Not an Outsider but an Insider

In the Jewish story of the creation of Adam, the author has God fashion a figure of a human being out of damp earth, and then breathes into the nostrils of this clay figure. It becomes ‘Adam’. In Hebrew, the word for breath, wind or Spirit is the same, so this story tells us that we become human when the Holy Spirit is breathed into our very being.

St Paul tells the early converts in Rome, those recently baptised, and therefore tells us who are baptised: ‘The Spirit of God has made his home in you.’

Since your baptism, the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God, dwells in you in a special way. Baptism re-creates us, sharing in the life of the true Adam.

We could pause for a moment to pray:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

© Fr Michael Tate; mtate@bigpond.com