The Power of the Holy Spirit

01-09-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, C.S.Sp

Today marks the end of the Christmas season with the celebration of the baptism of Our Lord. It tells us how Jesus received baptism from the hand of John the Baptist. “Why should Jesus bother getting baptized, if He is one with the Holy Spirit already? Because the very act of God entering into humanity is to participate into fully, unto death, and thus dignify human life and make it worthy of heaven. Because God is fully human and fully divine, it is through this act of living as one of us, alongside other humans, that our lives are sanctified.”

We come in contact also with the humility of Jesus in accepting to be baptized by John. That single act is evidence of His core humility which followed Him even unto death. We are challenged to embrace Jesus’ humility in our lives. Ordinarily, it would have been Jesus as God who should baptize John but since John has been doing it already, Jesus went like any other person to receive baptism from John by which He identifies with the humanity He has come to be part of when He was born.

In the Gospel passage of today Luke tells us that, “after all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a bodily form like a dove”. Prayer is a necessary part of our identity as baptized sons and daughters of God. It opens heaven to us and reveals who we are for, in a very real sense, we are who we pray. At prayer, we struggle to hear what God is calling us to be, to know we are in our deepest truth, at the still point where the spirit has descended into our depth and anointed us for mission.”

Furthermore, as Jesus was in prayer heaven opens for the Spirit of God to descend upon Him. It was His prayer that threw the door of heaven open. To pray means to recognize the power of God in us, to pray means to acknowledge our dependence of the need of God in our lives. Prayer is a force that breaks heaven open for the Spirit of God to come down and rest upon us. When heaven is open for us our desires and aspirations are met. As Jesus’ prayer opens heaven for the Holy Spirit to come down so also would our own prayer force the door of heaven to be opened for us.

Another aspect of the Jesus Baptism is the impact of the Holy Spirit which is the silent power of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God’s power. The Holy Spirit is a power that transforms us interiorly, that stimulates man’s thirst for spiritual truth. It is power of conviction, of cleansing the heart and of strengthening the will. When the Spirit came upon Elijah, fire came down from heaven when the Spirit came upon Joshua the whole city of Jerusalem fell into his hands.

When the Spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism, the Spirit empowered Him to heal and teach, to give up His life on the cross, for humanity and finally to rise from the dead. By our own baptism we too, have received the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit for He is alive, let invoke the Holy Spirit for He is effective, let us invoke the Holy Spirit for He is with us and will change and transform every situation in our families and lives.

As we begin the ordinary time of the year, I pray that the same Holy Spirit that came upon Jesus would equally come upon your family as we begin this New Year 2022. God bless you all.

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