Our Church is trying to re-establish the balance in the way we celebrate the Eucharistic liturgy and in our daily prayer life. Over the centuries all the attention was focused on the birth (i.e., Christmas) and the death (i.e. Good Friday) of Jesus. Even though this gave incredible spiritual energy to the faithful, this was not a balanced approach to the mystery of our redemption.
To quickly draw an outline that ranks the importance of each feast it should look like this.
First in importance are the three days of Easter. This is not one feast day but a three-day feast where the Church shares in the great mystery of our redemption, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Joined to the three days of Easter is the feast of Pentecost. This is the giving of the Holy Spirit and the actual birth of the Church. We should try to keep these two feasts as bookends to the great mystery of redemption.
We are brought to God in the sacrificial death of Jesus. The resurrected Jesus is poured out to the people in the giving of the Holy Spirit. Now, the baptized are to make real and tangible the love and mercy of God. The death and resurrection of Jesus always leads to the outpouring of Jesus’ great work of redeeming the world.
If you would ask the majority of Christians, ‘What is Pentecost?’ they would tell you that it is one more Sunday with a nice story.
We want to work hard that Pentecost is the explosion of the mystery of salvation into our world. The disciples (women and men) are given the very Spirit of God. This is not just some add-on that God gives, but an actual sharing and living the very life of God. Now, what Jesus has been to the world, so now the believers are meant to become the flesh and blood of Jesus.
The sign of pieces of fire (i.e. tongues – think of tongue and grove in carpentry) descending on the disciples is to be a sign of God being revealed to them. Just as Moses encountered God in the burning bush, so now the disciples are given a piece of God, manifested in the physical sign of fire.
This Sunday, we want to bring the Word of God to land on the soul of every believer. We want everyone to be gifted with the Holy Spirit. And as the first disciples went out from the event of Pentecost to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world, so now, may today’s believers move out into the world to share the Good News. May the Holy Spirit be so alive in them that they become in their person the very love and mercy of God. May they become Jesus to the world.
I use the word ‘explode’ to convey the dynamism of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is like the mighty wind that moves and shapes the forces of the earth.
May the Holy Spirit always be an explosion in your life. May the Holy Spirit bring the great work of Jesus to life in your daily existence.
No comments:
Post a Comment