The Holy Spirit, Fire of Divine Love

by Wilfrid Stinissen

  God speaks as he wills. He is free. He is “unpredictable”. You can never know ahead of time if, when, or how he will answer.

  God’s apparent “silence” is not necessarily a bad sign. When you receive him in his silence, when you continue to listen, there will come a time when his silence will also speak a clear language. It teaches you that God is the Holy One, that he is transcendent. It teaches you to treat God in a new way: with adoration. You become silent and bow profoundly before him who is so totally different from you.

  In such times of silence, you must more than ever keep to what is objective: to what you know through God’s word, the teaching of the Church, and your common sense. This is more than enough for you to be able to go forward with quick steps.

  You will, undoubtedly, make mistakes, but even these are taken into account in God’s plan. In reality, it is not a question of mistakes. When you begin something, believing with an upright faith that it is God’s will, in some way it becomes God’s will, even if the result is negative. The important thing for God is, not that you succeed, but that you sincerely seek his will.

  But if you never hear the Spirit’s voice or never feel moved by him, you need to ask yourself if something has gone awry in your life. Perhaps it is not God’s fault that there is such dead silence. It is possible that the fault is yours. Perhaps your ears are stopped up. If, for a long time, you neglect the Spirit’s voice and if you ignore him and his inspirations, eventually your hearing will become impaired. The heart will become hard and insensitive. It will no longer register the Spirit’s touches.

  But if you try to listen and obey, there will come a time when the search for God’s will becomes less difficult. It will be more and more he who does his will in you. A friend once wrote to me: “Before, I would often ask you: ‘How can I know what God wants?’ Today I see perhaps more clearly that, if we live in God, he takes care of forming his will in and with us in the present moment. But if we do not have our roots in stillness, we exchange God’s will for our own. I know this from experience.”

  Consulting the Bible

  The Bible is God’s word. God truly speaks through it. Does that mean you can open the Bible at random, put your finger blindly on a verse, and be assured that it contains a message to you from God?

  The Bible’s texts should preferably be read in their context. Not every word is suitable for just anyone at any time. It is especially risky to consult the Bible in this way when it comes to making a decision. I once heard of someone who in desperation did not know where to turn, so he finally opened the Bible and placed his finger on Matthew 27:5: “[Judas] went and hanged himself.” He was wise enough not to follow the counsel immediately, but instead he tried again. Now it was Luke 10:37: “Go and do likewise!”

  One cannot deny however, that many people, and among them even saints, have found comfort and guidance through words that they “received” from God. Who dares to judge them? God has nothing against the fact that we are sometimes a little playful with him, and experience shows that he often plays along and lets us find words that really help or contain a message. It only becomes wrong when, in a very solemn way, we believe that the word we find in using this method infallibly expresses the will of God. God has never given us such guarantees.

  Casting Lots

  When it is a question of deciding between several good choices, is it permissible to ask God to show his will by casting lots?

  There is a case of casting lots in the New Testament. When the apostles looked for someone in the congregation to take the place of Judas as the twelfth apostle, two candidates were suggested: Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. “And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26).

  The New Testament speaks of casting lots only once, indicating that it was not done for just anything in the early Church. But it also means that, in principle, casting lots was not excluded.

  We must admit that the saints at times used such means to discern the will of God. When Saint Francis of Assisi and Brother Masseo were out walking one day, they came to a fork in the road. They did not know in which direction to go. This was not a problem for Saint Francis, however. “Spin around,” he said to Brother Masseo, “and do not stop until I tell you.” Brother Masseo spun around so long that he became dizzy. Finally, Saint Francis said that he should remain standing and not move. Then he asked: “In which direction is your face turned?” “Toward Siena”, answered Masseo, at which Saint Francis burst out: “That is the way God wishes us to go.”11

  Sometimes the saints do things that we may surely admire but that we may not follow without discernment! Casting lots may never become a system. But I would not want to condemn making use of it as an exception in time of need.

  It could be accepted on the following conditions: (1) that it is necessary to make a decision; (2) that one has first exhausted all other means without results; (3) that the alternative possibilities are all morally good; (4) that one prays first (they did so before choosing Matthias: Acts 1:24); (5) that one does not consider the decision to be an infallible sign from God, and thus one is willing to change his decision if it is clear that he was mistaken.12

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  The Spirit, the Giver of Life

  It is a great thing always to say Yes to one’s Director, to pray to him: “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me” (Ps 25:4–5) and then to follow in his paths and act according to the truths he has pointed out.

