In this week’s Pearls of the Interior Life we’re reflecting on the Holy Spirit, with Pentecost upon us. So, what’s with the “wingman” metaphor?
Truth be told, we predated the whole “wingman” thing by a few years, or multiples thereof. But the concept seems simple enough. If you’re going out and trying to meet members of the opposite sex (oh, how satan has turned that once-innocuous phrase into a minefield…) it’s easier if you have a friend in tow to start conversations, or tactfully exit them.
In some circles this would be in the context of “courting.” On a side note, here’s a three-point rule of engagement for courting (this comes from a distillation of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body):
- Start out by only socializing with the opposite sex in groups of people (no exclusive dating).
- Only advance to exclusive dating once you have discerned that you are called to marriage, and are prepared to make that commitment if the right person shows up.
- Even when dating exclusively, no sexual activity until marriage.
Challenging in today’s world? You bet. Worth it? Oh boy…
The wingman (or wingperson) enters at step #2 – facilitating the process of meeting new people and getting to know them.
On a different note, you may have heard of, or read, “The One Thing” – a popular management/self-help book. It came out in 2013. Just 10 years ago as the earth circles the sun, but a lifetime ago in terms of our cultural descent into 100% undiluted nuttiness.
Back to “The One Thing” – it was written by Gary Keller, of Keller Williams Realty, so the premise is that you should buy and sell homes as often as possible and never haggle about your agent’s commission.
Just kidding (it’s Friday…).
Getting back to getting back to The One Thing, it was very popular at the time and simply gave a new flourish to the very old idea (see Luke 10:42) that life is about one main thing – get that One Thing right and everything else falls into place.
As we repeat often, the true and everlasting One Thing is relationship with Christ.
But Christ is no longer on earth. How to build that relationship? That relationship is facilitated through the Holy Spirit. To really stretch a metaphor, the Holy Spirit becomes our spiritual Wingman.
Here’s one way to share this with people – everyone has had an experience of the Holy Spirit, especially in the workings of our two great spiritual powers – our intellect and our will.
When we experience a deep inspiration and we simply know it to be true; when our conscious tells us “I know this is right, whatever the world says,” and we have a deep abiding confidence in it, that is borne out over time – that is the illumination of the Holy Spirit (“He will guide you in all Truth”). Or take love – when we reach out and do the right thing even though it is difficult, and we experience that interior warmth – there again is the Holy Spirit (who is Love itself).
HERE IS THE KEY – that internal assurance that we know what is true, and that internal warmth that tells us our act of sacrifice was a deeply good thing to do – those aren’t the end, those are the beginning. Those movements of the Holy Spirit are meant to lead us to Christ because underlying them is the realization that, “A-ha! This is to live in Christ! To know as Christ knows and love as Christ loves.”
That’s when the relationship with Christ deepens. That is how we come to know what it would be like to be constantly with Christ – learning from Him, following Him, stretching ourselves, stretching our minds, stretching our hearts to emulate Him – that is what Christ desires for us. That is how we come to say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ within me.” That is how the Holy Spirit, moment by moment, thought by thought, decision by decision, leads us to new life in Christ.
It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to lead us to Christ. Just as it is the mission of Christ to lead us to our Father.
That is why we should call on the Spirit in every little thing that we do – and over time we’ll recognize that in all of those things He has been breathing that life, and that relationship, into us.
Pentecost blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith