Spiritual Reflection

Pentecost

Daniel Fox, Capuchin

In central Europe, people used to drop pieces of burning wick or straw from a hole in the ceiling of the church to represent the flaming tongues.  But this practice was eventually stopped because it tended to put people on fire externally instead of internally as the Holy Spirit had done in Jerusalem.

In 13th century France real pigeons were released in the cathedrals of Pentecost Sunday during the singing of “Come Holy Ghost.”  But this practice, too, was discontinued because the people complained that something other than the Holy Spirit was dropping from the rafters.

Pentecost is a marvelous feast to give a witness to the power of God to act in our lives.   It offers a portrait of the disciples gathered in Jerusalem waiting for something to happen.  Life was not the same for them.  Jesus, as they had come to know him and love him, was gone.  Yes, there was a promise that he would send his Holy Spirit to them, but when? How?

The disciples had the experience of the death of Jesus.  They had been told not to cling to him, to let him go back to the Father in Ascension.  And now they experience Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit who broke down their closed doors of fear and anxiety, and made them bold enough to proclaim the Good News to the whole world.  Now they knew that they weren’t just breathing their own breath but that very breath of Christ: the Holy Spirit.

What follows this story of Pentecost in Acts is the sermon of Peter, who told the people that the disciples weren’t drunk, since it was only nine o’clock in the morning.  No, Peter said, they were filled with the promised Spirit of Jesus Christ.  At the end of this sermon, we are told that three thousand people stepped forward for baptism.

I am reminded of the story of a little girl who was visiting her grandmother in a small country town in the South.  They attended a very emotional religious service, where people expressed their feeling by jumping about and shouting….what we might call a “Holy Roller” service.

The little girl asked her grandmother if all the jumping meant that the Holy Spirit was really there.  Her wise grandmother replied, “Honey, it don’t matter how high they jump up, it’s what they do when they come down that will tell you if it is the real thing.”

Truly, it would be good if we were more enthusiastic about our religion, but what matters is what we do in our everyday life.  Does the Holy Spirit have a practical effect on our daily life?

Pentecost is not a time of completion, nor of clinging to the same old ways, but of moving forward into new ways, new structures, new ministries that proclaim the age old Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Some think we have a vocation crisis in the Church today.  I do not.  I believe we have a vocation opportunity, a new and marvelous way to respond to God’s call.  On Pentecost, the fire rested on each disciple because each one had been touched by God’s Holy Spirit.  No one was excluded.  We are living behind locked doors.  It’s time to step out and proclaim boldly the hope of Jesus Christ.  Come Fire.  Come Light. Come Truth.

Today we celebrate the Promise of Jesus given to us in this messianic age….  Jesus’ Spirit poured out on all flesh…young and old, male and female, rich and poor, straight and gay, married and single, clerical and lay.  I close with  a wonderful quote attributed to  Peter Maurin, co-founder with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker:

"Scholars have the dynamite of the Church,                                                
Have wrapped it in nice phraseology,
Placed it in an hermetic container
And sat on the lid.
It’s about time to blow the lid off."