A Reflection on St. Cyril's homily on the Holy Spirit

For the third time in the past couple of weeks, St. Cyril is the author of the second reading in the Lectio. His words have leaped forward through the tunnel of time to speak directly me things I have needed to hear these past days.

The most recent inspiration comes from his commentary on the Gospel of John.

St. Cyril writes:

"After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God."
What does he mean by to give our own life? The intent is clear. We stop acting like we are navigators of our ships of life. Our commission is to sail the boat straight and well trimmed. His role is to set our course and guide us through the shoals to the distant promised shores on the other side of eternity.

So what does this transformation look like? In my life, I have seen a young woman widowed with two children turn toward God with an open heart and then be able build a new life. She raised both children by enduring daily sacrifice and making a total gift of herself that we would have everything we needed both in terms of worldly possessions but also in saintly love that continues to this day for both her children.

I have seen a man who had become an alcoholic finally give up the struggle to control everything only to find himself in an unmanageable way of life have the compulsion to drink relieved on the very day he invited God back into his life.

I have seen transformation come in the strength of an exhausted mother who called upon the strength of the Holy Spirit through a simple three word prayer, “God, help me,” and was then able get of out bed again and again to pace the floor with an inconsolable infant, singing in a mother's tongue a loving song of comfort.

I have not yet been transformed because that would imply that the work of the Holy Spirit has been completed. It has not. I am being transformed and I am living a new life where forgiveness and reconciliation lie before me and a new way of living in which I will be granted the wisdom to recognize God’s will for me.

Peace be with you.