Being There in Spirit

"I will be with you in spirit."  People often say this when they are not able to be at a certain event but want to assure people that they will be in some way with them at the event.  "I'm there with you in spirit."  What does that even mean?  Do people really know what it is they are saying?

In the Gospel according to John, Jesus promised His disciples that the Father will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to be with them always who will teach them everything and remind them of all that Jesus had taught them.   Jesus knew that He will not remain on earth forever and so He assured His disciples that even when He leave, they will not be alone for the Spirit will be with them.  Jesus here was not saying that in some ways as long as the disciples remembered everything Jesus had said to them and all of the encounters they experienced together, then Jesus will live on in their memories.  This is only a mere "remembering" of Jesus, an intellectual, encoded memory of Jesus.  However what Jesus told them was something different.  It is not a mere "remembering," but that He would truly be with them, present as He was then.  This Spirit is not an aggregate of the good memories and fun times they spent with Jesus, this Spirit is the One who is One with the Father and the Son, and who "proceeds from the Father and the Son."  Where the Spirit is, so is the Father and the Son.  Jesus was telling His disciples that He will remain with them, truly present, but in a way that has been transformed by His descent into hell and His Resurrection from the dead.  His presence is one that has been transformed and that which transcends the natural. 

So, Jesus is truly with us.  The Son, who is One with the Father, is with us always and the Spirit has been sent to us to guide us, to remind us,  and lead us to love, Communion with the Father.  If then we follow the Spirit and do all that Our Lord has taught us and commanded of us - to love one another as He has loved us, then we too will be one in the Father.  Then, when we are to say to others, “I cannot be there, but I will be with you in spirit,” it will truly mean something, not just a comforting statement in the mind, but an assuring truth in the heart.

Father, teach me to know your love so that I may be one with you. 

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