Ascension Reflection: Life in the Spirit

In today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we are invited to trust and live fully in the life of the Holy Spirit. So often do we center our focus on the Father and Son, and while they are two imperative persons in our lives, the third person of the Trinity need not be forgotten. He is unique in that His form occupies a wide variety of vessels, one of those forms being us. Yes, Christ's Spirit lives in each of us, as we are made in His image and likeness. This means every creature should regard others as Christ Himself, a way of living that often evades our minds. Just think: if everyone regarded their neighbor as Jesus Himself, how would our world be transformed?

While this vision seems unrealistic, we continually pray for the Holy Spirit's presence, that He may "renew the face of the Earth." And that is our mission today: to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to a broken world, all by the guidance of the Spirit.

In continuing this thought of the Spirit's impact on our lives today, I'd like to include an excerpt from Bishop Barron on this subject:

"If true knowledge of God depends upon immersion in the Holy Spirit, then that knowledge is a function of an entire form of life, involving prayer, self-denial, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and the forgiveness of one’s enemies. We don’t think our way to an understanding of God so much as we live our way to it. Thomas Aquinas always said that he owed his theology far more to the persistence of his prayer than to the acuity of his mind. His penetration of the divine mystery flowed from his life in the Holy Spirit. And so today we pray, 'Come, Holy Spirit, come!'"

As we celebrate Jesus' Ascension into Heaven today, we are assured that as the Son of Man sits on His heavenly throne, His Spirit dwells deep within us all, ensuring that He is still very much engaged in our lives. This day, let us carry out our lives, built up by the Holy Spirit, with great trust in "the times [and] seasons that the Father has established by His own authority" (Acts 1:7).

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"Come Holy Spirit,

fill the hearts of Your faithful,

and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Send Your Spirit upon them,

and they shall be created,

and You shall renew the face of the Earth."