Jesus left the Apostles a gift and a command before leaving for Heaven. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) What is this “power of the Holy Spirit”?

Preachers talk so often about the “power” of God. I was curious about how the dictionary defines the word “power.” So, I looked it up. I was baffled by this one definition I discovered. It defined power as “the ability to get extra-base hits.” I found it strange they used a baseball analogy to define power. However, this definition jogged my memory of a teaching I gave long ago at the Care Unit for Addiction Recovery. The class was called “What is Spirituality?” I used a baseball field to explain it in this way

When you stop doing or using the thing you are addicted to, you get to first base which is the physical. You physically feel better and stronger. Second base is the mental/emotional. You think more clearly. You feel more normal, i.e., less crazy. Third base is moral. You do good and avoid wrong like your parents taught you. Home base is freedom from the addiction that caused your problems in the f irst place.

There is one more important thing. The bases are housed in the “ballpark.” The ballpark is spirituality needed for recovery. Spirituality is defined as “seeing yourself as loving and lovable, seeing others as loving and lovable, and seeing God as loving and lovable.” When one rejects spirituality then the “works of the flesh” (Gal 5:19) are obvious. Things like hatred, selfishness, lust, outbursts of anger, divisions, envy, impurity, idolatry, and drinking bouts. Choosing the works of the flesh makes your relationship with God one of guilt instead of love. You can’t love others because you don’t love yourself. How many times I’ve heard recovering alcoholics say, “I hated the person looking back at me in the mirror.”

When you open your heart to the Holy Spirit then He will guide you with the spirituality of Love. “In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23)

I will now define the “power of the Holy Spirit.” “It is a God-given ability to see God, others and yourself as loving and lovable so that you can witness by your love to the power of God’s redeeming and healing Love.” How many people have joined our churches because you witness God’s Love to another by your love. They are attracted to the goodness in your hearts.

The best example I can think of to explain the basis of spirituality as love is the story of Scrooge. There is a sad scene that explains why Scrooge was so mean, so selfish and unloving to everyone around him. The ghost of Christmas past takes him back to Christmas day when he was a boy at his boarding school. Here is part of the script from the school’s lonely, old, dusty library where he sits as a little boy on a wooden bench, reading.

Ghost: “Your school…and it’s Christmas Day….the boy is deserted by his friends and his family.”

Scrooge speaks: “His mother is dead. His father holds him a grudge.”

Ghost: “Why does his father hold him a grudge?”

Scrooge: “She died in childbirth. His birth.”

And he sobbed. Scrooge was abandoned by his friends. He was hated by his father. He was blamed for his mother’s death which made him unlovable. Even God could not love him. No wonder he couldn’t love anyone else. Love failed him too many times. He punished others with the punishment he believed he deserved.

There are a lot of Scrooges that will cross your life. Call forth the power of the Holy Spirit to help them rise, like a new ascension, above their loveless lives and cheerless hearts. Be the love to make the Holy Spirit permeate their souls. Be their healing. That’s how we make Christmas happen every day of the year. Blessings…Fr. Mike