Christ’s word and the Holy Spirit

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE need to see the intimate relation and connection between Christ’s word and our need to be with God. Also we need to realize the role of the Holy Spirit in this business of how to understand, obey and live Christ’s word so we can be with God

Somehow these words of Christ are telling us to consider these points. In the gospel of St. John, he clearly said: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.” (14,23-24)

Later on, Christ said, referring to the role of the Holy Spirit in this duty: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (14,26)

We have to realize that Christ is the fullness of the revelation of God to us. He himself told us that he is “the way, the truth and the life, no one goes to the Father except through him.”

In other words, Christ has given us everything that we need to know and to live in order to attain our ultimate goal of our own salvation, our ideal state of being God’s image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life, as he wants us to be.

But we also know that while the word of Christ is already given to us, we need to understand properly what the word of Christ is. That word is in the gospels, and in the doctrine now taught with Christ-given authority and guarantee to Church.

We have to understand that Christ’s word channels to us the very life of God to us. It’s not just an ordinary human word that can give us a lot of human knowledge. It is a word that can lead us to our eternal life with God.

We need to develop the proper attitude toward the word of Christ. Is there faith and piety when we read and meditate on the gospel, for example? Do we realize that with faith and piety, whenever we read the gospel it is like listening to Christ himself?

We have to be wary of our tendency to be so seduced by our worldly cultures and systems that we fail to discern Christ when we meditate on the gospels and even when we develop our philosophies and ideologies.

We need to realize also that since Christ’s word is a divine word more than a merely human word, it would contain supernatural truths and mysteries that our reason unaided by faith, by grace and by the Holy Spirit, cannot capture and appreciate. Much less, would we be able to live by that word.

Thus, we need to be in constant touch with the Holy Spirit who is actually and constantly intervening in our life. As Christ said, he is the one who will teach and remind us of everything that Christ said. He is the one who will enable us not only to understand and appreciate Christ’s word, but also to live it.

How important therefore it is to be aware of the role of the Holy Spirit in our life and to learn how to deal with him!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com