The example that Jesus had given the Apostles was one of obedience and trust. Every word that he shared with them was not his own word but was given to him by the Father. Every work that he accomplished was not to glorify himself but to glorify God and reveal the Father’s love for the world. Jesus was not working on his own but was always working with the Father and revealing the Father. This was perfectly illustrated in his total prayer of abandonment to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane when he surrendered himself fully to the Father’s will, “not my will but yours be done.” The Church is not a project that the Apostles decided to take upon themselves to honor the memory of Jesus but rather it is the work of God’s Spirit that is living in them and guiding them in love and truth. The Church is born out of the love of the Father and the truth that He reveals through the Son and the Spirit. The Roman Catholic Church is an extension of God’s will into the world, not the will of any human person or founder. The perfect nature of the Church is the work of the Holy Spirit and thus our faith in the teaching and guidance of the Church arises from our faith in God and His inerrancy.
The Holy Spirit works in our own lives of faith to purify us, perfect us and to lead us to the Father. He works through the process of discernment and detachment. Without the gifts of the Holy Spirit, without His purification of us we would certainly go astray and follow false gods and idols of our own creation. Our journey to God must seek a perfect union of mind and will with God. It means the total consecration and submission of all of our faculties to God’s Truth and to His Love. Thomas Merton asserted that the whole spiritual life can be summed up in simply doing the will of God. The Holy Spirit works in our intellect through “discernment” to lead us into the Truth, to enlighten our minds and help us to know and recognize what is true. This Truth is one, it is objective, it is living and it can be known through reason and assented to through the will. The Holy Spirit helps us in our hearts to perfect the will in Love through “detachment” from created, worldly things in order to love God alone and serve only Him. It is not a blind faith that God asks but a reasonable service proper to beings endowed with freedom and with intelligence. The Spirit that Jesus breathes on the Apostles leaves them with a gift of profound peace and yet, it also imparts a great power to transform the world for good.
We thank God for the gifts of the Spirit, the gift of the Church that is born of the Spirit and the gift of reason and faith that are purified by the Spirit and that lead us so certainly to God and to our true and eternal life in Him. Wait. Wait for the Lord, for his Spirit, our gentle and peaceful guide, who has the power to gift us, guide us and perfect us in the way of new life.