The feast of Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit 50 days after the Resurrection. In a twilight zone of indecision, waiting and wondering, the apostles gathered in a room in Jerusalem, bereft at the physical loss of Jesus. Suddenly at 9am, according to the evangelist Luke, the sound and fury of a great wind was unleashed and strange bright tongues of fire alighted on them.
In this miraculous mayhem, a torrent of understanding astounded the apostles. All comprehended in their native tongues the universal language of the Good News. The truth was not lost in translation but found in the heart of each hearer. In this vast, shivery, tumultuous wind of change the Holy Spirit energised human history and began to underwrite the faith of all the generations who call Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah.
As a child I learned about the agency of the Holy Ghost. The good and gentle sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus taught me that it was through the power of prayer and the action of the Spirit that things could be accomplished, changed, renewed. The Holy Ghost, co-equal in the Trinity, played on my childish mind in a supernatural way, a celestial Casper who made good things happen. Meanwhile, I was singing up the words Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew. Over the years, I have come to learn that the breath of God is what makes us do more, reach beyond our grasp, tick more than the box of attendance and affiliation. There is always the possibility of life anew if the Spirit is with us.
THE SPIRIT WITH US
The Spirit is with us when we are compelled beyond complacency; when we get out of our own way to do something for someone else or to sign on for a cause that matters. The Spirit is that moving force, the insistent whisper, the part of us that cannot say no. It’s the Godly get-up-and-go that moves our lives.
However, Pope Francis understands the human condition well. He knows that many of us do not want to be bothered by things because we want an easy and settled existence. We do not want disruption or surprise or sudden urgency. We do not want to be shaken into activity, especially activity which might ask us to make a stand.
He writes: ‘We want the Holy Spirit to doze off ... we want to domesticate the Holy Spirit. And that's no good because he is God, he is that wind which comes and goes, and you don't know where. He is the power of God; he is the one who gives us consolation and strength to move forward. But: to move forward! And this bothers us. It’s so much nicer to be comfortable.’
Yes, it is easy to stay comfortable and unconcerned; to do enough, but no extra, to stay where we are. The Holy Spirit is that extra, that extra-ordinary when we do more, when we become more because the Spirit moves us. The Holy Spirit animates the best in us. It challenges us to move beyond our everyday ease. It is the wellspring of goodness born in one heart and activated where two or three are gathered together to do good.
TAKING ON NEW TASKS
The late Irish priest and author Daniel O’Leary said that we strive for something more because deep in our hearts the Spirit lures us to do so. When we are lured by the Spirit, we are kindled, warmed and ready for that something more that will be asked of us.
Mary Stearns Sgarito writes ‘If you get the idea to do something good, just do it. It might be the Holy Spirit’. When people come together for a good cause there is something holy happening. Sometimes it is unrecognised as it takes a turn with the tongs at a sausage sizzle, writes letters of protest, joins a protest march, prays in solidarity with others, volunteers to teach English or listens to an old person’s reminiscences. The Spirit is all that is holy and human in us whenever we move beyond the routine and the easy, whenever we break those chains of complacency and comfort.
When the Spirit alights on us, we have the choice to do some interior redesign; to work on the person who might emerge with a different outlook. Can we thaw out hearts that have become frozen with indifference? Can we hear the soft sibilance of the Spirit urging us on, hinting at change, suggesting that another way might be found, that there are plans afoot and much work to be done, that a new season, of being and doing, is not far away?
FORCE-FIELD FOR GOOD
The Spirit is the force-field for good, the compassionate activism, the urge for justice, the living out of the message of Jesus.
It is the wind beneath our wings, a rustling in our collective lives, a zephyr of change that denounces the predictable, sometimes inert, pattern of life. It is the gust that can unsettle and disquiet. It is a movement of the Spirit that can rearrange the landscape of the heart through its constant buffeting or its gentle unwearying insistence.
It is the breath of God.
It is love in the air.
It is the answer, my friend, blowing in the wind.
Ann Rennie’s new book Blessed: Meditations on a Life of Small Wonders is available through Laneway Press, www.lanewaypress.com.au.