Agent of Transformation

It makes sense, now that we know it, that we alone, unaided by the Holy Spirit, could never reach into the Presence and Power of Divine Life.  Despite all the sacrifices of pagan worship and of Old Testament rituals, man cannot give himself peace or communion with God.  Jesus told Nicodemus that unless we are born from above, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Everything is Gift:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control.  None of these come from man's nature.  And it is when we discover the lack of these gifts in ourselves that we begin to search for the Giver of all good gifts.  We were made for joy, for love, for kindness -- we were made to be the image of Him Who created us.  But sin has marred the Image and robbed us of divine life.  The sinner cannot re-create himself in the Image of God; only God Himself can remake us.

The Holy Spirit is the Agent of Transformation.  St. Seraphim tells us that whatever we do in the Christian practice, the aim is always to acquire the Holy Spirit.  Whether we fast, pray the rosary, attend mass, or confess our sins --- always, always, the goal is acquisition of the Holy Spirit.  He alone can achieve in us the death of the old man and the formation of the "new creation," created to be the image of God.

From baptism, we have the seed of eternal life.  And it is not a dead seed, but one that takes root and grows in us throughout our lives, if we but till the spiritual soil and allow the rain of grace to fall in our hearts.  Grace is the Presence and Action of God in us, nourishing the seed of divine life.  In so many hearts, the seed is allowed to wither and even die as we are drawn more and more to the attractions of the world.  Eden's "apple" still draws our eyes and our hearts, until we bite and discover the nakedness and emptiness of its promises.

But, as at the beginning, the Holy Spirit hovers over the chaos, the void, breathing new life.  And when we experience that new life, we know its Source and cling to Him with no faith in our own abilities.  "If you knew the Gift of God," Jesus tells the woman at the well whose life has turned to dust and loneliness, "if you knew  the Gift of God, you would ask, and I would give you, water springing up to eternal life."

"Ask and you shall receive......for God the Father knows how to give good gifts to those who ask."  Asking for the Gift that He wants to give is the first step in transformation.  And He will not refuse one who asks.  Nothing else will ever matter once we know that we have received the Gift of God.