165. Seventh Wednesday of Easter

Meditations no. 211 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit.

If a man loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father in the Holy Spirit; and through grace we are enabled to share in God’s intimate love and life. Union with God through love transforms the soul until it reaches holiness. And this work is attributed in a special way to the Holy Spirit.

In order that our trust in the Paraclete may grow, and that we may be ever more conscious of the fact that interior progress is neither solely nor principally the result of our own efforts, let us go to the Consoler, who comes to help us in our weakness … and intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Let’s put our Father’s advice into practice: Get to know the Holy Spirit, the Great Unknown, the one who has to sanctify you.

The Holy Spirit’s action has many aspects to it, and in one way or another it embraces our whole life. As St Cyril of Jerusalem teaches, the Holy Spirit is one, but at a mere sign from God the Father, and in the name of Christ, he produces a variety of virtues. He uses the tongue of one person to communicate wisdom, he enlightens the mind of another with the gift of prophecy; on this one he confers the power of casting out demons, and on that one the ability to interpret Sacred Scripture. In one he strengthens temperance; another he teaches all that refers to the works of charity; someone else he instructs in fasting and the ascetical life. He moves this person to scorn material possessions, while he prepares that person for martyrdom.

With the passing of the years, the spiritual development that takes place in our thinking, desiring, and working is also the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we can never lose hope of becoming holy, of accepting the invitations of God, of persevering until the very end. God, who has begun in us the work of our sanctification, will bring it to completion. Because if the Lord is with us, who can be against us? After having not spared his very own Son, but rather turned him over to death for us, after having thus given us his Son, can he fail to give us every good thing?

Realizing that all our sanctification depends on God, we pray: Veni pater pauperum, / veni dator munerum: Come, Father of the poor; come, giver of gifts, since we are truly poor and needy in every way. But we ask for even more than this: Lava quod est sordidum, / riga quod est aridum, / sana quod est saucium: Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour your dew; wash the stains of guilt away. Flecte quod est rigidum, / fove quod est frigidum, / rege quod est devium: Bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray. For it will also have to be the grace of the Holy Spirit that removes every obstacle to his sanctifying action in us, so that our life may bear fruit in virtue and in the exercise of his gifts.

Listening to his inspirations.

God, my children, in addition to enlightening those who believe in him with the clear light of the official teaching of the Church, does not cease to carry out the firm, gentle, and quiet action of the Spirit, who instructs souls as a Teacher within them.

We must be docile to the Paraclete, because it is the Holy Spirit who, with his inspirations, gives a supernatural tone to our thoughts, desires and actions. It is he who leads us to receive Christ’s teaching and to assimilate it in a profound way. It is he who gives us the light by which we perceive our personal calling and the strength to carry out all that God expects of us. If we are docile to the Holy Spirit, the image of Christ will be formed more and more fully in us, and we will be brought closer every day to God the Father. For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God.”

This is exactly what we discover when, in reading the Gospel or meditating on a truth of the faith, we find a new light in something we had often considered before - something that penetrates our soul more deeply and stirs us to greater love of God. We realize that this does not depend on our will, that it is not a work of ours but of the Spirit of God. At other times the Holy Spirit helps us to live in God’s presence in a way that greatly exceeds our personal efforts; or he suddenly enables us to see things about God and the Work in a new light, full of unsuspected perspectives; or he might move us to pray at the most unexpected moment, or make us find the right word to move a soul, even without our having looked for it.

This is all his doing, and he acts in a thousand different ways in souls who do not place obstacles in his way. God’s encounter with each person is indescribable and unrepeatable, and we must cooperate with him in order to find, in each case, the best word and the best method, being docile and not attempting to restrict the ever-original action of the Holy Spirit.

All this mysterious action of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity helps us to make a firm resolution to be docile. For if we let ourselves be guided by this life-giving principle, who is the Holy Spirit in us, our spiritual vitality will grow. We will place ourselves in the hands of our Father God, with the same spontaneity and confidence with which a child abandons himself to his father’s care. Our Lord has said: Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the old and well-known “way of childhood,” which is not sentimentality or lack of human maturity. It is a supernatural maturity, which makes us realize more deeply the wonders of God’s love, while leading us to acknowledge our own smallness and identify our will fully with God’s will.

Let us ask: Father, you taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit. In that Spirit give us right judgement and the joy of his comfort and guidance.

Docility to the Directors fosters the Paraclete’s action in the soul.

If all our activity throughout the day - the faithful carrying out of the Norms, our mortification, our work, our assignments, our fraternity, and our apostolate - has to be the work of God; if, as St Paul says, we are not sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, since our sufficiency is from God, then we need greater docility to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit each day, and a more generous response to his promptings. This attitude, our personal contribution to the work of our sanctification, is shown in our docility to the things we are asked and advised in the Work. The Paraclete’s work in our soul depends on our effort to put into practice the advice we receive in the chat. The Holy Spirit, says St Basil, acts especially in all who are pure in intentions and affections.

Spiritual direction. You must have that true supernatural sense and holy shamelessness to allow another to poke at your soul and determine how far you are able - and willing - to give glory to God. Ours has to be an active disposition, for God works in us without overriding our cooperation, and he wants us to use the abilities which he himself has given us. Thus our Father insists: Let yourself be formed by the rough or gentle strokes of grace. Strive to be an instrument rather than an obstacle. And he invites us to turn to God with a prayer full of faith: Lord, help me to be faithful and docile towards you, sicut lutum in manu figuli, like clay in the potter’s hands. In this way it will not be I that live, but you, my Love, who will live and work in me.

Let us ask our Lady for this active docility, so that we never obstruct the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. If you are willing, your most Holy Mother will help you; and you will be a channel for the waters of God, rather than a boulder which diverts their flow.