EASTER SUNDAY, VI
Put Us in, Coach!!
On the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus re-assures us (viz., His Own) of the Presence of the Paraclete-Spirit.. Now that He is not physically present with us as He was then, He remains in the Holy Spirit Whom He sends as the Father’s Gift.
All language about God and our relationship with God is inadequate. Therefore, religious language has to b e metaphoric. Ergo, God is like a……
The two biblical words for Spirit are ruach ( in Hebrew) and pneuma in Greek. Both words have multivalent meanings. First, ruach describes the wind, the unseen force that is life-giving, yet unpredictable in its effects. Second, ruach and pneuma describe one’s life-breath, when we stop breathing, we are “out of here”. Third, ruach describes the energy for ordinary folks to do extraordinary things.
The Holy Spirit, therefore, is like the wind, one’s life-breath and an energy to do what God wants of us. Other theologians have adopted what
The Fourth Evangelist describes the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete. The surprising word has a variety of meanings as well. A paraclete has been described traditionally as a consoler, a counselor, a defense attorney, an advocate.
However, the understanding has recently expanded into other metaphorical ways to understand the role that the Paraclete-Spirit fulfills in, with and through us. Now, we see the Holy Spirit as a mentor in authentic human living, a significant Presence in our lives, guiding us how to live as God wants. In most traditional cultures, it was the mother’s brother, the boy’s uncle, who taught the young boy what it was to be a young man. In contemporary American Catholicism, we use the image of a teacher, a guidance counselor or a coach to telling us “to get the lead out and do better than we care to do in our lassitude and complacency”.
Jesus tries to transform us from ritual religion to relational religion. Rituals are what we do; relationships are what make us who we are.
Now, Catholics celebrate the Mystery of the Trinity, one God in three persons. All along, we have stressed that God is relational. What Jesus might be saying is that, through the Holy Spirit, God brings us into the Trinitarian Life.
In this way, can we see the Paraclete-Spirit as the Christ Quantum, the Presence and ongoing effect of the Incarnate God. As a result, we are brought into the very Life of the Trinity because we are living, here and now, in the vibrational or force field, the energy of Christ Jesus.
