Wednesday: October 30, 2019 –– 30th Week in Ordinary Time
Romans 8:26–30 / Luke 13:22–30
Desire, the Holy Spirit, and Salvation
Someone asked Jesus: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus replied by addressing the questioner personally: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” Those who truly desire to be saved will be saved.
St Augustine said:
The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.
You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.
There is then within us a kind of instructed ignorance, instructed, that is, by the Spirit of God who helps our weakness.
The Lord your God tests you…. to enable you to know. So the Spirit moves the saints to plead with sighs too deep for words by inspiring in them a desire for the great and as yet unknown reality that we look forward to with patience. How can words express what we desire when it remains unknown? If we were entirely ignorant of it we would not desire it; again, we would not desire it or seek it with sighs, if we were able to see it.
Here is a consolation: “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness”…. and “intercedes with inexpressible groanings.”
Whenever we feel drawn to God it is a desire that he has implanted within us. When we respond we are not alone. The Spirit both draws us and helps us. And every day we open ourselves for the grace to hear and follow. Those who do that will be saved.
