December 24, 2020
Filled with the Holy Spirit
Today's reading follows straight on from yesterday's reading. And we hear about Zacharia, the father of John the Baptist. Now you remember, he has been unable to speak during the pregnancy, okay. He doubted God, and as a result of that was not able to speak until the child was born, okay. And now he can speak, and the first line of today's reading is this: “And his father Zacharia was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Now, firstly, that's beautiful, right? To be filled with the Holy Spirit. When's the last time you felt filled with the Holy Spirit? And what do you have to do to put yourself in a position to be filled with the Holy Spirit again? The thing I wonder is—is there a connection between this long period of silence and being filled with the Holy Spirit? Because when we're full of the Holy Spirit, we've got this fire burning within us, right? We've got this fire burning within us. But every time we talk, we open our mouths, and it blows part of the fire out, I think. We talk too much, the fire's just constantly being burned out, and so, or blown out. If we talk too much, the fire's just constantly being blown out.
And so Zacharia has this period where he can't talk, and then all of a sudden he's filled with the Holy Spirit, and what does he do? Praises God. Goes into this long litany of gratitude and praise for God. When's the last time you consciously, intentionally praised God? When's the last time you just said, "Hey, I'm going to take five minutes and I'm going to praise God. I'm going to praise God for all the good things he's done in my life. I'm going to praise God for life. I'm going to praise God for my life. I'm going to praise God for creation. I'm going to praise God for—I'm just going to praise God"? Because I think it's one of the ways we get filled with the Holy Spirit.
I think it's important for us to show tremendous gratitude to God by praising him, spending time just praising God. The beautiful thing about that is that I think it does fill us with the Holy Spirit. I think it does reenergize us to go out into the world and live our faith boldly. And it does put us in an incredible place of gratitude. And one of the things about that is it's impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time. It's impossible. I'm telling you. Give it a try. I'm telling you: next time you see someone who's really unhappy, ask yourself, is that person grateful right now? It's impossible. Next time you're unhappy, ask yourself am I grateful right now? It's impossible. You cannot, I'm telling you, you cannot be unhappy and grateful at the same time. Gratitude is the ultimate antidote for our unhappiness. When we turn to God in gratitude, everything changes.
So today, let's make today a day of gratitude, let's make today a day of praising God, and let's ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit.