In spring one understands in a new way the account of creation contained in the book of Genesis: how beneath the dark
waters life begins to stir as it does with the heart of winter; how out of these dark waters a world of multifarious creatures begins to emerge, sprig and bud and twig, tiny leaves of many shades of green, trees and shrubs and flowers in a riot of colors and shapes. The fascination of spring brings a joyous upsurge of wonder as its endless beauty and variety. The spirit, source of being and life, is likewise today mother of the living earth, brooding over humanity, warming it, protecting it, giving it a sense of security.
“It is the Spirit that gives life,” says John (John6:63). All life emerges from the Spirit whose love enriches the earth, we should live in the awareness of the Spirit, in the experience of his creative touch, in his warm, measureless tenderness, in his respect for life in every creature. The ability thus to live, listening to the silent mystery of things, especially of living things, is one of the fruits of the presence of God’s creative Spirit.
“It is the spirit that gives life.” “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). This is a beautiful description of the creation of humanity. God breathed into human nostrils, and he is still doing it. We breathe in what God breathes out.
In John’s Gospel we read, “Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John20:22). That was the Spirit by which Jesus lived and by which he had become the resurrected Lord. The Holy Spirit was given to Jesus without reserve and without measure, and he gives this same Spirit to us as the principle of our new life and the foundation of the new person. The Spirit of the risen Lord, breathed up on us and given to us, unites us in a new community of God’s people. The risen Jesus is always breathing on us and into us, sending the Spirit into our hearts, renewing our life and refreshing our existence here on earth.