Word of Life May 2008

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor 3, 17)

The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians of Corinth who were especially dear to him. While he lived among them for almost two years, between the years 50 and 52 AD, he sowed the word of God, laying the foundations of the Christian community to the point of generating it like a father.

A few years later, when he went back to visit them, some members of the community publicly challenged his authority as an apostle. This was the occasion for reaffirming the greatness of his ministry. He was announcing the Gospel not on his own initiative, but because he had been moved to do so by God.

For him, the word of God was no longer veiled because the Holy Spirit had enabled him to understand it in the light of what had taken place in Christ Jesus.

This is why he could live it and announce it in full liberty. It enabled him to enter into communion with the Lord, and to be transformed in him to the point of being guided by his own Spirit of freedom.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

The risen Jesus, the Lord, continues to act in history today, as in Paul’s time, and to act particularly in the Christian community, through his Spirit.

He also enables us to understand the Gospel in all its newness, writing it on our hearts so that it becomes our law of life.

We are not guided by laws imposed on us from without, we are not slaves forced to obey regulations which we are not convinced about or that we do not share.

A Christian is moved by a principle of interior life that the Spirit has placed in him or her through baptism, moved by the Spirit’s voice which repeats the words of Jesus and makes them understood in all their beauty, as expressions of life and joy. He makes them timely, he teaches us how to live them and he also infuses in us the strength to put them into practice.

It is the Lord himself who, thanks to the Holy Spirit, comes to live and act in us, transforming us into a living Gospel.

To be guided by the Lord, by his Spirit, by his word: this is true freedom! It also coincides with our deepest self-fulfillment.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

But we know that for the Holy Spirit to act, we must be ready to listen to him completely, ready to change our way of seeing things, if necessary, and then to adhere fully to what his voice tells us.

It is easy to become slaves or allow ourselves to be influenced by the pressures exerted on us by customs and social approval, which can then lead to mistaken choices.

In order to live the Word of Life this month, we need to learn how to say a decisive no to the negative that surfaces in our heart every time we are tempted to put up with behavior that is not in line with the Gospel;

to learn to say a convinced yes to God each time we feel he is calling us to live in truth and in love.

We will discover the connection between the cross and the Spirit, as between cause and effect.

Each cut, each pruning, each no to our egoism becomes a source of new light, of peace, of joy, of love, of inner freedom, and of self-fulfillment; it is an open door to the Spirit.

During this time of Pentecost, he will then be able to bestow his gifts on us more abundantly: he will guide us; consequently we will be recognized as true sons and daughters of God. We will be increasingly freer from evil, increasingly freer to love.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

It was precisely freedom that an officer of the United Nations found during his last assignment in one of the Balkan nations. The missions entrusted to him were gratifying, although extremely demanding.

One great difficulty was the prolonged periods away from his family. When he returned home it was also hard to leave outside the door the burden of work he was involved in and then, free from worries, to devote himself to his children and wife.

Suddenly he was told about being transferred to another city in the same region. It was not possible to bring his family with him because, in spite of the peace agreements recently signed, the hostilities continued. What to do? What was more important, his career or the family? He spoke at length about it with his wife, with whom he had long been sharing an intense Christian life.

They also asked for light from the Holy Spirit and together, they sought to do the will of God for their family. Finally, the decision was made: to leave his job, such a sought-after job. It was truly an unusual decision in that professional environment.

“The strength to make this choice,” he himself shared, “was the fruit of mutual love with my wife, who never made me feel the burden of the discomforts I had been causing her. For my part, I had sought the good of the family, beyond economic security and my career, and I found real inner freedom.”

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Text by Chiara Lubich