Fr. Gerard Kelly
Imagine if you had been present at the
original Pentecost event. What would it
have been like? The Scriptures give us a
tiny glimpse of what was going on: a sudden wind, and small flames of
fire. In themselves these things do not
seem too extraordinary, but we know that what happened was extraordinary. For those present, it was more than just
another big event. It was surely one of
those events that kept unfolding for them in the years ahead. It was an event that they would look back on
and remember. I am sure that they would
have felt that words were not enough to describe it, and that it took a
lifetime to properly understand what they had experienced.
If we want to understand what they
experienced then we need to think of it in the context of the religious
environment in which they lived. This
was an outpouring of the Spirit of God.
The prophets had taught them to long for this. They would have prayed regularly, “Lord, send
out your spirit and renew the face of the earth.” They prophets had taught them that the coming
of the Spirit was a sign that God had finished his work, and that there was a
new creation. The coming of the Spirit
would bring in a new way of living.
People would now live in harmony with God and with one another. The time of the Spirit would see an end to
injustice and division; it would see an end to hatred and fear; and it would
see an end to ignorance and foolishness.
The time of the Spirit would see them in a new relationship with God,
with each other, and with the whole of creation.
This was the expectation that would
have grown in the people as they prayed and studied the Scriptures. But I think we can also be sure that that
there were surprises in what they experienced – that the outpouring of the
Spirit at Pentecost was even more profound than their expectations. The surprising thing would have been that the
Spirit was poured out on such a diverse group of people. The apostles, following their Scriptures,
would have been expecting the Spirit just to come upon their own nation, the
nation that God had chosen. But here at
Pentecost, it is clear that the coming of the Spirit makes no distinction
between nationality, gender, age or health.
The coming of the Spirit signals that God’s plan embraces the whole of
creation – or as it says in the New Testament, people from every tribe, and
language and people and nation. This, of
course, was important because it meant that you and I can receive the Holy
Spirit. This happened for us at our
baptism and confirmation.
On this Pentecost Sunday it is not
enough just to think about what happened on that first Pentecost. There is a sense in which every day is
potentially a Pentecost for us. The Spirit
abides with us, continuing to renew us and draw us into life in the
Spirit. So, how should we act? What difference does the Spirit make? I think there are two temptations that we must
avoid. One temptation is to say that
because we have the Spirit then we need not be concerned any more about the
world in which we live; we can live in isolation from the world. It is the temptation to think that all is
good and we don’t need to grow and change our lives. The second temptation is to despair and think
that the outpouring of the Spirit has not really happened, because we are still
confronted by those very things that troubled the people of old – injustice,
division, hatred, fear, ignorance, and foolishness. Both of these temptations show an unrealistic
view of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The first Christian witnesses can help
us overcome both of these temptations.
The Spirit did not somehow magically transport them from the world in
which they lived. In fact, we know that the earliest generations suffered
persecution. However, they were able to
deal with this in a way that would not have been possible previously. They now had a deep sense of being led by
God’s Spirit. They had a deep conviction
that they were truly the sons and daughters of God. It wasn’t as though this put some sort of invisible
shield around them to protect them from the world. It didn’t!
The pages of the New Testament show that under the guidance of the
Spirit they engaged with the world around them.
Their faith in the promises of God gave them strength to endure what
came. Their hope in a future prepared by
God kept them moving along on their pilgrim journey. They suffered in the present, but were
confident about the future.
We probably don’t suffer in the
present. Nevertheless, we all have a
sense of the movement of life as children grow and become adults, and as adults
move through their working life and grow into old age. The Spirit assists us to live with the
dynamism that life brings – whatever stage we are at in life. The Spirit encourages us to be creative in
the choices we make and the way we live.
The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost gives us a reason to always
hold on to the conviction that God loves us and desires us to live life to the
full, and to communicate love and life to the people around us.
