Filled With the Spirit...

Filled with the Spirit...not the "spirits"!

May 27   -   Pentecost

There was a time when mention of "the Spirit" was accepted in good faith but with a certain attitude which said: "Maybe you know what you are talking about but it's just a bit too deep for me." No more. The tremendous Charismatic movement in the sixties put the Spirit very much first in the lives of countless "ordinary" people - many of them hardened simiers - and the whole Church woke up as did the disciples. This is what we find in the First Reading today. Suddenly a group of very ordinary men - the Apostles - are stirred to their depths and, throwing caution aside, go out to tell people from all over such incredible news and in such a dramatic fashion that at first they are written off as having imbibed too much of the other type of "spirits"!

The Responsorial Psalm needs no special commentary. It expresses perfectly how you and I feel on those rare occasions when some good news, or regained health, or a dear friend save from a terrible fate, moves us to tears of joy and then to cries of gratitude. Is this an anticipation of Paradise when we will cry continually with joy and admiration at the sight of the glories of God infinitely renewed?

This idea of variety is expressed also in the Second Reading where St. Paul remarks that individual Christians may have - and have in fact - different gifts, but that, properly used, all of them will lead to a unity just as the many faculties of the human body all work for the good of the person. This Reading is from First Corinthians, 12, and it culminates in Paul's wonderful hymn to charity, the supreme gift and the very essence of God.  Elsewhere he is less positive and suggests that the gift of tongues, deriving from a spirit but perhaps not the Spirit, can be less than helpful.

The  Apostles received the Spirit in two different ways, but for the same purpose:   that they go out to tell the Good News to all they meet.   In the First Reading we find them doing this very visibly and making a huge impression. In the Gospel things are more low-key but the message is the same: " As the Father has sent me, so I send you."    This is the essential message of the Master.  Christianity can never be just a personal possession bringing peace and consolation.    It must instead be a "fire" burning in our hearts and which we cannot resist sharing.

True, this is not always the case - we might regretfully say it is the exception in our time as the old joke says: " We have kept the faith . . .to ourselves."  The reason is mostly historical: the growth of the clergy down the centuries and the subsequent reducing of the laity to   the role of acceptance:   "Pray, pay, obey." That time has most surely passed and the Church today has little alternative but to be a laity-inspired Church, destined to rise or fall by reason of its members rather than its ministers. For our part we will seek every opportunity to share our special "Good News" - the gift of the Institute. " Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with your zeal and drive us out to "convert" our friends and neighbors!"

~ May 2012 Concord

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