Last week I had to give a talk on the Holy Spirit. As I began to prepare, I decided to check the internet to see what was going on in the Year of the Holy Spirit in the Church’s 3-year preparation for the new millennium. At one location, I found a link to a site called the “Home Page of the Holy Spirit.” I thought, “Wow! Cool!” I had always known the Holy Spirit was up-to-date, but I had no idea that the Spirit had its own home page! Is this where I was going to find out just what God has in mind for us? So I clicked on the link — only to get that frustrating error message, “FILE NOT FOUND.”
When I recounted my experience that night at the dinner table, I was told, “The Spirit remains a mystery.” Nevertheless, we do catch glimpses of the Spirit working in us and in the world — easing fear, moving us toward unity with God and with each other, increasing our faith and our love, leading us to freedom. Unfortunately, we can sometimes mistake the Holy Spirit for something else, and we can mistake something else for the Holy Spirit, so we need to look for the signs that what we experience is really the Spirit at work. As Paul says in his letter to the Galatians:
“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” (5:22-23).