Just before Jesus went to the cross he said that he would ask the Father to give us another just like himself. This other one would be with us forever. True to his word, Jesus received the Spirit from his Father and poured out this promised gift on his own. The exalted Jesus does not want to leave us alone. He wants his own Spirit to be with us and in us so that we know him in the Spirit’s presence and serve him in the Spirit’s power.

For the Spirit comes from Jesus and unites us with Jesus. The Spirit is the living personal connection between Jesus at the right hand of God and us where we are. We are in living union with Jesus because he has given himself to us in his Spirit. And so we are never disconnected from him.

In the Spirit, Jesus comes among us in such a way that we know that he is in his Father and that we are in him and he is in us. We are all in one another. And the Spirit is the living reality of this living union: Jesus in the Father and the Father in him; Jesus in us and we in him. The Spirit is given so that we know this union as a living reality in our daily lives. And so, union with Christ is a deeply personal, dynamic and relational sharing in Jesus’ life with his Father

May the Spirit enable us to live into this living union.