16th Sunday Homily - The Groans of the Holy Spirit, hard at work within us.

The groanings of the Holy Spirit, that is kind of visceral phrase that Paul uses.  But, its gets our attention!
Have we heard any of these groanings?
Clearly, many of us hear different forms of groans, for different reasons.
At the gym when people work out, especially the guys, they groan as they strain to lift the weights.  Of course, at times I think it is way to get attention.
Don’t we groan after we hear a bad joke too, that “I can’t believe you said that!”
Or those groans of frustration, especially driving in traffic.
How and why does the Spirit groan within us?
We all have the Holy Spirit within us.
The Holy Spirit moves us to be better connected, with God and with others.
The Holy Spirit makes us more holy, and to be holy is to be well connected with God and with others.
That’s part of the Good News!
God created us in God’s own image, the Holy Trinity.  We are created to be in community, to have love:  To be human is to have community.
The whole journey, or pilgrimage of life is to grow in this love and community.
The whole journey of life fulfills our humanity.  This is what Holiness is about.
Yet we know that it’s easy for us to become lost or distract on this journey.
We look for easier ways, and for minimal effort.
So we think all I need to do is show up for mass every so often, get the appropriate sacraments, say a prayer every now and then, throw a buck or two into the collection plate, and as long as I cause no real harm, good to go!
Here is where the Holy Spirit groans, through effort, disbelief and frustration!
And maybe we do good things, help the poor with money, food, clothes, we help out in the parish, bring our kids to Religious Ed---but within us, we hold onto anger and refuse to forgive.
All of which keeps us from being open to love, which frustrates the Holy Spirit and it groans!
Look, the Holy Spirit wants us to love, to be holy.
The Holy Spirit wants us to have life in the Full in this world, so that we can experience it in the next.
To not be controlled by our fears, our anger, our sadness.
To not be controlled by our passions and ego
The Holy Spirit works and exerts itself within us, with our weaknesses, to give us the strength to do what is good, to follow the way of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit works and wants our hearts to be truly converted.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit groans in exertion to encourage us to forgive, to be compassionate and merciful, to be generous with money and time…
The Holy Spirit guides us to listen and say nothing… to not judge, not critique, not fix...but listen.
The Holy Spirit coerces us to see another person, especially someone we label as “enemy”, as a child of God.
The Holy Spirit wants us in prayer to simply talk with God of what is causing our hurts, and to simply say “Father, I don’t know what to do, Help me!”.
The Holy Spirit is life, transforming us to be those children of God, exactly as the Holy Spirit transforms the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
Let’s work with the Holy Spirit,
Taking the time to listen to those groans within,

Because by doing so, we will mature as men, as women, as humans.

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