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The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift God can give us. He even prays within us: each time we lift our hearts and minds to God, the Spirit prays in us and with us; and when we do not know how to pray, St Paul tells us the Spirit himself prays in us with sighs and groans too deep for words.
The Ascension is not Jesus going away but coming infinitely closer
William Barclay wrote, "The Holy Spirit gate-crashes no one's heart; he waits to be received." In these days before Pentecost, we can pray for a new and greater appreciation of who the Holy Spirit is and what he does in our lives, and for receiving him again at Pentecost.
Jesus is the Truth. There is a hunger in every human being for truth. This longing for truth is part of our spiritual DNA. As the Son of God among us, he is the reference point and yardstick by which all knowledge and truth can be measured. His teaching is the truth about himself, about God, about human beings and the world, and about the meaning of our existence. Knowing by faith calls for a trust on our part — it is rather like the beautiful truth in poetry and literature, or the love between two people. It is deeply true.
We, as sheep, are called to a wholehearted recognition of the call of the Shepherd and a total trust in his love and care for us. Our Christian lives are a journey of making a conscious effort to listen to the voice of our Shepherd and to harmonise our lives with his call. This Sunday we are invited to be good sheep—to enter into an intimate Easter relationship with the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for us.
"Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32)
As Jesus stands before the disciples, we see that he is God's mercy to us - the wounds of love extended to us, forever fixed in the act of love in which he died.
Let the risen Jesus enter your life. Trust him, go to him. He welcomes you with open arms. Let him dispel the doubt and fear from your lives.
With this Palm Sunday celebration, we begin Holy Week, the most sacred time in our liturgical year. It will be a week filled with human and spiritual drama. Let's pray for an invasion of grace that breaks through our defences, our distractions, and our indifference, and reaches the places in us that we thought were closed to God.
Jesus calls us out of death and into new life, offering us abundant life through faith in him. This Lent, let us say yes to his call and embrace the fullness of life he gives.
His amazing grace is the cure for our blindness. Like the man born blind, we are called to say, "Lord, I believe," and let Jesus, the light of the world, enlighten our hearts and lives.