them.
The distribution went on until every boy, to the number of about four hundred, had received his roll. The distribution over, I again looked into the basket, and to my astonishment saw the same quantity of bread as there has been at the beginning, though no other bread had been brought up nor had the basket been changed [4].
Using the Corinthians passage, the spiritual gift described here is:
c. St. André Bessette – 20th century
Burned by molten lead, a young machinist is desperate to save his eyesight but doctors can’t help (c. 1944). With his face swollen beyond recognition, he stumbles to the Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal to visit the doorkeeper, a humble brother who does remarkable things. Below he describes what happened.
“Brother André,” I said, “you can see I’m too young to lose my sight; you can do something!”
He replied and I give you every word exactly as he said it: “Who said you’re going to lose your sight? You have confidence in St. Joseph’s intercession? Good! Go to the church, attend mass, go to communion in honor of St. Joseph, continue your [medical] remedies. Add to them a drop of oil of St. Joseph and make the following invocation: St. Joseph, pray for us. All will go well. Good day now. Have confidence!”
I did exactly what he said. After mass, I went to eat a little something in a restaurant. Seeing me, the lady who ran the place was touched to tears.
That evening, my fiancé carried out applying the oil and invoking St. Joseph. The next morning, oh, wonder, lifted as if they were the leaves of cellophane, the scarred blistered flesh came off my face; the area [even] of the eyelids was completely healed – my appearance, in fact, was as perfect as one could desire: there was no sign of wound, healing flesh or scar; no pain. I went to work. And what a stupor I caused among my workmates! [5]
Using the Corinthians passage, the spiritual gift described here is:
d. Patti Gallagher Mansfield - 20th century
This testimony describes the experience of a college student who encountered the gifts of the Holy Spirit during the early days of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (c. 1967), a movement that continues to the present day.
As a French major, it bothered me to think that some people could acquire another language supernaturally when I was working so hard to master a foreign tongue. The Lord had to teach me how to view this properly, and he did.
One night at a prayer meeting I sat next to David Mangan who had already received the gift of tongues. I was flabbergasted as I heard David pray in beautiful, flowing French. It sounded like the words of a Psalm, praising the kindness of the Divine Child, extolling the streams of living water. The cadence of his French was different, but his pronunciation was perfect. After the meeting I asked David if he knew he had been praying in French; he didn’t. I was impressed by the authenticity of this charismatic gift. It was a sign to me that God was at work [6].
Using the Corinthians passage, the spiritual gift described here is:
e. Still not Sold?
We may still struggle with the uncomfortable closeness of the supernatural. After all, aren’t these stories about extraordinary circumstances and special people? Gifts of the Spirit, called charisms, seem to be for other times and other people, not for us, right? Consider what the Church has to say about this:
It is not only through the sacraments and the ministries of the Church that the Holy Spirit sanctifies and leads the people of God and enriches it with virtues, but, "allotting his gifts to everyone according as He wills, He distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank (emphasis added). By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church, according to the words of the Apostle: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit". These charisms, whether they be the more outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation for they are perfectly suited to and useful for the needs of the Church.
Lumen Gentium [7]
Based on this passage, I consider my own experiences of spiritual gifts. Have I ever witnessed signs of the gifts of the Spirit in myself or in others? Below I list as many examples as I can think of…
REFLECT ON THE FATHERS
3. The Experience of Life in the Spirit
If we’re honest, we have to admit that the spiritual life is often boring. We’re distracted at Mass, disinterested in scripture and disconnected in prayer. This doesn’t need to be the case. Life in the Spirit brings a new vitality and energy to otherwise “ho-hum” spiritual activities. Consider this account from an early Eastern Father of the Church.
“What do you feel?” Father Seraphim asked me.
“An infinite sense of well-being,” I replied.
“But what kind of well-being? What exactly?”
“I feel such calm, such peace in my soul,” I replied, “that I cannot find words to express it.”
“My friend, this is the peace of which the Lord was speaking when he said to his disciples: ‘My peace I give you, the peace that the world cannot give…the peace that passes all understanding,’ What else do you feel?”
“An infinite joy in my heart.”
Father Seraphim continued: “When the Spirit of God comes down on man and wraps him in the fullness of his presence, the soul overflows with an inexpressible joy, because the Holy Spirit fills everything that he touches with joy….If the first-fruits of future joy already fill our soul with such sweetness, such happiness, what are we to say of the joy that is waiting in the kingdom of heaven for all those who weep here on earth? You have also wept, my friend, in the course of your life on earth, but see the joy that the Lord sends you, to console you here below. At present, we have to work and make constant efforts so that we can ‘attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’….Then, that joy that we feel for a little time and in part now will appear in its fullness, overwhelming our being with inexpressible delights that no one will be able to take from us.”
Simeon the New Theologian [8]
Have I ever experienced this kind of joy in the Holy Spirit? What is the most spiritual joy I can remember experiencing? What were the circumstances?
I end by asking Jesus to send down his Holy Spirit in my life in a new way. I ask for his gifts and charisms so that I can build up his body, the Church. Come Holy Spirit and fill my heart with the fire of heaven!
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
[1] A reference to this rope is found in Jewish mystic literature. In the pages of the Zohar, a commentary on Leviticus (Emor) states, “R. Isaac said, ‘a cord was tied to the feet of the High Priest before he entered the Holy of Holies, so that if he died suddenly within they should be able to draw him out’” (102a). This cord may also be what the author of the letter to the Hebrews has in mind when he urges the faithful “to hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior of the veil (emphasis added), where Jesus has entered on our behalf… becoming high priest….” (Heb. 6:18b,19).
[2] Abraham Joshua Heschel, I Asked for Wonder, A Spiritual Anthology, ed. by Samuel H. Dresner, Crossroad, NY 1986. p. 3-
[3] Ignatius of Loyola, Autobiography, in Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works, ed. By George Ganss, S.J., The Classics of Western Spirituality series, New York, Paulist Press, 1991, pp 79f
[4] Peter Lappin, Give Me Souls! Life of Don Bosco, Huntington, IN, Our Sunday Visitor, 1977, p. 292
[5] Patricia Reece, Nothing Short of a Miracle, The Healing Power of the Saints, by New York, Doubleday, 1988, pp. 70f
[6] Patti Gallagher Mansfield, As By a New Pentecost, The Dramatic Beginning of the Charismatic Renewal, Steubenville, Franciscan University Press, 1992 p. 50
[7] Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church #12, 1964
[8] Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit, Vol. II, p. 70