Growing up, our family always had plenty of food on table, but with four children in the house and following a budget, certain foods had to be rationed, particularly Oreos or other such cookies. If we ate all of our food, we could have two cookies and no more. I think about Oreos being rationed as we hear in our gospel reading from St. John's Gospel (3:31-36) that God does not ration His gift of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the great gift that God wishes to give to us without limit, without rationing. This reminds me of what Jesus says in St. Luke's Gospel (11:13): “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” God desires to give each of us His life, His Spirit, His breath.
As Jesus tells us, we are meant to ask for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles (5:27-33) also reveals a vital key receiving the Holy Spirit. St. Peter says, “We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” It was Jesus' obedience to the Father in His Passion that undid Adam's disobedience; it was Mary's obedience that helped usher in life, reversing Eve's disobedience, bringing about death. In Mary's obedience, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, bearing the Author of Life in her womb. In Jesus' obedience, He brought about the redemption of the world. Obedience to God removes the barriers preventing us from receiving a new and limitless outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit!