Daily Thought For May 26, 2019

The Holy Spirit & The Word of God

It happens that over a period of time you may read a particular passage of Scripture, and perhaps even preach on it, without experiencing any special feelings about it. Then, one day, you may read that same text in an atmosphere of prayer and faith, and quite unexpectedly it is lit up, it speaks, it makes you see some circumstance of your life in a whole new light, and it shows you clearly what is God's will in the situation. And not only that once, but every time, even after a long time, when you read that passage again, you are touched in the same powerful, enlightening way. What causes this change, if not the enlightening touch of the Holy Spirit? The words of Scripture, by the action of the Holy Spirit, are transformed: they glow, they bathe you and your situation in light. 

Of all the experiences to which the coming of the Holy Spirit into a soul gives rise, this in fact is one of the most common, most powerful. The Scripture comes alive. Every sentence seems to be written especially for you, to the point of sometimes leaving you breathless, as though God were there speaking to you with tremendous authority but at the same time very, very gently. The words of the psalms keep surprising you: how new and fresh they seem, and what views they open up of unending horizons, and what deep echoes they awaken in your soul. At times like this, you can feel how true it is that "the Word of God is living and active" (Heb 4: 12). 

This is an experience that comes to everyone, even the most simple. People who have no schooling in the Scriptures whatever often go right to the heart of a text, but the learned may ponder it for years, to much less effect, though they have all the research and commentaries and dictionaries to help them. This again is the Holy Spirit revealing the secrets of God to the little ones (see Matt 11 :25). 

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa Come, Creator Spirit —Meditations on the Veni Creator pp. 247-248.