  But that is not all. There is more. The Spirit is also the Life Giver. When you say that you will follow in his paths, it gives the impression that it is you who are doing everything. The name “Life Giver” indicates, on the other hand, that it is he, the Spirit, who does it.

  Still, there is no absolute opposition between these two functions of Director and Life Giver. To start with, following the guidance of the Spirit means that you say Yes to the different tasks he shows you through your inmost will. But as your Yes deepens, it eventually becomes a Yes to the Spirit instead of a Yes to various tasks. You consent not only to his guidance but to him. You entrust yourself to him. Instead of saying: “Guide me according to your truth and teach me”, it becomes more and more: “Guide me according to your truth and carry me.” The emphasis, which at first was on you (you did it), moves gradually over to him (he does it).

  The Spirit Creates Anew

  To give life is a way of creating, an element of God’s creative activity.

  Hans Urs von Balthasar’s book about the Holy Spirit is entitled Creator Spirit.1 The Spirit was there when God created the universe (Gen 1:2). But it is not the first creation that is the Spirit’s “specialty”. It is the Father who is at the origin of creation. It is the Spirit, on the other hand, who is at the origin of the other, new creation. He transforms and creates anew. He makes what was dead living; what is perishable he makes eternal; and what is earthly he makes heavenly.

  The words “create”, “creation”, “new”, and “renew” occur often in the “New” Testament. “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new man, created after the likeness of God” (Eph 4:23–24). “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2). “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old order has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). “We too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). “I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21:1).

  All of this is the work of the Spirit, the Life Giver.

  How does the Spirit carry out his function of creating anew and giving life?

  He gives life in different ways.

  The Spirit Gives Life to the Content of the Faith

  He makes concrete the abstract formulas of the Creed. Everything that is abstract is dead. What is living is always concrete. The Spirit transforms abstract concepts into concrete images. Yes, he has a lot to do with your imagination! He loves to awaken and stimulate it so that instead of
thinking of abstract concepts you begin to see living images.

  There is a difference between speaking of God’s presence and saying, like Saint Catherine of Siena: “I swim in a sea of light and love.” When you hear that God is your Father, you may understand the word “Father” as an abstract concept. But you can also imagine the security that a child experiences with his father (this is easier, of course, if you have had a loving earthly father yourself). You can say: “Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand” (Ps 73:23), or: “You beset me behind and before, and lay your hand upon me” (Ps 139:5). The difference between these two ways of thinking of God the Father is as great as the difference between life and death.

  The Spirit also makes what is general personal. Everything Scripture says about God’s love for mankind becomes, under his influence, something that concerns you personally. “God loves you” (plural) becomes “God loves you” (singular). Saint Paul writes: “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). The transition from the plural to the singular is a revolution in your life. Through the Spirit, the Good News becomes something that makes you happy and renews your life.

  He makes present what was distant. We have seen that the Spirit comforts, not by coming in Christ’s place, but by making Christ present. All that was distant comes nearer, all that was a long way off becomes here and now. Heaven, the kingdom of God, the resurrection, things that seemed to belong to a far away future, are placed in the present moment by the Spirit. Everything becomes a living reality in which you may live.

  Courage

  The Spirit also brings life by giving you courage. “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity”, writes Saint Paul, “but a spirit of power” (2 Tim 1:7). That is a verse we could take as a motto for our life. Discouragement is really the greatest temptation: to give up or, if one does not give up completely, he lacks the ability to act. It is impossible to lose courage when one lives in the Spirit.

  It can be seen among the disciples that courage is a gift of the Spirit. Before Pentecost, they are afraid, they betray their Lord. “The doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them” (Jn 20:19). When the Spirit comes over them, they dare to go out and witness with a whole new power, which the New Testament calls parresia, a word that means one dares to say all, openly and uprightly (pan-rema = every word). It is typical for people who are intoxicated to be outspoken. The one who is intoxicated by the Holy Spirit receives a holy courage in word and deed.

  “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,” writes Saint Paul, “not like Moses, who put a veil over his face.” “But when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed. Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:12–13, 16–17).

  The Spirit Himself Is Your Life

  The Spirit gives life, above all, by the fact that he himself wishes to become your life.

  “A love relationship”, writes Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), “includes three things: the lover, the beloved, and love. But love is God.” Just as the Spirit is love itself in God, in the same way he also wishes to be love in you, so that you can say; “I love, though it is no longer I who love, it is the Spirit who loves in me” (cf. Gal 2:20).

  “Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and he said to him, ‘Abba, as far as I can, I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace, and as far as I can I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands toward heaven; his fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’ ”2

  Can one better describe the distinction between the two different ways of life of which I am speaking? Abba Lot has his little rule and tries to keep it. He has various practices; he lives in multiplicity. Abba Joseph does not think of practices, though he also fasts and prays. The only thing he wants is for the fire to burn within him.

  The Holy Spirit is your life. He does everything himself, and you are nevertheless a part of it all. How can this be so? Through your “be it done to me”.

  Saint John of the Cross speaks of the person who has reached union with God: “Thus all the movements of this soul are divine. Although they belong to it, they belong to it because God works them in it and with it, for it wills and consents to them.”3

  The interplay between God and man is beautifully expressed in the following poem:

  The rivers are yours;

  I am the riverbank.

  The drink is yours;

  I am the cup.

  The joy is yours;

  I am the song.

  The light is yours;

  I am the ray.

  The life is yours;

  I am the pulse.4

  If you want the Spirit to be your life, you must let go of being your own life principle. You must accept being dependent. Or, if you do not like the word “dependent”: you must accept the fact that you belong to Another.

  “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it” (Lk 17:33). The life you lose is the little, self-sufficient life you live yourself. The life you gain is the rich life that the Spirit lives in you. A truly profitable exchange!

  It is not necessary to have come very far on your spiritual journey to begin to “lose” your life. Perhaps you cannot yet do it in a permanent way, but you can do it periodically. And then more often. It is a question of releasing the inner “cramp”, which says: I want, I will; of finally not wishing to fulfill yourself. Only God can fulfill you. “You became a nobody”, writes Lars Gyllensten, “just because you set all your efforts on becoming someone.”5

  Even if you are a beginner, it can happen that you suddenly experience how filled you are with God’s own life when you try to let go. God loves to give us a foretaste of what is to come even in the beginning. He is an expert in giving such foretastes, and in them he reveals his divine impatience to become all in all. Such a foretaste is a powerful incentive. It shows that we do not lose in giving up our own life.6

  Practicing the New Life

  It is important to take time to practice this new attitude, which has as its goal: it is not I but the Spirit who is living in me.

  It requires time for prayer, especially interior prayer. The meaning of interior prayer is, among other things, that we give ourselves the opportunity to become conscious of God’s life in us.

  Saint Paul writes that the Spirit prays in us. “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Rom 8:26). “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ ” (Gal 4:6).

  Would it not be wiser to accept and consent to this perfect prayer in us, rather than try stubbornly to take responsibility for the prayer ourselves? Even here we can say: Do not look for it so far away; you have it not only close at hand but within you!

  In practice, this means that you learn to listen rather than speak. You listen, not only to inspirations that tell you how you should act—you do that during the day, outside of prayer time—but you listen to life itself. You learn to be instead of to do.

  Here you can turn once again to your imagination and, with the help of images, use your ability to enter into reality. You can let your prayer be carried up by the three images of the Spirit that Jesus himself has given us.

  The Spirit is like the wind (Jn 3:8, Acts 2:2). You can let yourself be “aired out” by him, asking him to take away all the dirt and, instead, to fill you with himself. You can pray with Saint John of the Cross:

  South wind come, you that waken love,

  Breathe through my garden.7

  Or:

  And in Your sweet breathing,

  Filled with good and glory,

  How tenderly You swell my heart with love!8

  You can repeat these words now and then and let your own slow, deep breath symbolize the Holy Spirit’s bre
athing through you.

  The Spirit is like water. “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him”, says Jesus, “will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).

  The spring is within you. You can listen to its bubbling and drink of the spring water.

  The Spirit is like fire. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends as fire upon the disciples (Acts 2:3). You can imagine that you are making a journey deeper and deeper within yourself. When you come to the center of your being, you see a flame, a “living flame of love”.

  There is a flame of love at the center of your being. It is not enough to stand at a distance and warm oneself by the fire of love. You ought to cast yourself into it, not fall in by mistake and quickly crawl out when it burns you, but consciously surrender yourself in order to become one substance with it.

  Again, you can let yourself be inspired by Saint John of the Cross:

  O living flame of love

  That tenderly wounds my soul

  In its deepest center!. . .

  O sweet cautery,

  O delightful wound!

  O gentle hand! O delicate touch

  That tastes of eternal life

  And pays every debt!

  In killing You changed death to life.9

  “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess 5:19). You cannot make the candle burn, nor can you light it, and it is not necessary, for the candle is always burning anyway. But you can ignore the fire to such a degree that you live as though it were extinguished.

  The Spirit is not content with burning only in the center of your being. He longs to illumine and inflame your whole being, so that you not only have a fire within you, but you become entirely a living flame of love.