Reflection on Jun09th 2019
Pentecost Sunday
Transformed By Fire
Pentecost Sunday
Transformed By Fire
Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31,34, 1 Corinthian 12:3-7, 12-13
Link to Readings
Hey Pentecost Sunday!! Before two thousand years ago people could have seen twelve men who were traumatized by the arrest and crucifixion of their master and bewildered by his post-Resurrection appearances and his command to prepare for the coming of his Holy Spirit, sitting in a room not knowing what to do. We cannot forget that there was a very courageous lady who was giving them moral support and keeping their faith about her son. On this specific day they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and filled with courage, enthusiasm and determination. Given new life and hope, they went out into the streets and market places, loudly without fear, proclaimed the good news of the Resurrection; the missionary church is born as they were charged with the splendor of God.
If we look carefully we are not any different from these men who were affraid. Through the grace of baptism and confirmation, each of us has been filled with the life and power of the same Holy Spirit we normally mind our own business. Don’t we? But we are called to be living witnesses of Christ in our homes, parishes and communities, schools and places of work (simply in the world). We need not be worried or afraid of this great responsibility, for God has filled each of with his own Spirit. Then what on earth we don’t do it?
The reason is we have domesticated the Holy Spirit and take him very lightly. We say Holy Spirit the Paraclete, our advocate and helper, but he is also like the wind, which “blows where it wills” (John 3:8). Another important image is Holy Spirit as fire. We cannot forget that before the flaming tongues appeared above the disciples’ heads at Pentecost, they first heard “a noise like a strong driving wind” (Acts 2:2).
Have you ever watched a piece of wood being consumed by fire? Sighing and crackling and glowing, getting blacker and blacker until it falls apart completely and nothing remains but ash? It doesn’t just look different from the original piece of wood. It is different, at the very core of its being. Its chemical composition has changed. It has been transformed. That is what we are missing. Transformation by the Holy Spirit.
Most of the time we want the just a wind (or the breath) from the Holy Spirit so we can have minimum impact of our life style. But it is not what God wants or Holy Spirit can do. God’s wish is a “spontaneous combustion” on our lives. Just consider the air, or the breath, as the Holy Spirit, and the fuel as a human soul: your soul, my soul. Given the right conditions - openness and willingness on the part of the “fuel,” (do we have this openness to Holy Spirit ?) spontaneous combustion takes place. This combustion will change you and me forever. That was what happens to apostles. That should happen to us. It is what we really mean by receiving the Holy Spirit. You cannot be the same again.
This is what we are called to as Christians and what awaits us when we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. Let ourselves be set on fire by the Holy Spirit. Let yourself be transformed. Then as Pope Francis says in the Joy of the Gospel we are ‘Missionary Disciples ‘.
Link to Readings
Hey Pentecost Sunday!! Before two thousand years ago people could have seen twelve men who were traumatized by the arrest and crucifixion of their master and bewildered by his post-Resurrection appearances and his command to prepare for the coming of his Holy Spirit, sitting in a room not knowing what to do. We cannot forget that there was a very courageous lady who was giving them moral support and keeping their faith about her son. On this specific day they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and filled with courage, enthusiasm and determination. Given new life and hope, they went out into the streets and market places, loudly without fear, proclaimed the good news of the Resurrection; the missionary church is born as they were charged with the splendor of God.
If we look carefully we are not any different from these men who were affraid. Through the grace of baptism and confirmation, each of us has been filled with the life and power of the same Holy Spirit we normally mind our own business. Don’t we? But we are called to be living witnesses of Christ in our homes, parishes and communities, schools and places of work (simply in the world). We need not be worried or afraid of this great responsibility, for God has filled each of with his own Spirit. Then what on earth we don’t do it?
The reason is we have domesticated the Holy Spirit and take him very lightly. We say Holy Spirit the Paraclete, our advocate and helper, but he is also like the wind, which “blows where it wills” (John 3:8). Another important image is Holy Spirit as fire. We cannot forget that before the flaming tongues appeared above the disciples’ heads at Pentecost, they first heard “a noise like a strong driving wind” (Acts 2:2).
Have you ever watched a piece of wood being consumed by fire? Sighing and crackling and glowing, getting blacker and blacker until it falls apart completely and nothing remains but ash? It doesn’t just look different from the original piece of wood. It is different, at the very core of its being. Its chemical composition has changed. It has been transformed. That is what we are missing. Transformation by the Holy Spirit.
Most of the time we want the just a wind (or the breath) from the Holy Spirit so we can have minimum impact of our life style. But it is not what God wants or Holy Spirit can do. God’s wish is a “spontaneous combustion” on our lives. Just consider the air, or the breath, as the Holy Spirit, and the fuel as a human soul: your soul, my soul. Given the right conditions - openness and willingness on the part of the “fuel,” (do we have this openness to Holy Spirit ?) spontaneous combustion takes place. This combustion will change you and me forever. That was what happens to apostles. That should happen to us. It is what we really mean by receiving the Holy Spirit. You cannot be the same again.
This is what we are called to as Christians and what awaits us when we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. Let ourselves be set on fire by the Holy Spirit. Let yourself be transformed. Then as Pope Francis says in the Joy of the Gospel we are ‘Missionary Disciples ‘.