The Holy Spirit wishes to give us a spiritual freedom that will put our heart at peace.
Although, it’s not quite easy to eliminate the various obstacles within our heart which prevent us from experiencing that spiritual freedom.
However, St. Josemaria Escriva describes what he believes is the secret to this freedom in his homily entitled, “The Great Unknown”. He writes, “with the cross, because in the life of Christ, the Resurrection and Pentecost were preceded by Calvary.
This is the order which must be followed in the life of any Christian. St. Paul tells us, as we are the “heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided, however, we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.”
The Holy Spirit descends to us as a result of the cross and as a result of our total abandonment to the will of God, and our seeking only his glory and renouncing ourselves completely.
In the Other hand, Escriva goes on to explain, “Only when we prove faithful to grace and determined to place the cross in the centers of our souls, in a quest to deny ourselves just for the love of God, detaching ourselves in a very real way from all selfishness and false human security, only then shall we receive the fullness of the great fire, the great light, the great comfort of the Holy Spirit. It is then, too, that souls start to experience the peace and freedom that Christ has conquered for us, and which are given to us with the grace of the Holy Spirit.”
This is a fundamental teaching of Jesus Christ, when he said to his disciples in (Mathew 16:24-25), “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”.
It is not an easy teaching to follow, but one which is necessary to achieve a true and lasting peace and freedom within a person’s soul.
If we are to live in the Holy Spirit, we must die to ourselves.
The next time you what to pray, consider what it is that draws you back from this spiritual freedom and what things need to be “denied” in order to find the peace you long seek for.
