Today’s Scripture Stories for the feast of Pentecost tell of two occasions where Jesus and the Spirit came to the disciples. The majority report sees these events as the founding of the church. For the minority report, we can look at more personal understanding of the Readings, if this is somewhere we want to go. Besides telling us what happened in the past, the Stories offer insight to what is happening in my life here and now, if I am willing to look at it. The Spirit we celebrate on Pentecost is still coming into our lives today. Pentecost is an ongoing event still happening, although often quietly and without the dramatic events of the past. Jesus promised to send the Spirit to remind us of everything he taught, to offer us insight in our particular circumstances what it means to live as his disciples.
If I’m willing to let this happen, I can think back to the times I’ve locked my doors because of fear of something, somebody, loss of control, and so on. Perhaps times when I’ve failed to act (there are plenty of these). Not necessarily religious matters, but sometimes ordinary situations when I just chose not to act because I was afraid of something. Some of these I can’t unremember, though I wish I could. Often I was hiding behind my own locked doors, feeling fairly miserable. From time to time the Spirit showed up in various ways – injury, illness, unexpected powerful and at times terrifying experiences, some of which were life changing, even life saving.
“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’”. I can’t help thinking back to my HAC (Heart Attack in the Car) a few years back. While I was experiencing significant chest discomfort and with trembling fingers trying to unwrap the nitro pill. I was feeling really terrified because it sure felt like the end had come. When I asked “So this is how it ends”, I got the very clear powerful response, “No, this is how it begins”, and real peace happened right there in my car in the parking lot. When I “woke” up, took the nitro and got to the hospital the peace was powerful to the point where others noticed it during my CICU stay. It has never left.
The next thing Jesus says is, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. He tells them to learn to forgive. The Story in the first reading talks about the Spirit coming upon the apostles, who then leave their locked room and go out to the people, with some powerful effects. The Spirit is not only in us, but also in the people and situations we fear and wall ourselves off from. The Spirit brings us together. Pope Leo is trying to lead the church, kicking and screaming, to be a synodal church that listens to the Spirit speaking to us through each other. This often has little to do with a religious tradition, and everything to do simply with God being God in our ordinary life and leading us. Sometimes we recognize God in our darkest days, and sometimes in our brightest, sometimes in people, sometimes in other ways. The Spirit is creative. While it has often been with my kicking and screaming, now I wouldn’t have it any other way, although it wasn’t always enjoyable as it was happening. This does not mean everything is nice and pastel colored, or that we are always going to agree, or that people are going to start conducting themselves in ways that we like. We are all in this together, and the Spirit helps us recognize this. We are decent folks, lovable and flawed, trying to make the best of life that isn’t easy or fair. Some folks have so much pain that the only way they can cope is to inflict their pain on others. Every one of us in our own way is carrying a load that others know nothing about. The Spirit leads us to have a sense of this, and adjust ourselves accordingly. She helps us break down the walls we build to protect ourselves as gradually we realize we don’t need them anymore. She helps us recognize we are not alone, and that everyone in our life has both the right and the need to be in our life. In Abba’s providence we need each others gifts. We may even come to respect and appreciate others way of thinking.
The Spirit happens in groups as we try to discern what She is asking of us, and so we need to let go, learn to listen to each other, and go where this takes us. Everybody in our life has the right and need to be in our life, and we in theirs, because in the providence of Abba, we need each others’ gifts. Each of us is called to make compassion the basis of our every day living, the same compassion that Abba is with each of us. A gift of the Spirit worth asking for, is to be aware of this compassion happening in us, and hopefully through us.
Pentecost is not something nice and holy, and “spiritual”. The Spirit is real, and is with us in the nitty gritty down and dirty of our ordinary everyday life, which is not divided into holy and worldly. Our life is one, and we are always living it. And so we say “yes” to what is. We welcome everything that comes into our life because it is of Abba, who is in the totality of our life not as a judge or threat, but as a loving caring Presence Who wants our best. Salvation happens now, not just later. The Spirit is always inviting us to grow. Perhaps we can come to say in the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, “For all that has been, thanks, for all that is to be, yes!”. As Jesus often said to his disciples he says to us, “Do not be afraid”. Just sayin . . .