As we approach Pentecost, it may be time for us to take a look at this special day. The reason is when we look at Pentecost, we can ask the question are we living it?
Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles as tongues of fire and gave them a powerful anointing a share of his power to preach the Gospel.
When we ask the question are we living Pentecost, one thought may come to mind—is our Christianity just a moral code. In that case, there is no Spirit to it as it is just a moral code. If we are going to live our faith, we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Tongues of fire not tablets of clay
I preach this all the time but it is true. The Holy Spirit did not come down over the Apostles in the tablets of the Ten Commandments but in tongues of fire. Jesus himself said he wanted to set fire to the world and that is what Pentecost is—God setting a spiritual fire upon the Earth.
However, have we as Catholics lost this fire. I always preach that our faith is not a moral code but many reduced it to be one.
If we do not understand this, we cannot understand Pentecost. It becomes another Sunday where we have to go to Mass so that we can go to Heaven. This is not why we go to Mass and this is not the route to Heaven.
The Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles to manifest the his power through not only the Apostles but through all his Church. The Apostles then radically charged go out and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the Jews in Jerusalem and later to the Gentiles in the Roman Empire. Their preaching was so powerful that they literally changed people’s hearts immediately. They changed people’s lives immediately and from that point on people were ready to even give their lives for their new belief and understanding.
A new way of being
They did not just come to believe in a moral code they came to believe in a new way of being. The apostles continued and taught the Greeks who never knew the Ten Commandments but understood natural law. They came to learn a deeper truth that taught them a new way of being.
They also learned of eternal life. Granted they had an understanding of things like the abode of the dead, but they did not understand it they way the Holy Spirit revealed it to the Apostles.
However, look at our Church today. Besides the problems, we see people who claim that unless you go to a Latin Mass, the Holy Spirit is not with you. By whose authority are they making that claim. Now there are people filled with the Holy Spirit who do attend a Latin Mass but not because they attend a Latin Mass.
There are priests this weekend who will preach nothing but morality and rail against the culture outside. What is the point of that. The Holy Spirit is calling us to live in Him as God lives in us. If we do, the culture will change through His power not ours.
Seeking an outpouring of the Holy Spirit
We need to seek an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our parishes, our families and ourselves not so we can make America they way we want it but that we can be prophets the world around us. This is what Pentecost is.
So let us all pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit make us the prophets Christ called us to be. Let us no be a bunch of moralizing curmudgeons complaining in Latin about a culture we have a mission to transform by our lives.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Prayer from: USCCB.org
Photo: Flowart via BigStockPhoto.com
Fr. Robert J Carr is the pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA. He runs the parish podcast at https://catholicaudiomedia.com
Thank you for this, Father. When Pentecost came, it should be remembered that they spoke in tongues. It was God who reached out to the people so that each one can listen in one's native tongue the Good News.being shared. It wasn't just confined to Latin, but to every language that the people there could understand. We can trust the same Spirit to guide the Church today.