Homily: Friday - 28th Week in OT 2016 - Sealed with the Spirit

Yesterday, we began St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which we’ll be reading from for the rest of the month.  Just as we begin every prayer evoking the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Paul begins his letter praising the three Divine persons

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We heard yesterday his praises of the Father. He praises the Father for His plan of salvation—choosing us from the foundation of the world to be adopted sons and daughters.

He then praised Christ, the Son—how Christ fulfills the Father’s plan through his blood.

Today we heard the next section of Paul’s Trinitarian opening to his letter in which Paul recalls three truths about the Holy Spirit.

First he says, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, Paul says we’ve receive the Spirit according to God’s promise.

Thirdly, he calls the Spirit “the first installment of our inheritance.”

In the ancient world, a letter or legal document was marked in wax with the seal of its author; the seal gave evidence of its authenticity. A seal was also used to indicate ownership: sheep and cattle were branded with their owner’s seal. When soldiers enlisted in the Roman army, they were often sealed by tattooing the name of their commanding general on their hand or forearm.

Several place in Scripture speak of God placing seals on people to indicate that they belong to him and are under his protection. In baptism and confirmation, Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit—we are marked as belonging to God, being under his protection, and is proof that we are his sons and daughters, and members of God’s army.

It’s kind of ironic that a seal, which is something visible, is used to describe the mark the holy Spirit leaves on us—for the Spirit is invisible. So the proof that we are sealed needs to be seen in the way we live—in the way the sacramental grace is appropriated into our lives by our constant turning away from sin, through prayer, and charity, and manifesting the charisms and fruits of the Spirit.

That St. Paul calls our experience of the Holy Spirit “the first installment of our inheritance” means that the joy and the peace the Spirit gives us is but a foretaste of what the faithful shall enjoy in heaven.

But in order to come to that eternal reward, we must continue to cooperate with the Spirit, to be faithful to God by making use of the gifts he gives us, by working always for the glory of God and salvation of souls.