The Wild Child of The Trinity

Today, my entire podcast is an excerpt from the book Latin Evangelicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins by Loida Martell-Otero, Zaida Maldonado Perez,  and Elizabeth Conde-Frazier. The excerpt is from the reflections on the Holy Spirit by Dr. Perez. She writes: 

I love the Holy Spirit. She is like the wild child of the Trinity, anywhere and everywhere moving, calling forth, and stirring things up. She is wonderfully illusive yet also fully present. She is untamable, full of possibilities and creative potential. She is the salsa beat in our daily foxtrot. She is and will be unconventional, even uncultured. She is the wonder that moves our questions from, what does this all mean? to, what shall we do? She can forever alter our lives and change our world. She is life-giving breath, wind, and fire. She is the ruach elohim, the flaming divine pneuma that is always “going native” because she wants to be encountered by all.  She is calming Spirit amid the storm. She is wisdom. 

Much like a lingering question about which there was still much to ponder, the nature, person, and work of the Spirit eluded the early church’s noetic grasp. Today she still eludes ours. But I love this about her! As part of the Godhead, she reminds us that she cannot be had or possessed as many claim when they say, tengo el Espíritu Santo (” I have, or I possess, the Holy Spirit” and therefore can order it about).  Rather, it is we who are the Holy Spirit’s temple, 

For, at the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, the Holy Spirit is about God’s mission. That God is grace to us so that we can be grace to others is a biblical principle that permeates the Judeo-Christian scriptures. God blesses us so that we can bless the neighbor, the stranger, the friend and even the foe, to God’s glory. What may be distinctive is that we do not engage in this struggle out of a sense of entitlement. We are well aware of our own sinfulness. We claim no special dispensation or honors on the basis of gender or ethnicity. We are redeemed, loved, and called because of God’s mercy. And for this knowledge we thank the Holy Spirit’s constant rumblings in us. For they give witness to our spirit that any and all gifts have their source in God who works, not on the basis of gender or status, but by and through God’s own will and purpose. To claim anything else is to claim entitlement and to deny the veracity of what unmerited grace really means. As vessels of the Holy Spirit, we have experienced God’s unmerited grace as a transforming agent who would have us be in the world as holy sacrament, a visible sign of God’s abounding grace for the whole world.  

Thank you, Zaida. Your words move and inspire me. Friends, I invite you enjoy this ride with the Wild Child of the Trinity on this, our journey Into the Mystic.