Fr. Leo Pabayo SJ
THE word “spirit” originally came from the Hebrew word “ruah” which means breath, air or wind. Breath, as we know is a sign of life. There is indeed spirit in us or we have a spiritual life. Although we do not see breath, air or wind we can sense their effects on us. We can see the effect of the wind on the trees and feel it blowing on us, etc….Similarly, we get to know our spirit and our spiritual life from its effects in what we can see, hear, feel, etc….It is known by us through our bodily senses and our interior life of understanding the things that happen in our life.
The Bible tells us that the spirit of man was given to him by God. The Bible, in figurative language, speaks of God breathing on the piece of clay making it into a living human being. This is all figure of speech of course, but it seems to be the best and clearest way to express the fact that we have life because of the spirit of God that gives us life.
The spirit of God is mentioned innumerable times in the Bible as the life-giving spirit and the spirit that descended on the leaders and prophets to give them the wisdom, the strength and other virtues to lead God’s chosen people in their return to God. The prophet Isaiah would say that “the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the good news to the poor, to prisoners, freedom, to those in sorrow joy….”
God willed that man be imbued by this spirit from the very beginning. But then man having willfully disobeyed God like the way a child consciously disobeys his or her parents, lost the guidance and love of God. His lost relationship led to the dimming of his knowledge of God until man developed a distorted image of God and thought God to be present in the many projections that his mind born of his fears in life which are the result of his having lost his experience of God’s love due to his having turned away from God for some selfish reasons.
God, however, took the initiative to restore our relationship with Him. He, as it were, breathed new life into man. Some responded positively to God’s initiative of restoring that relationship and giving man a new spirit. They are the just that the Bible speaks of, starting with Abel, then Noah and Abraham who would become the father of a new people who would know about God and live by His spirit, Moses who would shepherd the chosen people in their continuing journey back to God.
The story of man’s return to God is known as the story of man’s salvation. It is the story of man straying from God again and again and God saving him time and again. His act of saving would happen when certain individuals such as the patriarchs and prophets would respond to His call to shepherd the people back to God. (To be continued)
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