Pentecost is one of the three most important feasts of the Church year. We
know Christmas is one of the three. It’s easy to get excited about the
birth of a baby, especially when the baby is God’s Son and his mother is
the Virgin Mary. We know the feast of Jesus’ resurrection is the most
important feast of all, because if there were no resurrection, we would
have no faith or hope at all. But Pentecost, the third most important
feast, seems like another ordinary Sunday.
Let me give you a little history of Pentecost. It was not invented by the
Church. The Jews were celebrating Pentecost 3000 years ago. It was one of
their three most important feasts. It was originally a harvest feast on
which the first fruits were offered in gratitude to God. It later came to
be celebrated as the anniversary of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt.
Sinai. The word itself means simply 50th, the 50th day after Jewish
Passover. The Jews were celebrating that feast when the Spirit came on
Jesus’ followers. And so Pentecost is still celebrated, but we who are
Christians celebrate it as the day on which God sent his Holy Spirit upon
the Church.
Pentecost isn’t just the celebration of a past event. It is important for
us today, because the Holy Spirit is important for us today. The Spirit is
hard to picture because the Spirit is within us when we are in God’s
grace. The Spirit is like the air we breathe, the light that goes on when
we have an idea, the fire that burns in our heart. And so the Scriptures
use these symbols help us know the Spirit; in the first reading the Spirit
is a strong driving wind whereas in John’s gospel the Spirit is the gentle
breath of Jesus who breathes on his apostles and says “Receive the Holy
Spirit.” In either case, whether as a powerful wind or a gentle breath,
the Spirit is like the invisible air we cannot live without. The Spirit is
like the light that goes on in our mind when we have an idea: Jesus tells
us in the gospel “he will guide you to all truth.” Jesus couldn’t explain
everything to the apostles that he wanted them to know, but the Spirit
turned on the light in their minds to be able to understand all that he
had been teaching them. The Spirit also appeared to the apostles as
tongues of fire, a fire that started burning in them to proclaim Christ
with courage and conviction.
God wants us to know him and love him and the Spirit helps us to do that.
But because the Spirit works within us, we are not aware the Spirit is
even there. I would like to share with you some thoughts from C.S. Lewis
about how we grow in knowledge things, people and God. If we want to know
something about rocks, for example, we go and we find rocks. They won’t
come to us, they won’t run away from us. In no way do they cooperate with
us in getting to know them. The initiative is all on our side if we are to
know rocks. If we want to study wild animals, that’s a little different.
We have to go find them and if we’re not really quiet they probably will
run away from us (or eat us alive). The initiative is mostly on our part
if we are to know about wild animals, but they could prevent us from
knowing them. If we want to know another human being, and they are
determined for us not to know them, we probably won’t. We have to win
their confidence if they are going to open up to us. The initiative is
equally divided: it takes two to make a friendship. When it comes to God,
there is no way we could find him or know him if he didn’t show himself to
us. And he has done so in Jesus Christ. But we cannot not know Jesus
Christ without the help of the Spirit. As Paul tells us in today’s second
reading: “No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.” Without
the Spirit God is totally unknown to us. The Spirit makes the Scriptures
alive for us and helps us to be aware of God's presence with us and God's
love for us.
When we have this kind of a relationship with God it spills over into
everything else we do. So St. Paul tells us in Galatians: if we live by
the Spirit, the Spirit will produce in us love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” Most of us
also are familiar with Paul’s description of the greatest gift of the
Spirit: “I may be able to speak the languages of men and even angels, but
if have not love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging
bell…Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous, etc, etc.
One last point: it was on the Church, that God sent his Spirit. As the
first reading tells us Christ followers were all together in one place.
The Spirit gives different gifts to different members of the Church so we
can help each other to know and experience God and God’s love. If we want
to experience the fullness of the Spirit, we need each other, we need to
come together, to worship together, to share our gifts with one another.
Without the Spirit we are trying to breathe without air, think without
light, love without fire.
