Jean Valjean’s life journey in Les Misèrables reminds us of the power of the Holy Spirit to turn our lives around. We see Valjean as a man of brute strength with few redeeming qualities. His essential humanity has been debased by violence and incarceration over a period of 19 years. However, an act of unexpected mercy sets him on the path to redemption; a small act bound in the gift of grace resolves him to become a good man when the bishop lies to the police about the theft of silver.
In the chapel, a perplexed Valjean asks,
He told me that I have a soul
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?
The former prisoner 24601 decides to grasp this chance to make something of his life. His story resonates with all those who have to make a choice about how they will live; how they will be in the world; how they will treat others; what their life will mean; what path they will take; whether good will guide them. It is clear choice, a turning away from the past with the intention of actively changing for the better.
When the Spirit alights on us, in circumstances less extreme, we too have the choice to do some interior redesign; to work on the person who might emerge with a different outlook. Can we thaw out hearts that have become frozen with indifference? Can we hear the soft sibilance of the Spirit moving our lives, hinting at change, suggesting that another way might be found, that there are plans afoot and much work to be done, that a new season, of being and doing, is not so far away?
One of the hymn-book standards of my childhood was Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew. Somehow that breath of God is what makes us do more, reach beyond our grasp, ticking more than the box of attendance and affiliation. The Spirit is the life force, the transcendent power of the third person of our Triune God filling us with the new, the possible, the different ways to make our lives respond to the call of faith in action.
Galatians 5:22-23 reminds us that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. How often do we exercise gentleness in our responses to others? Have we the capacity for patience in a world that is demand-driven? In an age of entitlement, do we exercise self-control?
We know, too, that we all have gifts from the Holy Spirit and that we have different ways to serve; some with wisdom, others with knowledge, some practical, some prayerful, all working towards building the body of Christ’s community. The Spirit pushes and prods us to get involved, to volunteer, to look beyond our own bubble of complacency and to be disturbed into action. Our ego is relegated to the backseat as we let the Spirit drive us towards compassion for others. This might be something as simple as taking a turn with the tongs at a sausage sizzle, feeding the homeless, volunteering to teach English or taking the time to listen to someone’s story and to know that there may be just some small healing happening because they have been heard.
The words from another popular hymn from the 1970s still reverberate today in the chorus of Spirit of God.
Fill the earth, bring it to birth
And blow where you will
Blow, blow, blow till I be
The breath of the Spirit
Blowing in me.
As Pope Francis reminds us, when the Holy Spirit sows, he grows. That holy spirit of effort that we undertake with enthusiasm or conviction is multiplied in ways we may not even know.
Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem God’s Grandeur writes:
The Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm
Breast and with ah! bright wings.
There are times when our world is bent and broken. We know we need more than ourselves to navigate the path ahead. The Holy Spirit is the energy of goodness that can redeem those times of disappointment or loss, those times when the world is cold and dark and weary; those times when we truly need the breath of God blowing in us, the wind beneath our wings.
Published: 3 May 2024
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Betty Rudin says:
Another beautiful refection. Thank you Ann
Anne says:
Thank-you, Ann
Faye Dennis says:
Thank you Ann for your homily at OHR this morning – a meaningful and measured homily well balanced between the explanation of the scripture readings, the gift of love and, appropriately related to the realities of living our faith today in our everyday lives.