Reflecting on the Word
By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.
The King’s Speech was a movie particularly effective in communicating the torture of not being able to speak one’s mind. We first meet Bertie, the man who would become King George VI, as he is about to speak to his people over the radio. Frustration, shame, embarrassment, anger, even terror—all pass over his face as he tries to speak the simplest words, which cannot get past his debilitating stammer. The movie is about a teacher, Lionel Logue, who comes into his life, becomes his friend, and helps him find his voice.
We have all been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who empowers us to speak the language of faith, hope, and love. As Paul reminds the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:3b), “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” The gift of God’s Spirit brings us to articulate our faith in Jesus as the Son of God. And the Spirit keeps the conversation going even when we become tongue-tied, as Paul expresses so beautifully in Romans where he writes that even when we do not know how we ought to pray, “through our inarticulate groans the Spirit is pleading for us” (8:26).
When Jesus breathed on the apostles and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he was sending to them the great gift of divine life and making them children of the new creation, empowering them to be carriers of this new life through the gospel of salvation they would preach to the ends of the earth.
Consider/Discuss
- When have you felt the Spirit working through the words of others in everyday life?
- God continues to speak to us at every Eucharist through the readings and the preaching. What helps you to be attentive to what God may be trying to say?
Responding to the Word
Come, Holy Spirit, come. Give us your wisdom and understanding. Loosen our tongues to bless and praise the Father and the Son for the great gift we received at our baptism, when we came to birth in your life-giving grace. Increase our faith so we might proclaim with all our hearts, “Jesus is Lord!”