At midnight, August 31,1963, at the Minneapolis airport, I was looking for a man carrying a copy of America magazine. I was flying from California to enter the Jesuit novitiate outside of St. Paul, and my contact was the father of one of the second year novices, who’d drive me out there in the morning. I didn’t know what he looked like but I knew that, if I found the man with the magazine, he would be the one I was looking for.
In the gospel for today, John the Baptist was looking for the Messiah, and he knew the sign would be that the Holy Spirit would come upon the Messiah. So, when John saw that happening to Jesus, he knew Jesus was the one he was waiting for.
Can we, too, recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the lives of others? St. Paul tells us there are signs that the Holy Spirit is present. (You can find them listed in Galatians 5:22 and 23). When we see them, we can recognize that we are in touch with what we are really looking for?
—Fr. Frank Majka, S.J., a Wisconsin Jesuit, is engaged in pastoral ministry at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee.