Thought for the Day – 24 June – What the Holy Spirit Requires of Us

Thought for the Day – 24 June – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

What the Holy Spirit Requires of Us

“What does the Holy Spirit desire of us?
He wishes to transform us and to make us holy and for this, He wants our co-operation.
We should give our co-operation generously, in the manner of the first Christians.
These were in close contact with the college of the Apostles and tried hard to put their teaching into practice.

In the early days of Christianity, every house was like a church.
This should still be the case today.
We should be bound together spiritually under the influence of the Holy Spirit and under the guidance of the teaching authority of the Church.
We should practice the Church’s teaching and try to diffuse it among others.

The early Christians also persevered in prayer and in daily participation in the Sacrament of the Altar.
There can be no spiritual life without prayer because, it comes from God.
The Holy Spirit speaks to those who humbly and earnestly invoke Him.
Our best prayers, are those, which we say when we receive Holy Communion, however.
Then we have Jesus Himself within us, with all His graces.

If we receive Holy Communion with the proper dispositions, we can acquire the spirit of charity towards God and our neighbour, which is the sum total of Christianity.
We can make ourselves holy and can ask for the ability to co-operate in the sanctification of others.

A further characteristic of the early Christians, was, that they possessed everything in common.
W are accustomed to call this attitude of common ownership, an evangelical counsel, rather than a command.
It is the spontaneous outcome of that true and efficacious charity which flows from the Holy Spirit and makes all men brothers.

There is no strict obligation on us to give away everything which we possess, for the benefit of our neighbour. But, we have a real obligation to help our neighbour as far as lies in our power, when we see that he is in need.
Otherwise, we cannot say that we love our neighbour as ourselves and, therefore, cannot claim to be genuine Christians.
“He who does not love abides in death,” wrote St John (1 Jn 3:14).
“He who has the goods of this world,” he continues “and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him?   My dear children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue but, in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:17-18).

It is worth our while to reflect on these tremendous words and to act according to their sense.
In modern society, there is excessive luxury, on one side and excessive poverty, on the other.
Christianity in it’s truest sense, therefore, is not being practised.
How do we behave in this matter?”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci