When a group of people get together and work on a cause, they form a bond and become part of something bigger than themselves. The glue that holds them together is a feeling, a kind of love. We see this is groups of all kinds. We can get a good feel for it in combat shows like  “Band of Brothers” and “Masters of the Air”. In sports we can also see it clearly. 

I always thought team spirit or esprit de corps was just a good feeling. I did not realize until recently that it is a real thing. Not something you can touch, but something very real. Spirit appears wherever people work toward a common goal. I thought at first that spirit is generated by each team or group, but now I am not so sure. What if spirit is actually all around us and appears when people share a task, a struggle, a cause, or a game? 

The next thing about spirit is that there are two kinds, good and evil. Once a group experiences either kind of spirit it grows exponentially. Groups like the Nazi zealots and modern terrorists are joined by an evil spirit which drives them to do things that they would not do normally. What they feel is a perversion, but the feeling is so strong that they do not realize it is not the real thing.

What really pushed me off the edge in thinking about spirit was something C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity. I may be explaining this differently than Lewis did, but God the Father and God the Son somehow are the same “person”, but they also are somehow different. As they work together, the divine love between them is what we call the Holy Spirit. At least that is what I think Lewis meant and it makes sense to me. When people work together on a just cause, the Holy Spirit is at work. 

In many churches the pastor or priest will say, “The Spirit be with you”. He means the good spirit, the Holy Spirit. We all need to be aware that the Holy Spirit is real and that there is another spirit, an imposter. Judge every cause, and its spirit, by its fruit. And may the Holy Spirit be with you. 

27 May 2024 jsk