How does God communicate with us? And how do we keep in contact with God? We can easily give one-word answers - probably several of them! - to both questions. But finding a longer answer gives us a chance to dig into the richness of our relationship.
In the Old Testament, we see wondrous works and mighty deeds. In those days, God was revealed in nature - in sending sun and rain, in providing food and health. And God was revealed in judgement - in giving victory and prosperity to the people, in hearing the cry of the poor and destroying the wicked.
But this view was too simple. Sun and rain could easily lead to drought and floods. The sick and the famished did not show forth God's greatness, and, as Job and Ecclesiastes pointed out, the wicked continued to thrive and the poor continued to suffer - where was God's justice in all this?
To former generations, God also communicated by definite instructions - the Law. Contact lay in making the right response - sacrificing the right animal at the right time, not touching anything "unclean". This was still not really communication - being forbidden to sow cucumbers in between the vines in a vineyard (Deut 22:9, for the curious) hardly helps us to know God better!
These Old Testament ways of contact were very limited. But in Jesus, God communicated in the fullest way imaginable. Those who met him felt his love, his goodness and his power (and his rejection!). They met God in him. Yet we here now cannot meet Jesus over a fish barbecue in quite the same way as those fortunate enough to have lived in Galilee two thousand years ago.
True we meet Jesus in every person we see. True we have the New Testament, and can read about him there. True we have the gift of his body and blood in the Eucharist, and in the church we are his body. But we need, and luckily we have, something more.
Earlier generations knew God also as moving air. Like the wind, God could move gently or with force. Like breath, God gave life. This Spirit breathed through a handful of people whom God chose - the Prophets. He (or she -the Bible talks of the Holy Spirit as a person, a sister even (Prov 7:4)) gave insight, knowledge and wisdom.
The Spirit came to Mary and she conceived. The Spirit came down at Jesus' baptism by John in the Jordan. The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, and sent him back to Galilee. By the Spirit, Jesus cast out the evil of disease (Matt 12:28).
Jesus has given us this Spirit, to speak to us, to speak on our behalf and to strengthen us - this is what John 16:6 tells us. What was formerly reserved for the prophets is now there for us all. As Joel had proclaimed, we are all prophets now, God speaks to us all. (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:16) And the Spirit brings gifts and bears fruits of peace and joy.
But beware! This gentle breath can also be a rushing wind and a cleansing fire, as in the upper room at the church's first Pentecost. Not just our minds, but our bodies, are temples to be filled with this wind. God the Holy Spirit may not merely take your breath away. The Spirit may transform your life!
HD