There is around me a rising anticipation of Pentecost this year. We hope to be able to celebrate it with mass in person at church. We have been prevented here from attending mass in person for more than two months now. Absence does make the heart grow fonder! I am so ready to worship in person and in community.
We have livestreamed masses. We have meetings and study groups on Zoom. We’ve all prayed a lot. I’ve also watched Vespers at St. Meinrad. I’ve watched Word on Fire. Several of my friends and I have talked about awareness that death could come—without much forewarning—and how that realization creates some new perspectives. We have been fertile ground for the Spirit. God is with us and we know it.
But all together events have created a yearning, yearning, yearning for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit: God’s Presence filling the room, our church, the Church, the world. That traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit has been playing in my head and heart over and over:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you shall renew the face of the earth.
Today’s Gospel
As we move this week toward Ascension, our Gospel readings continue from Jesus’ Farewell Address to his disciples on Holy Thursday. In today’s reading Jesus promises the Holy Spirit:
“When the Counselor comes whom I shall send you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father,
he will bear witness to me.
And you also are witnesses,
because you have been with me from the beginning.”
There are two words used here for Holy Spirit. The first, parakletos, is translated as Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, Intercessor. Think of it as “God standing by us,” “God we can count on,” “God here and now.” The second word for Holy Spirit is pneuma. It is the Greek word for breath. Think of it as “the power or energy or movement of God here and now, moving, acting, empowering.”
And the Holy Spirit Came
As I think about those two words for Holy Spirit, my sense is that Jesus is telling his disciples that they can depend on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them….and that the Holy Spirit will be depending on them to bring the power of God, the Presence of Jesus, into the world.
We know the Holy Spirit did come to those disciples-to-become apostles quietly on Easter Sunday night. Jesus breathed on them, and they received it. With it came a peace and the power to forgive sins. (John 20: 19-23) Then it came again on Pentecost Sunday, this time with a mighty wind, tongues of fire, speaking in multiple languages, and taking the good news of Christ to the streets. The second time it came with enough power that people responded to Peter’s admonition, “Repent and be baptized” with 3000 people being added to the newborn church that day.
“Come, Holy Spirit!” Here and Now.
I admit, I would LOVE to see the Holy Spirit come in a clear, powerful, mighty wind and tongues of fire way that would lead to a powerful rebirth of great energy in the Church. I admit, I pray to be present for such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit every year on Pentecost. This year is no different. “Come, Holy Spirit!”
But I try to pay attention when I pray, because I ask God a lot of questions. There is so much I do not understand—in Scripture, in the Church, in life. I’ve been asking questions about the Holy Spirit in prayer.
I have noticed that information about the Holy Spirit has come up in multiple situations in the past few weeks. I’ve been reading something else—but there, in the middle of it, is something about the Holy Spirit.
I was reading about sacramental grace after a conversation with a friend. The catechism says clearly, “Sacramental grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God.” (CCC 1129)
So, every time I worthily receive a sacrament, the Holy Spirit comes. In every mass, the Holy Spirit comes. AND the Holy Spirit lives in me, thanks to my Baptism and Confirmation.
As part of my morning prayer, I have been reading Lumen Gentium, the Vatican II Constitution on the Church. The Holy Spirit is all through that document. Paragraph 4 says, “The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple. In them he prays and bears witness to their adoptive sonship. Guiding the church in the way of all truth and unifying her in communion and in the works of ministry, he bestows upon her varied hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs her; and he adorns her with his truths.”
So, as a part of the Church, I am literally swimming in the Holy Spirit. Through the prayers and actions of Pope, bishops, priests, and us faithful during this pandemic, the Holy Spirit comes.
My most frequent experience of a coming of the Holy Spirit is when I pray from Scripture or when I hear a homily that converts me in some way.
So, I often experience the Holy Spirit coming to me through God’s Word. There is that sense of “oh!” of “Light,” of the peace that comes with Truth.
There is a novena the nine days before Pentecost at our cathedral to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It will include praise and worship, teachings, and a healing/ministration component. Bi-lingual in Spanish and English, it will also have some African leadership and will be livestreamed. For information, see https://cathedralctk.org/ninedays
I know from experience that the Holy Spirit often comes through such intense prayer for it.
And, while there is much difference of opinion about the source of the pandemic, I hear every day of God’s working good in the middle of it.
So, when God brings about good, the Holy Spirit comes. In life. In crisis or ordinary times.
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for the awareness of how many ways the Holy Spirit surrounds me, comes to me, brings You to me. Being deprived of mass and sacrament has adjusted my vision. Hungry for You, I am learning to see You in every bit of manna in this desert time. You come in prayer, in conversations, in reading, in phone calls, in new, good thoughts that come into my mind in the middle of planting garden. You come in the creative ways Your church is being church in the middle of crisis. You come in every act of love we give to each other. Thank You, Lord, for being with us all in Your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, come with Your breath to enthuse me, Your Comfort to give me courage, Your Fire of Love to lead me out of my protections, Your Truth to give me Prudence and Wisdom. Come, Holy Spirit, come. On Pentecost. Any day. Every day. All day. Create me and let me be a part of Your renewal of the face of the earth.
