Pentecost Sunday

MORE THAN A DAY

We tend to view ‘Pentecost’ as a singular, stand-alone event. It is theologically the pinnacle of Paschaltide. Reflecting on the loss of this connection, Sr. Joan Chittister, an American Benedictine, writes, “But only here in this time, between the bursting open of the tomb and, fifty days later, the overflowing of the Holy Spirit, does the full awareness of what it is to live in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ finally dawn” (Joan Chittister, The Liturgical Year, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

‘Pentecost’ is a generic name for the interaction of the Holy Spirit with human nature. A classic example is ‘The Annunciation’. Mary’s response to Gabriel – “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) is reasonably assumed as the moment of Jesus’ conception through the overshadowing by the Holy Spirit. We know that a confirmed conception will lead, God willing, to a nine-month gestation, a safe delivery, independent life outside of the womb yet still dependent upon the mother. Mary’s motherhood of Jesus is celebrated these centuries later though, physically, neither she nor her Son is with us on earth as they once were.

Enriched thinking about ‘Pentecost’ is vital for the spiritual development of a Baptised person. God’s gift of his Spirit to us might be likened to the continuously welling source of a river. Once launched on its journey, the flow may vary from trickle to torrent, from gentle stream to thundering waterfall. The water doesn’t determine the alterations that mark its flow; either manmade or natural forces cause them. A hydroelectric damn is manmade. A floodplain has geophysical origins.

It is customary to attribute the source of God’s Spirit in us to the Sacrament of Baptism. Those with long memories may recall a Sacrament being described as ‘an indelible seal upon the soul’. The phraseology leaves much to be desired. It could limit a young mind to comparing the Holy Spirit to some sort of stamping machine! Is this an explanation for more than one generation lacking a tradition of personal prayer to God the Holy Spirit?

Pentecost may be an appropriate season for me to ask myself how have I collaborated with God’s Holy Spirit over the years? With hindsight, can I identify significant spiritual landmarks? Did I identify them at the time or only later? What did those landmarks teach me? How important are they to me these years later? Pentecost accompanies all aspects of our meandering journey of life. This truth can take time to be fully grasped. Have I, do I, give sufficient time to silence and review of life?

Then again, Baptism may not be the earliest source of God’s Holy Spirit interacting with us. Think of God’s words to his prophet Jeremiah (1:4-5): “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you, I appointed you as prophet to the nations”.

Continuing with the simile of water, a seashore can aid contemplation. The ebb and flow of the tide sometimes calm, sometimes angry and all dictated by the unseen wind and the moon. Pick up a pebble, worn to a smoothness that has taken decades to achieve while being bounced around in the flow of water forever on the move. From the first moments of the Spirit’s interaction with us, God’s Spirit has never left us. Life may have bounced us around, the Spirit has shared as much as we have allowed. We may have driven the Spirit ‘underground’, like the vast unseen waters coursing along beneath endless desert. We may have reduced the Spirit’s presence to a mere trickle in our fast flowing social and/or working life.

A challenging question to face is: “Am I, today, the person that God is calling me to be? Do I, in fact, want to discover God’s will? Am I perhaps selfish? Am I afraid? Have I allowed myself be sidetracked by God’s enemy and mine, if I only knew it? Probably the questions flow more readily than the answers. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love …… ” To what is my heart primarily sensitive God’s Holy Spirit or something else?

A recent TV documentary showed a desert nomad faithfully carrying out a vital but unglamorous chore on which his tribe depends for their supply of precious drinking water. Deep underground he was following an uncomfortably narrow watercourse. His task was to ensure the removal of any obstruction that could slow or even block the watercourse. The simile with the Sacrament of Reconciliation was unmissable.

Is this why the Church, concerned for our spiritual wellbeing, recommends that we make use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation especially at Eastertide? The recommended period extends to Trinity Sunday, which follows Pentecost. Individual Reconciliation concerns more than an individual person’s spiritual health. Each of us is a conduit of God’s Holy Spirit for others. If I am spiritually depleted then others will suffer! If I am a parent, teacher, religious or member of the clergy, my below par spiritual life can have damaging and long-term detrimental effects on more than one generation. St. Paul makes this clear in his Letter to the Church in Ephesus (3:1-3) “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles … Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.”

Each Eucharist concludes with the deacon or priest addressing the congregation, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” The call has a Pentecost ring to it. All the Baptised are commissioned to affect the gathering of the whole world into one family united in Faith. The psalm refrain for this feast of Pentecost makes the point clearly: “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30). The Spirit is within us to bring this about. Each has been gifted with a unique part in renewing the face of the earth and each of us irreplaceable.

In silence or on the seashore it is for us to ask the Holy Spirit to help us fulfil what he is asking of us this day and every day.