Pentecost; Come Holy Spirit, Come!

Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit). Iit is important to remember that we do not celebrate some distant singular moment in the past. What we celebrate is an ongoing event. A new, ever expanding, presence of the Holy Spirit still at work in the world. 

 Perhaps, we can best think about this coming as a process unfolding.  The oncoming spirit; who was with God before the beginning, who was there at the creation of the cosmos as the breath of God, who came as wisdom for the prophets, who was at the incarnation and baptism of Jesus, who came anew in his resurrection and who was sent by the ascended Lord as the Advocate and Teacher.

 The Sanctifying Spirit continues to come to us through our baptism and is active in us through receiving of the sacraments, in our prayer life, in the graces we receive, the charity we do, and in our community gathered as one. Clearly we do not celebrate the dead past, we celebrate the living present. We celebrate the one spirit given to the apostles at Pentecost which is the same Spirit given to us.

 Time is greater than space Pope Francis likes to say. We have carved out time and given its pieces names to meet our needs. We have marked space by grids of longitude and latitudes. We have done this because, you and I need bite size time and space (not to mention we need the laws of physics and biology for we are human and limited by our nature).

 But, the Holy Spirt does not need time and space. The Holy Spirit is time and space.

The Holy Spirit does not need the laws of the physical universe. The Holy Spirit enlivens the known universe, as well as, the unknown universe.

 We know there is one spirit, but we often think and speak as if there were many. I have the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit, they have the Holy Spirit. It is as if there were individual spirits floating about. Iit is critical we understand that there is only One Spirit and what we receive at baptism is not a spirit, but the sharing of the One Spirit. And if we share the One Spirit we certainly share in the life, activity and work of the One Spirit. This sharing in the spirit is why Jesus is present always and everywhere, this is why the sacraments work, it is why the Church even exists.

 For the Holy Spirit there is no past or future. For the Holy Spirit it is always the present. And we share, in an imperfect and limited way, the spirits own freedom from the limitations of time and space and from the finality of death itself. Jesus points to this timelessness in his promise to be with us until the end of time.

 "I will not leave you orphans, because the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you. Peace I leave you my peace I give you."

 Jesus will never leave us, because, the Holy Spirit collapses all time and space into the divine present, and so Jesus (in the spirit) is made present to us. Not as a past memory or in some vague future coming, but right here, right now.

 In this same holy timelessness the Church (both glorified and pilgrim) dwells and operates. The work of the Holy Spirit is the sacramental life of the Church.  For the Holy Spirit, in the Devine Present, our baptism was not one in a long line of baptisms, it is the only baptism. Today's Eucharist is not one of many, it is the only Eucharist. This is why it is not a memorial but an actual immediate event that makes Jesus (who is always present to and in the Spirit) present to us as the bread and wine is changed, by the spirit, to his body and blood.

  In the spirit’s timelessness the Church (that was, is and will be) is made present. The Communion of Saints becomes a living reality for us. In this communion our beloved Christian dead are ever present to us as well.  All of this and more is the work of the Spirit and today we celebrate the fact we share in this work.

 In Jesus the spirit has become most known; the overshadowing of Mary by the Creative Spirit, the Sanctifying Spirit descending like a dove at Jesus' baptism, the miracles performed in the Healing Spirit and today, Jesus' sending of the Spirit as Advocate.

 In the Gospel of John we see a personal, more intimate, remembering of the giving of the Holy Spirit. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the door was locked, the risen Jesus came and revealed himself by showing them his hands and side. He looks at them in piercing tenderness and says “peace be with you. And in an unimaginable warmth he shares his breath (God's creative breath) saying receive the Holy Spirit. And now enlivened by the Spirit of Truth the apostles are sent forth to wittiness the Good News, as Jesus was sent to proclaim the Kingdom of God.

In the first reading Acts of the Apostles, Luke's community remembers the coming of the Spirit as more dramatic, more forceful like creation itself - all wind and fire. Like tongues of fire the life giving Spirit pours through locked doors and enflames all present. Suddenly, in new truth and clarity the confusion of languages and custom was overcome. Of course, there were still many languages, but in the One Spirit there was now one Word, one Gospel, one faith being proclaimed and being understood by a new emerging community of many becoming one. Iin the spirit truth and unity this new community of believers begins to stretch from sea to sea. The Spirit like a wild fire is spreading among the peoples of the earth.

 Now there is more individual, practical side to the Holy Spirit who distributes gifts of Grace and Charism. In the second reading, St Paul tells the Corinthians

  “In the one body there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the one spirit. There are different forms of service but the same lord. There are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the spirit is given for some benefit.”

 This last point is crucial. We know that the many splendid gifts are only truly from the spirit if they benefit others. Gifts of the spirit are always meant to be given away. They are not ours! They are meant to build up and unify, heal and mend, inspire and drive forward and above all else the Spirit moves us to love without counting the cost.

  Today, we celebrate the coming of the Spirit of Peace. And the peace of the spirit establishes a new way of living that is beyond race, culture and ideology, beyond time and place.

A new life filled with the gifts of the spirit, as well as, enthusiasm, engagement and joy. We are sent, in the Spirit, to go forth everywhere and anywhere doing what the Spirit does. So, Rejoice! Pentecost is not the end but the beginning. It is not a singular event, but an ongoing transformation of the world and of us. The Holy Spirit continues to teach, guide and accompany us. 

 Come, Holy Spirit, Come

Who teaches all things and reminds us of all things.
Come fill our hearts and minds, with your flames of truth and love.
Come, Holy Spirit, Come.