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Reclaiming the Ghost

Br. Bruce Neal, SSJE

Text:  John 14:15-21

When I was a little boy, my Grandmom would sometimes read to me from her Bible.  It was a large, King James version, with a leather cover and yellowed pages worn with use.  She would usually stick to such classics as Noah and the ark; Jonah and the whale; and Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree. Rarely did we venture into such theologically complicated works as the Gospel according to John or the letters of Paul.  I do, however, remember the day she came across one particular term in her reading; the day she mentioned “the Holy Ghost”. 

I was confused.  “What is that…this Holy Ghost?” I asked.  My Grandmom answered, “He’s part of God,” and continued with her reading.  Well…now I was really confused.  Even as a young child, I recognized the ambiguity of the term.  For I knew that ghosts were hardly ever holy…ghosts were usually mean and scary, and hung out in places you wouldn’t want to be found in, especially at night.  And keep in mind, I grew up in a house across the street from the Baptist church we attended…a church which had a large and spooky graveyard next to it…so even though I wasn’t at all a grim little boy, the subject of ghosts was one that wasn’t so easily dismissed.  

How could a ghost be holy?  How could a ghost be part of God?  I was intrigued, and wanted to know more.  It was my Sunday School teacher who would introduce me to the more modern and far less spooky term, the Holy Spirit.  And though this did allay most of my anxiety, it still didn’t explain much.  But my teacher simply mumbled something about three in one and one in three, and then told me I was too young to understand it and to just stick with the approved lesson plan.

It wasn’t until many years later, during theology classes in college, that I finally began to explore this mysterious part of the Christian Trinity.  And I also discovered that I was not alone in my confusion, for many of my fellow students lacked an understanding of the Holy Spirit and its role.

In fact, I suspect that many adult Christians today do not give much thought to that hidden Spirit, the Holy Ghost.  Leaving aside all childish perplexity about ghosts, this is a serious issue.  For this lack of perception of the Holy Spirit’s power by those who profess the Christian religion is perhaps part of the reason why so many people today state that they want to be spiritual, but not necessary religious. 

Turn on the TV and you will see the latest guru’s metaphysical plan for happiness being promoted by a popular talk-show host; visit any bookstore and you will find shelves and shelves of books on pop spirituality waiting for you in the “New Age” section.  The world is starving for a life-giving spirituality; while attendance at Christian churches continues to decline.  Has the Christian religion, then, lost its spirit?  Have we become an outdated, fossilized institution lacking any spiritual vitality?

As one robed in a monastic habit, I certainly don’t think so.  But I do believe that as Christians we must reclaim and rediscover the power of the Spirit.  In our reading this morning from the Gospel according to John, Jesus, who is preparing his disciples for his inevitable arrest and crucifixion, tells them…

             “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

We find in these words two important promises:  that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will live within the disciples and abide with them forever; and that this indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of truth.           

Think about that for a minute, for these words are equally addressed to us, the modern-day disciples of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is with us, forever; this Spirit of truth abides in us, you and me…and this experience of the Spirit to available to all who desire to rediscover it.    

The founder of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Richard Meux Benson, had a profound understanding of the role of the Spirit that sprang from his own experience.  He was quite a promoter of the works of the Holy Ghost, and would often preach and teach about the third person of the Trinity. In a retreat that he gave to a convent of Anglican nuns in 1877, Father Benson passionately expounded on the experience of the Spirit.

The main point he stressed was that the presence of the Holy Spirit is a personal presence; one that was bestowed on us at our baptism and dwells with us in a personal and intimate manner.  In a very real sense, the Holy Spirit was sent to take the place of Jesus in the Christian community.  After his resurrection, Jesus ascended back to the Father, and is no longer with the Christian community physically.  So the Spirit was sent at Pentecost to ensure that the power of the risen Jesus continued to dwell with the community.

To quote Father Benson,

            “The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Christ, and therefore by His coming Christ’s presence is assured….The acknowledgement of the Spirit would not draw them away from the Person of Christ.  The looked to the Spirit as manifesting the power of Jesus more gloriously than the flesh could do.  It was not another power that was coming, although it was another Comforter.”i

Benson goes on to say that whatever personal reliance we could place on our Lord Jesus Christ, that same personal security we can find in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  And he warns us that we must be careful not to lost sight of the truth of the personal presence of the Spirit “in the vagueness of metaphor.”ii  Since the Spirit is indeed with us; Christ is with us.  The Holy Spirit makes the presence of Jesus known to us today, two thousand years after his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.  It is only by claiming the presence of the Holy Spirit that we can declare Jesus as Lord and become the children of God.

But what is this experience of the presence of the Spirit like?  Well, I hate to disappoint, but it is rarely dramatic.  It doesn’t have to be about speaking in tongues, handling poisonous snakes, or manifesting the wounds of Christ in our own flesh.  It is not often the stuff of Hollywood movies, of best-selling guidebooks to inner worlds and higher consciousness, or of close encounters with ghostly beings from another dimension.  The Holy Spirit more often works behind the scenes, striving for our transformation, healing us of our woundedness, setting us free from our harmful attachments, and gradually changing us into the likeness of Christ. 

Jesus describes the Spirit as our Advocate, or one who is called to our side for the purpose of defending and aiding – the one who gives us strength in our day-to-day fidelity to our faith.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and that truth is centered in the death and resurrection of Christ – what we call the paschal mystery.  Thus the Spirit will often show us that in our own journeys of faith, there must be dying as well as rising.  The Spirit calls us to put to death many of our notions of self-reliance, self-enlightenment, and self-indulgence…those very things which the false spirits of the world, those ghosts of self-deceit, try to dupe us into believing will make us happy. 

And what is reborn are the works of love and service.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to keep the commandments of Christ – to serve each other and to abide in love.  And, as St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit is … “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”iii   Perhaps it is a bit undramatic, yes…but it is the true path to happiness and higher consciousness…a consciousness centered in Christ; a consciousness revealed to us by that indwelling spirit, the Holy Ghost.  So invite the Holy Spirit into your life; invokes its power –  and you’ll soon discover that’s one ghost that’s worth reclaiming.

  © 2008

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