Peter filled with the Holy Spirit…

Peter filled with the Holy Spirit answered them.

Everyone knows that if you place a tea bag in a cup of hot water, that water will be transformed.  It is no longer just water, but a cup of tea with a distinct color and flavor.  Once they are combined, it is no small task to remove the tea from the water.  It would take a chemist a complex series of steps to separate the elements.

This is a good analogy for the way God changes our lives.  Take Peter and John, for example, they had been fisherman, but once Jesus came into their lives, something changed them.  Then they spent three years being steeped in his love, his teachings, and his power to heal.  they saw him in the day to day activities of their lives.  They saw his death and his resurrected glory.  Then they received the Holy Spirit, who came to live in them.  How could they not be changed?

You have been changed by the Lord, too.  Like the tea bag in hot water, the Holy Spirit is in you, he is making a difference in your life.  Every time you go to Mass, every time you ponder the Scriptures, you are “steeping” yourself in him.  Every time you go o Confession or spend time serving people in need, his life is becoming stronger in you. He is making you “look” and “taste” more like him.  You are becoming a living, breathing example of the truth that anyone who is “in Christ” is a “new creation”.

Do you know what this means?  God can use you to change a little part of the world!  You may not feel ready to pray with people for healing or to share your faith like Peter and John.  But that does not change the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in you and he is moving in your life.  Besides, it is the Spirit’s job to make you like Christ – only he can manage such a transformation.  You do not need a complicated program of self – improvement.  You just need to spend time with the Lord and let him do his work.  Is not that good news?

-word among us