Spirit – wind and breath

John O’Keefe CM

The word ‘spirit’ comes from the Latin word ‘spiritus’ which has two meanings. It can mean the movement of the wind, or it can mean the breath as it is exhaled from the human body.

The wind is dynamic. The wind is free; ‘it blows where it wills’. It moves things—the flowers, the trees, the plastic bags which adorn some neighbourhoods. It moves the sands of the deserts and stirs up the waves of the sea. It blows different smells, sweet or unpleasant. It is used these days to generate electricity. The wind simply cannot be contained.

The breath of any living creature, as it is breathed out, might be sweet or sour, but it is bringing out into the open something of what a person is at any given moment. The spirit of a human being is what naturally comes from that person, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. For others, a person’s spirit can be something that is life-giving, or something that leads to evil in some way. The spirit of a human being comes from the innermost part of a person and it has an effect on others.

A person’s spirit might be evil, as was the case with the great dictators who ruled many countries. Evil came from them quite naturally. They breathed it out; it came from deep within them, caused much suffering and took away from the poorest of people their fundamental human rights. There are people in our own society today whose deeds are evil, who spread evil wherever they are. Some of these are rapists, murderers, child molesters, those who make fortunes from the drugs trade, and many, many others. Rather than our humanity being enhanced by their lives, the human race is degraded.

St Paul (Galatians 5:18) speaks of such people as producing bad temper and quarrels, antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, factions and malice, drunkenness, sexual vice, and other things. Happiness and human dignity do not flow from any of these.

But there is also so much goodness breathed out into our world today. There are so many loving parents, so many beautiful children, so many people who go out of their way to serve those in need. There are carers in so many places, good people who spend their lives trying to bring meaning to young people and children who are abandoned, or who wander our streets, having nowhere they can call home. There are carers, too, who give their time and love to the elderly and those who are incapacitated. There are so many generous people. The spirits of such people are alive. They enhance human dignity.

St Paul, in the same letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, speaks of what are called ‘fruits’ of the spirit. ‘These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ Paul talks about these things as coming from the Spirit of God: they make God’s presence real for everyone to see.

But God works through human beings, and ordinary people who breathe out these gifts are life-givers to this world of ours, people who contribute greatly to the dignity of human beings, and to the richness of our society.

But a person cannot breathe out unless he or she first breathes in. As human beings, we are all open to the spirit of other people. People might smile at us or they might scowl. Both the smiles and the scowls have their effects on us. Some people are loving people; some are angry people; some are optimistic or pessimistic people. What comes from them is their spirit. And it usually has an effect on those around them.

If we breathe in good ness, then we will necessarily breathe out goodness as well.

(Reprinted with kind permission from The Swag, Summer, 2006.)