What Should I Do Now?

After my post yesterday, some may be asking that question:  What should I do?  Today’s Pentecost sermon on EWTN’s televised mass game me thoughts about a possible answer.

On Pentecost Day, the apostles, Mary, and many followers of Christ were gathered together, hidden, afraid.  They did not go out, in fear, much as we today are staying home in fear.  Then Jesus came to them.  He breathed on them the Holy Spirit.  And the Spirit gave them strength to go out and do what the Lord had shown them.  They went out preaching, loving others, as led by the Spirit within them.  They did what Jesus had taught them to do.

Christians are Baptized, committed followers of Jesus.  Catholics, as they approach adulthood, are also Confirmed in the Holy Spirit, the sacrament of Confirmation calling down the Holy Spirit upon them and charging them with going out and living their faith.  In Confirmation, they are traditionally given a new name, mine was John.  I thought about that this morning.

These past weeks I, and the Catholic Church, have been reading the Last Supper Discourse, from the Gospel of John.  The words are often pointed to as the ultimate summary of Jesus’ teaching.  There are repeated exclamations of the two Great Commandments, and their call to live in love.  And there are also words which say The Spirit will lead you.

I think John did and wrote as the Spirit led him.  What’s in a name, and the one I was given at Confirmation?  I know mine was derived from my grandfather’s name, but should I have been looking deeper?  I sometimes worried about my name, Thomas, and its pointing to Thomas, the Doubter apostle, but I never thought of my Confirmation name, and as perhaps blessed by the Spirit as John, the great follower of the Spirit’s lead.

Is your name a hint to how the Spirit is calling you?  Does it have unconsidered meaning?  Or are your circumstances today, beyond your control, a hint of the Spirit’s call to you?  Or are the people He puts in your life’s path opportunities for you to live the life as He would have you do.  Certainly, we are paused right now, and have time to consider and pray on these things.

What should I do?  I don’t know, but I am done making plans, but am praying He send His Spirit upon me as He did those at Pentecost.  We don’t even know the names of many who were huddled together that day, scared in that room, but I am sure each one accepted the call of the Spirit, and went out, unafraid, trusting in Jesus and His words.  They went out to do His will, not theirs.  And the world began to change.  We are here, alive, today for a reason.  We can try to make plans (or worry) --- as if we were in charge of things --- or try to hear His plans.  My posting yesterday mentioned some of the results of MY plans; I think I will try His now.

My Jesus, I trust in You.