Today, with the Holy Church, we celebrate the end of the Easter season with Pentecost. When we think about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the Risen Christ gives to us, we might think of some of the images used to portray the Holy Spirit in Scripture: wind, a sacred breath, flames of fire, or a dove. It might be more difficult for us to understand and conceptualize the Holy Spirit compared to the ways we comprehend Jesus the Son and God the Father. Perhaps we can reflect upon the Holy Spirit in our celebration of Pentecost in the Spirit’s connection to these three biblical themes: newness, harmony, and mission.
According to our reading from Acts, something new and different happened to the disciples on Pentecost: They were filled with the Holy Spirit in a new way. The Spirit inspired them to speak in tongues and enabled them to proclaim Christ’s Good News. Echoing this theme, the psalmist asks God to send his Spirit to renew the face of earth. Perhaps trying new things under the guidance of the Holy Spirit makes us apprehensive. Perhaps we don’t want to give up control. Perhaps we’re firmly entrenched in our own ideas and preferences. Perhaps in our faith, we’re comfortable in only going so far. We don’t want to take the leap to something new and different that the Spirit is calling us to do. We need to trust where the Spirit is guiding us, even if it feels new and strange. Remember: Abraham left for a new land with only a promise from God to guide him. Mother Teresa started a new religious congregation of sisters and started work with the poor of Calcutta based a call from the Spirit. Throughout salvation history, God calls his people to new paths, leaving behind what is closed and narrow. We cannot be closed and fearful to the newness of the Spirit.
Indeed, the Spirit brings different chrisms and gifts. Look at the great diversity of gifts we have right here in our parish. Paul says that although there are different kinds of gifts, all these gifts come from the same Spirit. God sends us the Spirit of unity and harmony. But we must not misunderstand: unity does not mean uniformity. The Spirit draws us to a harmony amongst believers. Only the Spirit can bring unity and harmony to us as disciples of Christ in the midst of our diversity and differences. Often, when humans want to create unity according to our own earthly desires, we instead create uniformity and standardization. But, when the Spirit brings us together, we rise above conflict and division; instead, we’re called to experience the diversity and richness that we have in communion in our faith. I think of how Pope Francis challenges all to come together to the Church in a welcoming way, but in a way that keeps us true and faithful in what we believe and what we practice. The Pope reminds us that we’re called through the Spirit to the Church’s teaching and the Church’s sense of community, to remain in harmony with the Body of Christ.
Let us also think of our call to mission: Who would we be as Christians if we did not have a sense of mission? The Spirit imbues us with a sense of mission, the missionary spirit that led the first disciples to bring Christ’s message to the world, with the same missionary spirit that impelled Paul to bring the Good News to the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit draws us ever more deeply into the mystery of God and into the joy of our faith. At Pentecost, the disciples were able to speak the Good News of Christ in their own tongues, but the universal message they preached was understood by all through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the mission they were called to live out. Christ’s ministry and life, his death and resurrection, his ascension and his sending of the Holy Spirit – these are not just historical events that happened many centuries ago in Ancient Israel. The truth that Christ brought to the world lives in us – in our words and our actions. Those events become a lived experience within us through the workings of the Holy Spirit. The disciples received the Holy Spirit from Christ himself; we receive the Holy Spirit from him as well. This Advocate grants us the courage and conviction to live out the Gospel message, to have a mission as a disciple of Christ. The Spirit helps us look not only at the temporal and the earthly, but at the divine and the eternal as well.
As a Church, as disciples, today we celebrate the Holy Spirit, a Spirit that is alive and vibrant. Today, we are called to renew the outpouring of the Spirit in us. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love! Amen.
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