Intoxication of the Spirit

The Spirit of God, which helped form and bring life into the world (see Genesis 1:2), which led Moses and the Israelites out of bondage through cloud and fire (see Exodus 13:21), which brought life to the valley of dry bones (see Ezekial 37), which overshadowed Mary to conceive the Christ-child (see Luke 1:35), which Jesus breathed on the apostles after the resurrection (see John 20:22), which appeared as tongues of fire at Pentecost (see Acts 2:4), which animated the words and actions of John the Baptist (see Luke 1:15), Elizabeth (see Luke 1:41), Zechariah (see Luke 1:67), Peter (see Acts 4:8), Paul (see Acts 9:17 or Acts 13:9), and all the disciples (see Acts 13:52), is the Spirit of Freedom!

St. Paul couldn’t be more clear, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). To live an authentic Christian life of freedom without an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit is unobtainable; fool’s gold. Everything we have been traversing towards goes hand-in-hand with this reality. “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-25). For “if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live” (Romans 8:13).

We have committed to wandering through our own wilderness with a definitive purpose; to mortify our passions, put to death our selfishness through charity and enter into a prayerful conversation with God every day. “As in the days of Elijah (see 1 Kings 18:38), the fire that comes down from heaven only falls on the wood the is prepared for burning!” (Sober Intoxication of the Spirit, 12). For the last thirty days, we have been preparing “the wood” of our hearts which now stands ready to be set aflame by that Holy Fire that comes down from heaven!

The greatest news is that all we have to do is come before our Heavenly Father with sincerity and ask. It’s the greatest petition we could ever ask for, the one we need the most, and yet it’s the one we ask for the very least. The Father longs to pour out his Spirit upon you! “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Filled with the Holy Spirit and purged of our selfishness, we begin to experience a freedom this world cannot offer or even imagine. We have done well to walk this narrow path through the wilderness to reach the Promised Land. Our bondage and slavery have been broken and destroyed, a thing of the past. We are now a new creation in Christ. St. Augustine reveals that “only the state of a man who has drunk so much as to lose his mind can give us an idea - even though a negative one - of what happens to the human mind when it receives the ineffable joy of the Holy Spirit...becoming intoxicated with the abundance in the house of God...tasting something of the goodness that is to come in the heavenly Jerusalem” (Commentary on the Psalms). Truly, as we continue on our journey we should begin to experience glimpses and even a foretaste of paradise.

One of the great spiritual fathers of our times, Fr. Cantalamessa explains, “When spiritually intoxicated, a person is out of his mind not because he is bereft of reason...but because he passes beyond reason into the light of God” (Sober Intoxication of the Spirit, 4- 5).

Beyond human reason and into the light of God; this is precisely our goal! Freed from our vices and filled with the Holy Spirit, God begins to reveal his mysteries into our hearts and illuminate our minds. Our journey is nearing its destination and we can see a new light at the end of the tunnel as we pass from the Purgative state and into the Illuminative state.