By Paul E. Tupper
Recently, I purchased one of those electric cars. It’s kind of a novelty in that it doesn’t make any noise, and the ride is very smooth. I really love that I don’t have to pay for gas anymore! I plug the car into an outlet in my garage at night, and it’s ready to go in the morning. All I’m paying for is the cost of electricity. On occasion, if it needs a quick boost, I’ll take the car to a super-charging station and, amazingly, it’s fully charged in 30 minutes.
While I was at Mass today, I realized that we have something very similar for our spiritual lives. Our charger is the Holy Spirit. The key difference from my car charger is that the gift of the Holy Spirit is available to us anytime, anywhere, in whatever quantity we need, and it’s free – every time.
Every one of us needs recharging in our spiritual lives. We can’t do it all on our own. The Apostles needed to draw strength from the Holy Spirit before they commenced their ministry to form the early Church. I’m quite certain that every one of the saints needed help. Even Jesus needed to draw strength from his Father to fulfill his plan. Before or after every significant event, the Gospels tell us that Jesus withdrew alone to pray. That was never more evident and more important than in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his passion. He needed strength from his Father to endure his suffering and death.
Jesus knew he needed to turn to his Father, and he did. Often. I’m confident the saints did also. I’m also thinking that those I look up to in my local community – my pastor, the deacons in my church and other religious leaders – understand that as well and turn to the Holy Spirit frequently.
My problem is sometimes I don’t realize I need to recharge spiritually. Sometimes I get so busy, so caught up in the craziness of the day that I forget to turn to Jesus. Other times, I think I can handle things on my own. I convince myself that I don’t need the help. The outcome in those cases is seldom good. Finally, there are times when I’m upset and wallow in my sadness instead of turning to the Holy Spirit for strength. The outcome then is generally not good either. Just as I can’t drive my car if the battery is dead, I also can’t expect to effectively function as a good person if my spiritual battery is drained.
My car doesn’t charge itself. I have to make the conscious decision to plug it in. Similarly, with our spiritual lives, we must make the conscious decision to take time to recharge with Jesus.
Fortunately for us, there are several simple options to recharge our spiritual lives. Sometimes all it takes is a few minutes of quiet time alone with Jesus. Alternatively, we can read Scripture or say a few prayers. We can kneel before the Blessed Sacrament. And, any time we’re in need of a super-charge, all we have to do is attend Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist. There’s no better way to recharge our spiritual lives than to receive Christ into our bodies through the Eucharist.
With my shiny new car, I’ve gotten into the habit of plugging in the charger every time I pull into my garage. In that way, it’s always ready to go. What if we did the same thing with our spiritual lives? We can carve out some time each day, perhaps at the beginning and the end of the day, to be with Jesus and ask him to give us the gift of his Holy Spirit. If we do this, we’ll always be charged up and ready for whatever God may ask of us. It’s easy and doesn’t cost anything — just a few minutes of our time.
***
EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul E. Tupper II, a native of Greenwich, graduated from St. Mary High School in Greenwich and spent his career in public accounting in New York. His father, the late Deacon Paul Tupper, was assigned to St. Clement Church in Stamford and later St. Mary Church in Greenwich.
