Restoring life to dry bones

Good News Reflection
Friday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time
August 20, 2010

Today's Saint: Bernard
Pray to live a holy life:
http://wordbytes.org/saints/DailyPrayers/Bernard.htm

Today's Readings:
Ezek 37:1-14
Ps 107:1-9
Matt 22:34-40
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082010.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_08_20.mp3

Restoring life to dry bones

Do you have any relationships that once were good but now have dried up? A relationship that has rotted, that has no flesh on it, no life? It's nothing but dry bones? Or a dream that has faded or a ministry that has withered? Today's first reading gives us a very graphic image of God's ability to resurrect anything. Nothing is ever hopeless except in hell.

If it's good for us and when the timing is right, God the Father will put flesh back on any bones that he has created: any relationship, any dream, any desire that he himself has given to you. But this new "flesh" will not resurrect what has died. Something else will do it: the Spirit of Life, the Holy Spirit.

As the scripture says, "From the four winds – from all directions – come, O Spirit, and breathe into that which has been slain and bring them to life." The Spirit, as the Giver of Life, puts holiness back into the relationship, energy into the dream, and new opportunities into the ministry.

Without the Holy Spirit, there is no hope, but with the Holy Spirit, there is life and a future full of abundant goodness. As the Paulist Fathers* say, "A future brighter than any past!" Even if a relationship cannot be restored on earth, it will come alive again in heaven.

Holiness is life. Consider how humility, truth, and unconditional love, which are attributes of holiness, give us life. They unite us to our Creator, who is the source of eternal life.

Selfishness, deception, and an unwillingness to be vulnerable infect our relationships, rot away what was good, and leave us with nothing but dry bones. Our ministries are diseased by self-importance and the compromises we make on moral issues and the dislike we have for humble servanthood, because they pull us away from a close relationship with God. Thus, we lose his guidance that would have led us to success.

When I was a child, Jesus became my dearest friend, but I knew nothing of the Holy Spirit. As a teenager, I instinctively sought the Spirit's power, but I looked for it in the occult, which diseased my faith. After seven years of this, my friendship with Jesus had dried up into lifeless bones.

Then Jesus brought someone into my life who introduced me to the Holy Spirit. After I gave my heart and soul to this Third Person of the Trinity, the truth about each occult deception became clear to me. Breath by breath, the Spirit of Truth gave me a fuller life in God's kingdom.

It's the Holy Spirit who breathes life into these daily Good News Reflections to give you what you need when you need it. Time and time again I hear from readers who say, "It's like you were here in my house and knew exactly what's going on in my life!" It's not me, of course, who makes that happen. It's the Holy Spirit.

Ask this wonderful Presence of God's Spirit to clarify the truth for you, weed out any false beliefs you have, and empower you to do everything that God asks of you. From this oft-repeated prayer will grow new life, and you'll eventually receive the resurrections you've been wanting.

*For more information about the Paulist Fathers, visit http://paulist.org

© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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