I have a lot of people in my life who I would consider to be extremely passionate. My friend Rachel would forego sleep to spend her time designing or painting. My friend Aaron could spend his whole life talking about Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and never tire of it. My brother Eric loves brewing beer. One of my youth group girls is obsessed with beluga whales (I didn't say they were all normal passions). But my friend Sarah? She's passionate about baking. When asked, "What are you up to?", she always responds, "You know...baking" and says it with such externalized joy that you know she actually means it and deeply loves it.
Recently I had the opportunity to watch Sarah bake desserts for our friend's birthday party. Baking in our friend's house, Sarah quickly realized that she didn't have a lot of the kitchen utensils that she would have liked to have had. She couldn't find a teaspoon. She didn't have the exact spatula that she would normally use. And the oven was struggling to heat to the exact temperature so her desserts took longer to make than planned. But onward she baked. She made do with what she had. She improvised. She showed the strength of her skills by her ability to create such exquisite desserts with such 'inadequate' tools. And she was able to do as such because she poured herself into these desserts as an act of passion and love.
In Ezekiel 36:16-22, the Lord speaks to the prophet describing the infidelity of the house of Israel. He speaks of their acts of defilement, their idolatry, their profaning of his name. But in verse 23, the Lord announces that "the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you". For his saving will to be accomplished, for his love to be fully experienced, for his name to be glorified, the Lord chose inadequate tools, broken vessels, sinful people in which to "prove the holiness of [his] great name". And how would he accomplish this? We see the answer as we read further into this chapter. "I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put MY SPIRIT within you" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
The Holy Spirit is the way by which earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7) have the capacity to bear the glory of God and the way by which broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13) hold the springs of living water (John 4). And we see this reality throughout all of Scripture. The Spirit "swept over the waters" as nothingness turned into creation (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit of God breathed life into dry bones (Ezekiel 37). The Spirit of God allowed a teenager to understand the mysteries of the Incarnation, the Trinity, and salvation with such depth that she was able to proclaim "May it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 2:38). The Spirit transformed twelve men, formerly crippled by fear and complacency, into men who boldly, passionately, and effectively proclaimed the Gospel to the far reaches of the world (Acts 2). And he enabled a former persecutor of Christ to become one of the most effective preachers and most beloved Saints of all time as a "demonstration of the Spirit and power" (1 Corinthians 2:4).
When it comes to my life, though I want to be a woman with my will overshadowed by the Holy Spirit like Mary or emboldened to preach like St. Paul, I tend to "quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19). And I mainly do because I don't believe that he can accomplish such incredible things, especially in a person as weak and sinful as I am. But it is when I read these accounts that I find hope as I see the power of the Spirit doing the impossible in the most unlikely of people. I read about him using sinful people to showcase his mercy. I see him selecting betrayers to exhibit his faithfulness. I see him using the weakest and littlest of all to show his power and the greatness of his name.
In his homily for Pentecost 2009, Pope Benedict proclaimed that "when the Holy Spirit rested upon them, those men emerged fearless and began to proclaim the Good News of the Crucified and Risen Christ to all. They were not afraid because they felt they were in the hands of the strongest One. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, wherever the Spirit of God enters he puts fear to flight; he makes us know and feel that we are in the hands of an Omnipotence of love." Because of his passionate, Omnipotent love and for the power of his great name, the Spirit is ready and willing to work in each of us--despite our fear, our failings, and our feelings of incompetence. The Spirit is ready to descend on us and gift us with power to pray (Romans 8:26), to speak (Matthew 10:19), to build each other up (1 Corinthians 12:7), to experience freedom (1 Corinthians 3:17), to be holy (Galatians 5), to know that we are beloved (Romans 8:16). As we study the generations past and see the power of the Spirit, let us ask for grace to trust that the same Spirit who did the impossible in people throughout history can do the same in us.
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