The Holy Spirit Has Ninja Moves

As I sat in the old "prayer chair" this morning and cracked open "Big Red" (the affectionate name I've given the lectionary of Mass readings Mrs. Reid bought me in memory of her husband about 11 years ago), I was struck by today's gospel in two places and rendered powerless, like when a Ninja hits two pressure points on your body and you freeze in mid-kick.

THE FIRST
Jesus said... "You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world."

Whoa. He was talking about sin, saying it locks you down, blocks you in, closes off your vision of the starry sky and the home our hearts are always secretly longing for. Sin says it doesn't exist. But Jesus hints at the fact that this Place does in fact exist. In fact, it's where He came from. So the lens with which I see, blurred, cracked, and smudged up by my selfishness, got a little tweaking. The Holy Spirit blew the dust off of it, washed it up, first removing the lens cap, of course, that I sometimes forget to take off of the Camera of Life and I was able to see again... those clear, wide open vistas. And I discovered his hand reaching down to take me to that Other World. Jesus is a trail-blazer, and he cuts a mean path through some of the darkest, most tangled up knots and thorns we've ever seen.

THE SECOND SWEET NINJA MOVE
"...what I heard from him I tell the world."

This was more subtle. Jesus hears from the Father.... He's always tuned in. He only says what is being said to him. He is like a viaduct that lets the Truth flow down, like a channel of pure waters that freshens up our stagnant world. So in our journey to that Other World, I can trust he's got a clear signal. He's getting orders from on high and he's going to share them with me. And of course, to keep the way open and the waters flowing, I need to say the same... "what I heard from him I tell the world."