Inspiration: Bumper Stickers, Pep Talks, and the Breath of God

by Dan Masterton

I’m not much for bumper sticker wisdom, cliche slogans, or inspirational quotes. In fact, as a cheeky high schooler, my fellow officers in comedy/improv club were so tired of all that stuff on other clubs’ shirts that we made the back of ours simply say: “Inspirational Quote.” --Anonymous

Personally, I am more fired up by something with more context and depth. I’m always down for a good Remember the Titans or Hoosiers watch; tell me about a great podcast episode you listened to recently (like this great installment of NPR’s Hidden Brain on hookup culture); give me a good ten- or fifteen-minute TED talk (like this one on wrongful convictions); share with me a deep dive feature piece on a significant person or issue (like this Cardinal Cupich articulation on a consistent ethic of solidarity).

This past Sunday at Mass, listening to the readings got me thinking more on inspiration. With a newborn daughter at home with us now, with going back to work soon, with an apartment move coming up, with ongoing professional discernment as the school where I work phases itself out, the current is flowing with plenty of strength in the ol’ mind-stream these days. A few weeks ago, while chaperoning a pilgrimage to hike El Camino in Spain, I was waiting in line to ascend the stone staircase and hug the statue of St. James in his Santiago Cathedral. I was frustrated by my students’ loud talking and impatience, and as I tried to calm myself and relish this pilgrim moment and sought tranquility, I could hear a priest saying the words of institution to his small community in a nearby side chapel. The answer, as always, was and is prayer, especially through the Sacrament and Word at Mass.

The First Reading from Acts celebrates the preaching and healings wrought by the apostles through God, and this momentum continues into Samaria. With great excitement, the apostles head over there to follow up baptisms with laying on of hands so these people might also receive the Holy Spirit.

The Second Reading from 1 Peter challenges us to always be able to give a reason for our hope, and to do so with gentleness. The best answer is founded on Christ, who suffered for our sins and died for us, so that He might lead us to life in God, for the Risen Lord rose to new life in the Spirit.

The Gospel, a passage from John, shares part of Jesus’ Last Supper “Farewell Discourse.” Jesus announces that the Father will send an Advocate, a Spirit of Truth, to be with the disciples as Jesus offers them a glimpse of God’s mysterious unity and steadfast presence in Father, Son, and Spirit.

The motif of God’s spirit cut through my noise -- the mental inertia, the side-glances to a sleeping baby, the ushers and late-arriving crowd -- to draw me back to the book of Genesis. In the story of the garden, when God creates Adam, Genesis 2:7 says, “then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

The word spirit is rooted in the Latin word spirare, which means breath, or even life. Our understanding of spirit as a soul or life force resonates tightly with our literal breath, our physical life force. And what’s more, the idea of inspiration, drawing from these same roots, is to breathe life into someone. Inspiration isn’t just firing someone up to deliver a strong performance on stage or execute a play on the field or study hard for a test; inspiration, on a deeper level, in a fuller sense, is breathing life into someone. So when I think of inspiration, my heart hearkens back to God breathing first life into the first humans.

And as I took in these readings anew, and discovered the thematic unity lurking within, I found the constancy of God’s inspiration. The same God who inspired Adam and Eve into being inspires new life into the Risen Lord and into the resurrection of the faithful, inspires new life into Christ’s missionaries and followers, and inspires enduring fidelity and resolute love by this Holy Spirit.

Thinking of evolving new normals, with work and wife and daughter, with new apartment and environs, with professional transition, I found gratitude for God who inspires. Surely, he breathes life into us with the pithy wit of a good psalm or a punchy parable, yet He also breathed the life into us in our mothers’ wombs, breathes life into us in the joy of community, breathes life into us through the inspired Word, and inspires us in the foundational heartbeat of Eucharistic living.