Daily Meditation: Sunday, May 15, 2016

Holy Spirit, The - the bridegroom of light

05/15/2016

‘Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour’, Jesus said at the end of the parable of the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. Here, ‘keep awake’ does not mean, ‘do not go to sleep’, but to stay vigilant, because we do not know when the beloved will come. This beloved, this mystic bridegroom, is the Holy Spirit, and by our prayers and our pure life, we must prepare the precious oil for it, this quintessence which is its only food. For the Holy Spirit is a flame, a flame needs to be nourished, and oil is its food. Whether we are male or female does not matter. The wise virgin of whom Jesus speaks is a symbol of the soul preparing itself to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the bridegroom of light, and it will only come and visit us if we have enough oil to feed its flame. Now you can understand why it is said that on the day of Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit in the form of flames, tongues of fire which burned over their heads: they had filled their oil lamps with this spiritual substance which alone can attract the bridegroom, the divine Spirit.