The One who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit.

"I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.” (Mark 1: 8).

Sunday 10th January 2021 is the great feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

John the Baptizer bore witness to Jesus as the expected Messiah who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit. (Mark 1: 8). Who is the Holy Spirit and why is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit the ultimate Christian experience?

This Sunday Liturgy is full of Holy Spirit themes. Here are a few:

#1. "All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat;
Come, buy grain without money,
wine and milk without cost!" (Isaiah 55: 1).
This is invitation to grace and mercy. Of all God's gifts, the Holy Spirit is the Big Gift. The Free Gift.

#2. "With joy you will draw water from the fountains of salvation." (Isaiah 12: 3).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of joy and consolations. We are promised in the Responsorial Psalm from Isaiah 12 that a rich experience of joy and consolations await us when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit.

#3. "The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth." (1 John 5: 6).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who leads us to all the truth about the person and work of Jesus the Christ.

The Baptism of Jesus launches His mission. Our Baptism with the Holy Spirit should similarly launch our mission. This is because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Mission and specifically the Spirit of Evangelization. The Church exists for only one purpose: to evangelize. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to accomplish this mission.

Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Yes. At your Baptism. And the grace of the Holy Spirit you received at Baptism was strengthened or confirmed in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

What if you say: I have been baptized and confirmed but I don't experience the joy and consolations of the Holy Spirit. Why? There could be two principal reasons:
#1. Activate the Holy Spirit in you. Like a new credit card, you need to activate it before you can start to use it and enjoy it. How do you activate the Holy Spirit? The way I did was to make a 9 - Day Novena. There are many sites with Holy Spirit Novena templates.

#2. The second reason why you may not experience the promised joy, peace and comforts of the Holy Spirit is SIN. Get rid of the sin in your life and peace, joy and consolations will flow into your life.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com