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Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 2:10b–16
Every day I pray:
Come, O Creator Spirit.
I began to pray this when I understood something simple:
without the Holy Spirit, life becomes unmanageable.
Today Saint Paul speaks about three spirits:
the Spirit of God, the spirit of man, and the spirit of the world.
The spirit of the world is the air we breathe every day.
It tells us what is normal, what is successful, what is worth wanting.
In Paul’s time, it could mean idols, power, immorality, and human wisdom.
In our time, it often speaks through materialism, relativism, self-sufficiency, and the noise of the age.
It tells us:
Live for yourself. Choose what is useful. Avoid the cross.
This spirit cannot understand the wisdom of God.
It cannot understand the crucified Christ.
That is why Paul says the rulers of this age crucified the Lord of glory.
They saw weakness.
God saw love.
They saw failure.
God revealed salvation.
The spirit of man is our inner life.
It is our mind, our heart, our will, our conscience.
It is the place where we search for meaning, happiness, truth, and God.
It helps us reflect on who we are and what we are doing.
But by itself, the human spirit cannot enter the depths of God.
For that, we need the Spirit of God.
Only the Holy Spirit searches the depths of God.
Only He reveals the wisdom hidden in Christ.
Only He teaches us what God has given us.
And what has God given us?
His Son.
Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, who loved us and gave His life for the salvation of the world.
The good news is this:
we have received this Spirit.
In baptism, the Holy Spirit was given to us.
Saint Paul says:
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
This Spirit does not only inform us.
He transforms us.
He changes the way we see.
He changes the way we choose.
He teaches us to think with the mind of Christ.
Peter once rejected the cross.
He thought as men think, not as God thinks.
But when the Spirit filled him, Peter followed Christ all the way to martyrdom.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
He makes fearful people brave.
He makes worldly people free.
He makes natural people spiritual.
He molds us into the image of Christ.
Now you know why we must pray:
Come, O Creator Spirit.
Come into our minds.
Come into our hearts.
Come into our weakness.
Teach us the wisdom of the cross.
Make us resemble Christ in life.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
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