“But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9)
There’s alot to unpack in that question above! As I prayed on it, I kept coming back to the main theme of the readings this week; Resurrection Hope. This Fifth Sunday of Lent challenges us to focus our desires on sharing in eternal life with the risen Lord.
But how do we do that? And how do we connect the idea of resurrection with the Spirit and God’s forgiveness? Let’s start with the word “resurrection.” It comes from the Hebrew for to “rise up.” You can think of “rising up” in a few different ways. There’s the literal way to take it and we hear of the rising up of Lazarus in the Gospel. But there’s other ways to think about the idea of “rising up.”
When I was a young boy, I was blessed to get to sit with my Papa out under the carport at his house in Detroit. We would share a Sprite and he would tell me stories about his time behind the wheel. My Papa was a truck driver for Anheuser-Busch for many years. He would tell me about some of the “sticky situations” he would get into on the roadways and always told me “Johnny, you have to rise above and forgive people when they act nutty.”
“Rise up” and forgive! God commanded us to forgive one another not seven times, but seven times seventy! But sometimes we may need a “nudge” to help us ask for that forgiveness. Cue the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit, the Advocate, that resides within us and urges us to “rise up” and forgive like Christ taught us. It’s the Spirit that can work through us to show God’s forgiveness to others.
We are called to be witnesses and to forgive like Christ forgave. May this Lenten season continue to challenge us to “rise up”, listen to the Spirit’s nudge and let the Spirit use us as joyful missionary disciples to spread God’s love and forgiveness.
John Kovacik
RCIA Coordinator, Disciples Unleashed Family of Parishes