The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Homily for Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

This particular Gospel text just might be the most misunderstood verses of the Gospel. Jesus says: “ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, and knock and the door will be opened.” I have often been asked why God does not answer a prayer, sincerely made, in the way we wish. What we fail to read and understand is that the answer to asking, seeking, and knocking is the promise of the Holy Spirit in our lives. “How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?” We dare not underestimate this gift. Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit through whom Mary conceived her son, through whom the blinded Samson destroyed the pagan temple, and through whom Peter raised the dead Tabitha

The Holy Spirit is the gift that we receive through our intercessory prayer. We speak to God about our needs and our concerns, and the answer that we receive to those intercessions is the Holy Spirit. That gift is given to us so that we will come to understand that God does not promise that everything in life will go our way. Not every disease will be conquered, not every danger will be avoided, and not every person for whom we pray will recover from illness. Thomas à Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ, wrote that the only thing that can be changed through intercessory prayer is ourselves. God’s Will is not changed by our prayers. However, our intercessions can help us to conform our lives and to accept God’s Will. This is what the Holy Spirit does for us.

In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes: “For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes” for us because “the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will…” Consequently, while we continue to intercede for our needs and the needs of our brothers and sisters, it should be with the understanding that just because we want something does not mean that we need it. So, we are to continue to ask, to seek, and to knock, always remembering that the answer to our prayers will be the help of the Holy Spirit to conform our lives to the life of Jesus Christ.