10 May 2021
Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
“The Lord takes delight in his people”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to his followers when he had finished his earthly mission. This Advocate will help his followers testify to Christ to others, but this Advocate will also testify to Christ for the believer himself from within. We see the Spirit’s double testimony in action in the first reading in the interaction between Paul and Lydia. Paul manifests the strengthening of the Spirit in giving testimony outward in his conversation with Lydia. In Lydia, she experiences an inner testimony and movement of the Spirit which counsels her to open her heart and convinces her of the truth of what she is hearing about Christ. The Spirit testified to Lydia from within and gave Paul the strength to testify to those he encountered.
We are an Easter people, whom the Lord has poured out this spirit upon us in the Sacraments. Christian means anointed one, and this anointing is of the chrism of the Spirit that Christ promise to all of his followers today. As the Papal preaching Card. Cantalmessa reminds us: “the world has a great need to smell the perfume of Christ,” to smell Christ’s followers who let their anointing of the Spirit testify to the life of Christ within them and which they long to share with others. This anointing with its double effects of testimony can empower us and can keep us humble. It can empower us to give voice to the great gift of Christ in our life which we are empowered to share with others, and it can humble us in that we too are called to listen to the testimony of the Spirit which will guide us, purify us, and lead us deeper into Christ. Further, we are humbled in that any movement of others toward Christ is to be entirely credited with the hidden work of the Spirit testifying to them in their heart.
Let us pray today in gratitude for the gift of Christ’s Advocate in our life and in the Church. Let us also pray for a greater spirit of boldness to testify to Christ, and a greater spirit of humility to listen to where the Spirit is seeking to give us testimony to Christ in our life.