In the Name of the Father and of the Son X and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Far more painful than any broken bone, much more agonizing than any root canal, and more excruciating than any deep cut is the feeling of loneliness. Man was not meant to live alone. Man cannot live without companions. Man’s greatest pain is not in any physical trauma, but rather in the betrayal of a close friend, the rejection by one’s spouse, the death of a child, losing a job, and the lonely road of living with a terminal illness. Being alone comprises man’s greatest sorrow.
No man is more alone than he who is alone in his own sin. Your own heart accuses you. You feel the accusation of God’s wrath in your heart. Yet, grief over your sin is the beginning work of the Holy Spirit working repentance in you. In fact, here the Holy Spirit does His finest work. He holds before your eyes the comforting promises of God: His grace, His forgiveness of sin, His eternal life given for you.
Inward temptations and outward difficulties cause you grief. Yet, once again, the Holy Spirit does His best work. He strengthens you so that you don’t collapse under the burden of your cross, your tribulation, and your sorrow. When the strength of your heart withers away, when your eyes have been darkened by death, He gives the light of comfort to your heart.
The comfort of the Holy Spirit is mighty and reliable. One Word of forgiveness of His Scriptures, one small Host of His Holy Communion, one small drop of Christ’s most precious Blood is more heavenly comfort than the world’s joys and comfort combined.
For this Blood of Christ was shed for the remission of all sins. It even had the power to forgive all sins by which it was shed. By your sin, you have hated Christ. By your sin, you have put Christ to death. But, by the testimony of the Holy Spirit, you see Christ who gives you forgiveness in the very blood He shed for your sin.
Let this be your confidence in confessing Christ and no longer your own goodness and life. The Holy Spirit gave testimony of this forgiveness and now you do also. The charity of God, His death for your sins, poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit is now yours to give you courage to testify to the blood which bought your life from hell.
We know the case of Peter, who trembled and forsook the Christ prior to the crucifixion. He was asked by the servant girl of His association to the Lord, which Peter denied 3 times. By the coming of the Holy Spirit, he who denied the Lord whom he loved, here is showed the Love of Him whom he denied. Be bold in the gifts of the Spirit.
And so, true religion is not being a hearer only, but being a doer also. Or as St. Peter would tell us in his letter, to glorify God through Christ Jesus. If Christianity had simply been a matter of knowing the teaching of Jesus and living by it, then there would be no use for the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not simply knowing about Jesus and following Him. True Christianity is found only where God is at work in the presence and person of the Holy Spirit. For you, this is a weekly experience as the Holy Spirit acts upon you in this place.
Without the 3rd Article of the Apostle’s Creed, our faith is not the true faith. Your life is not life without the work of the Holy Spirit. All praise to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit calls you, gathers you, enlightens you, and sanctifies you with His gifts.
So do receive those gifts God would give you. Don’t be a hearer only, but do receive God’s Holy Word and Sacraments. Glorify God through Christ Jesus through the reception of His most precious gifts given in the Holy Spirit.
By His gifts, you are never alone. Be gone loneliness, as our hymn says,
Christ has our host surrounded with clouds of martyrs bright,
Who wave their palms in triumph and fire us for the fight.
Then Christ the cross ascended to save the world undone
And, suffering for the sinful, our full redemption won.
There was Christ: alone on the cross. He endured all loneliness. He was betrayed by a close friend. He was rejected by His own people. He suffered the pain and defeat of death being forsaken by God. And so He endured it all so that you don’t have to now or ever. God sets the solitary in families. Both our blood families and our parish-family.
Jesus ascended into heaven and He sends His Holy Spirit, that you may never be alone. The Spirit remains with you in His Holy Word, in His Holy Baptism, in His Holy Absolution, and in His Holy Communion. You are never alone. In these, God the Father loves you. God the Son loves you. God the Holy Spirit loves you. Now, you are not only in the house of the Lord, but you are the Temple of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, God makes His home on earth in you, until He takes you to the home He has prepared for you in the life of the world to come. Dearly Beloved, Behold, as the Holy Spirit comes to you now. Amen.
The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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