The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.  - John 3:8

     Advent is a time of waiting, expectation, silence. Social activist and mystic Dorothy Day describes it thus, "Waiting for our Lord to be born. A pregnant woman is so happy, so content. She lives in such a garment of silence, and it is as though she were listening to hear the stir of life within her. One always hears that stirring compared to the rustling of a bird in the hand. But the intentness with which one awaits such stirring is like nothing so much as a blanket of silence."

   Advent is awaiting the presence of God in the world, we await the work of the Holy Spirit, the mystery of Christ's presence revealed. We await the work of the Holy Spirit in our own lives. I remember as a child, my Grandmother reading me the poem by Christina Rosetti which asked, “Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by.”

    Cleveland’s winter season is dramatized by what is referred to as the “Lake Effect.” This means that when the frigid winds blow across the shallowest of the Great Lakes-our Lake Erie and we are blanketed in snow, the wind is passing by. The effects of this wind on our Lake create impressive winter blizzards that can  drop a staggering amount of precipitation in the form of snow in a matter of hours. During the summer months, pressure and height patterns influence high winds. When the wind is passing by, there are violent summer thunderstorms which blow in on hot and humid afternoons.

   The wind itself cannot be seen, but the wind’s presence is a powerful movement to be reckoned with, its movement signifies life. In the Hebrew tradition the word for wind is “ruach”, this is synonymous with “God”.  The Hebrew word for spirit is “ruah” and was used in ancient times to designate a “breeze or wind bringing saving rain to fields or flocks, or the cooling rain of a sirocco from the Mediterranean to the desert. The rains brought by the wind meant life or death to field and flock.” (1)

    It is our very breath which means life, and cessation of our breath means death.  The Holy Spirit is the wind of salvation, life and death of our souls. II Isaiah speaks of God pouring out His spirit upon the people like water on thirsty ground (Is 44:3); like the cooling rain of a sirocco that rescues field and flock. In the New Testament Jesus converses with Nicodemus and likens the way of the Holy Spirit to the rhythm and energy of the wind. It is our life of faith that is led by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. God came through the first breaths of a tiny infant in a manager, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit blowing through the universe. A God who offers salvation through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit exists from all eternity in the triune personhood.

    God dwells in accessible light and eternal glory, yet He came one winter night in the breath of a newborn child. God’s love draws us ever closer to us in the face of Christ, the breath of the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul explains, we are saved by God,through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of Christ to His disciples. The Spirit was given to the whole community of Jesus and enables people to respond to God’s call out of an inner will and love. Love is the Spirit’s greatest gift. (2)The Holy Spirit acts in our lives illuminating the dark and hidden parts, guiding us and moving us in faith.

    Who has seen the Spirit on this winter night? Neither you nor I; but when we bow down our heads; the Spirit is passing by and Christ is born. It is with "sheer, swift grace, the divine breath blows our hearts open again" and it is Christmas.

SOURCES:

(1)    Downey, 493-4

(2)    LaCugna, 2-3.