Pentecost
I remember summer evenings in my Aunty Annie’s house in the west of Ireland, when I was a child. Sitting beside a window I could see straight up the glen for about two miles. Gentle hills on either side looked down on a meandering river that came on past the house. At the far end of the glen was a hill that marked the top of the valley and it was called Dublin Hill.
Sometimes a curtain of rain would come down the glen from that direction, and sitting by the window I could see this light veil sweep slowly over my Aunty Sarah’s house, a mile away, and on down towards where I was sitting, and I would wait for that first swish or splatter of raindrops to hit the window pane. Whenever I hear the words, ‘Fall afresh on me.’ I remember that veil of rain. ‘Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.’
The rain that falls in Ireland – and there is plenty of it – has created vast tracts of bog land, but it is also responsible for the forty shades of green, for the richness of the land that produces great harvests to sustain the people. In that way the rain is a good image of the Holy Spirit, for it is God’s spirit in us, God’s goodness in us that causes our lives to flourish and be fruitful.
We would be foolish to think that we are self sustaining as human beings, and as individuals. My life has flourished because I have been loved since the beginning. Without the experience of that love I fear I would be in a terrible place. The love of parents and siblings, of friends and companions has sustained my life through the years. The spiritual quality of my life has been nourished strongly by others, and I have been greatly encouraged to respond to the love I have known.
As we come into our own self possession, we become responsible for ourselves, and we make our choices for living life, either to respond to grace, to the Holy Spirit of God, or to the pull of self indulgence. Saint Paul has laid out the scenario very clearly today, writing to the Galatians. He lists at length the virtues and the vices that can characterise our lives. They are powerful in their goodness and frightening in their wickedness. And we are all capable of all of them!
We know that we are created in goodness and for goodness, but we are also aware of how we can go wrong, and be attracted to things that harm our soul and greatly harm others. Paul himself was very aware of this, and had occasion to write it down. He dearly loved God and yet he felt the weakness of his own nature and the strong pull of temptation. The natural goodness of our nature is not strong enough to defend us against the powers of evil. We need God’s grace, every one of us.
It is no accident, therefore, that the prayers we offer always begin with the words, ‘Come’. Come Holy Spirit. We can make this our prayer every day of our lives, to ask for the grace that will fit us for this day.
If we look again at the story of that first Pentecost we see two great qualities or gifts of the Spirit. The first is individual and personal. Tongues of fire separate and settle over the heads of each person there. The gift of the Spirit is given to bless, and nourish each person in his/her own way. The second gift that is bestowed that day is a gift for unity and understanding among people of different tongues and nations – Unity but not uniformity.
Keeping a healthy balance between these two gifts is always a test for any group. There are many examples where an individual is stifled because of a desire for uniformity. Looking back on the history of Ireland we can see more clearly now how a catholic uniformity took hold of the new republic, and created a narrow world in which people had to survive. Writers, like Kate O’Brien (1897-1974) found their books banned for expressing views that the narrow world could not cope with.
It became a dangerous mind set in the past to think that we, in the church possessed the complete truth. In an age of sectarian struggle, it became a hammer to beat others with, to claim to be the one true church and the one true faith. The Lord promised that the Spirit would lead us into all truth, not that we would possess all truth as our private possession. It is an on going work of the Spirit to lead us into Christian unity, and not necessarily into Christian uniformity.
In our wider world today two great issues trouble us – The mass migration of peoples, escaping war and poverty and looking for a better life, and the fearful struggle between fundamentalist forces of Islam and forces of the secular west. We are going to need great wisdom if we are to respond well to these stresses. The first issue will make great demands on our ability to help the poor. The second will require us to learn more and more the skills of facing violence and seeking peace. Many people are paying with their lives as I write these words.
Can we learn a language that other people will understand? That is a gift of the Holy Spirit. That language expresses itself in the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. It is a language that we all love to hear.
This language will be severely tested by those who speak a different tongue – the language of self-indulgence. For that language is heard in fornication, gross indecency, and sexual irresponsibility. Its’ further expressions include jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions, envy, drunkenness and orgies. Its ultimate expression is violence.
This world does not need the fires of anger, but the fires of love.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Erris Poetry 