Taken together, the first and the third Scripture readings today compliment one another quite well. In our Gospel passage, Jesus reminds his disciples that we cannot achieve salvation through our own efforts and works-it is only through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we are able to come to Jesus and find genuine life. Faith is a gift from God - not something that we can obtain for ourselves or for others simply through philosophy or human reasoning, or even our good works. That is what Jesus meant by the flesh being useless - not that the flesh itself is not good, and even holy. The flesh, however, by itself cannot lead us into a saving relationship with God - only the Spirit can do that.

In our first reading from Acts, Luke turns his attention from Paul to the ministry of Peter, and describes how the Church continued to spread through the action of the Holy Spirit in Judea, Galilee and Samaria so that the people enjoyed the very real consolation of God's Spirit in their lives. Two individuals are mentioned in particular, a man named Aeneas and also a young woman named Tabitha, who received life in a very physical way through the Spirit at work in Peter's ministry among the Jewish Christians.

We too, like the early Christians, can take consolation in knowing that the gift of the Lord's own Spirit is now at work in the Church and in our own lives in a very real way, an experience that enables us, together with Simon Peter, to express our faith in Jesus.