In the Hebrew books of the Bible, the Holy Spirit was present, but as an occasional, “breath of God” passing by. On Pentecost, that breath of God became a mighty wind that gave birth to the church and empowered the disciples to become bold proclaimers that “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
This week, as I have prayed with and pondered both the Sunday readings and my own adventures with the Holy Spirit, three experiences of the Holy Spirit and of church were told to me. All seemed to be both breath of God and empowering acts of God. I share them with you.
John 20: 19-23
Proper church documents had been long coming, but now the date could be set: June 18. Dorisa had recently been confirmed and now was finally able to be married in the church. But there was a tension. Dorisa was dying of cancer. On Monday it was clear she would not make it to her wedding date. With a beautiful haste and quiet power, hospital chaplain, deacon, and nurses arranged for the wedding to happen in the hospital chapel. The nurses dressed her in her confirmation dress. Her groom stood by her bed, and, at 1:30 pm she was married in the church. Twenty-four hours later, at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, Dorisa went to be with God—so filled with faith, hope, and love that all who had shared her final walk with pain were filled with awareness and awe at God’s Presence and love in her life.
The Gospel speaks of Jesus’ first passing of the Holy Spirit on to the disciples in the Upper Room on Easter Sunday night. This is his first Great Commission. Jesus says,
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
This is taken as both the beginning of the Sacrament of Penance and as the beginning of the sacramental ministry of the church. On Easter Sunday night Jesus gave the church the ability to communicate the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands by his priests. Through the centuries this expanded to include all seven sacraments.
Each time we receive a sacrament in a state of grace, the Holy Spirit within us is touched and nurtured by the Holy Spirit present in the church’s ministers and liturgy. One who was present at Dorisa’s wedding said the power of the Holy Spirit filled the room–and was remaining with him in a tangible way.
I Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
On Tuesday I attended a memorial service for one of my students at Stewart Home School. Stewart Home School is a residential program for adults with cognitive disabilities. Several of us from Good Shepherd teach a “Catholic class” there each week. One of our students had gone to be with God. Brent had been at SHS for more than 30 years. He had been legally blind for the past several years, yet had discovered a gift for painting. His paintings not only sold for good prices, his urgings encouraged the development of StewARTS, which is providing for the creation of many beautiful works of art by many of the SHS residents. As one person said at the service, “Brent couldn’t see, so his art did not reflect the world around him. Brent painted what was inside.” As he did, this gift of the Holy Spirit for art worked with other gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in Brent: a keen Understanding and Wisdom, a gentle Piety and strong Holy Fear, Fortitude in the face of many physical and mental difficulties. Those gifts enabled him to witness beautifully of God through his life as he bloomed where he was planted.
This passage from First Corinthians speaks of a gift of the Holy Spirit which EVERY one of us has. We each have something good to give to the world. It is a talent, a way of being, a spark of humor or art—something given to us that is the Holy Spirit sanctifying the world through each of us. These gifts may be practical and tangible, like the ability to paint, but our scripture today reminds us they are first and foremost about the spiritual: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same 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.“
Acts 2:1-11
On Wednesday, Arpita told me what happened to her last weekend. A sheltered young adult, she took her bicycle and ran away. It was from impulse. She didn’t plan it very well. She left without food, money, or identification. Once she realized what she was doing, she got very frightened—but she didn’t turn back. She eventually rode several miles to downtown Lexington. There was a lady who gave her some food. She found a way to use a restroom. As night came, someone guided her to a Salvation Army shelter. She described in detail her great interest in the people she met and her awareness of both goodness in them and the goodness in her family she had run away from. The next day, she rode a city bus for the first time out to a dollar store. There, someone who knew her recognized her, called her parents, and they came for her. As she told me the story, she had a rich awareness of how God, whose love for her she had doubted, had protected and taught her all through the adventure. I believe that a healing, long prayed for, began in her.
This year, as I prayed with this passage from Acts, what moved me is not actually said in the passage: when the wind and tongues of fire came and “filled the room” the disciples left the security of their locked doors and hit the streets.
At Pentecost, at the church’s birth, it left the security of walls and locked doors. The Spirit so filled the room that it pushed out. As the disciples hit the streets, they spoke in the language that others could understand. Same words, but understood by “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome.”
In a way, from the first minutes of the birth of the church it was able to reach people from everywhere. The Holy Spirit went everywhere—on that first day. It’s still out on the street today.
Application
I must admit I would have loved to have been in that Upper Room. I would have loved to have the wind of God blow me to the streets and anoint me with tongues of fire. I pray the scene and I yearn to have such a thing happen at mass at church on Pentecost Sunday.
But this week, God has used these stories to tell me, “Pentecost is here. It is God’s love acting in powerful, converting ways for Dorisa, for Brent, for Arpita, for all whose lives touch them—for me. What wonderful, powerful winds of stories God gave me this week. No, no visible tongues of fire. No wind that blew open the doors. No miracles that would make the news.
But wind of God blowing through the people in my life, the wind of God blowing through my heart.
God speaks to me: “The Holy Spirit is everywhere: it is in church, its ministers and sacraments; it is in the charisms of each and every person; it is in the wanderings and kindnesses of people on the street.”
Prayer
Stay, Holy Spirit, in my life. Open my eyes to see you. Open my ears to hear you. Open my heart to embrace you. Fill me with your Love, your gifts, your fruits.
