Who are we to close the doors to the Holy Spirit?

“Remain docile to the Spirit and grow in union with God – By doing so you will cultivate fraternal communion among yourselves and be ready to serve” – Pope Benedict XVI

Gospel Text: (LK 11:47-54)
The Lord said:
“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute’
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.”
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

Mother Teresa, John XXIII, Monsignor Romero... Do we remember what they said and expected from us? Do we carry out what they showed us?

In The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis says it this way: “Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators.

Now, as in Jesus' time there are many who analyze phrases and study texts to discredit whoever may inconvenience them with their words: Do we also do the same? «There is nothing more dangerous than to judge the things of God with human discourses» (St. John Chrysostom).

Recently at a priests retreat, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo preached a very moving sermon to the clergy of the Galveston-Houston Diocese. He ended by pleading with the priests that there should be "No more harshness, No more harshness." This is what Jesus was telling the Pharisees today in the Gospel and this is what we need to hear as well. The truth of the gospel must be spoken clearly, it is immutable and we are not the authors of it just the instruments used to proclaim it with love. St. Paul summed this thought up the best I believe when he wrote in 1 Corinthians (13:1-2):

“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.”