O most blessed Light divine, Let Your radiance in us shine, And our inmost being fill
“O most blessed Light divine, Let Your radiance in us shine, And our inmost being fill.”
Here the Holy Spirit is addressed especially as a precious gift of the faithful.
It is an important distinction between people who do not yet know and live the true faith and the faithful. The first are lured and called by the Holy Spirit, and he wants to convince them of the truth of the gospel.
The latter the Holy Spirit penetrates into the inner heart of those who believe and live in the grace of God.
We have already pointed out in the first lecture that the Holy Spirit wants to enlighten and purify our heart, so that it is ready to be completely penetrated by him.
But what happens when the Holy Spirit finds less and less resistance in us, when we listen more and more easily to his instructions, when his seven gifts unfold in us, so that he can take more and more possession of our heart?
We then move toward the goal of the inner path with the Lord, because the goal of the spiritual path and thus also the intention of the Holy Spirit is to lead us completely – as far as this is possible in this life – into a unity of will and thus into a unity of heart with God. This is what is meant when, for example, in Catholic piety one says: “Form our heart according to Your heart” or speaks of the exchange of hearts or of the union with the Heart of Jesus and similar expressions.
If we hear, for example, in the Acts of the Apostles that the early church “was united, heart and soul” (Acts 4,32), then these Christians were all so focused on God that the Holy Spirit could create this unity. I recall the first lecture when I talked about the Babylonian confusion and what is necessary for true unity.
This part of the sequence is speaking not only of the common faith that unites people and creates unity among them, but that the heart is transformed by the penetration of the Holy Spirit. If this happens than God’s wishes become our wishes, God’s intentions become our intentions, God’s will becomes our will.
This is a great work of love and the penetration of the Holy Spirit can go deeper and deeper. The more we are cleansed of everything that separates us from God, the more we are enlightened about and recognize the will of God, the more we are moved by the love of God, the more our relationship with God becomes natural and intimate. It loses all strangeness, an unshakable trust grows, we are allowed to become increasingly one in love with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
This also has wonderful consequences for the relationship with people. A purified, enlightened heart, united with God, also lives naturally in unity with those who love God and listen to Him. This unity does not have to be created, for it is already present through the action of the Holy Spirit. It is perceived and recognized in the light of God and is already a realization of what constitutes life in eternity with God
But the heart, which is united with the Holy Spirit, is not satisfied with what has been achieved among brothers and sisters, because all people are called by God into this unity.
The Holy Spirit not only wants to lead everyone to faith with his light, but also to be able to penetrate them. That is why he is both: the great evangelist who inspires the disciples to carry the gospel wherever he sends them and he is also the one who brings about our sanctification!
That is reason enough to ask him to fill our hearts!