Pentecost and Our New Beginnings

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 5/12/05)

One thing I love to do as your bishop is travel around to our parishes and witness the new beginnings in your lives. These beginnings — through the waters of baptism, the hundreds of adult confirmations throughout our diocese this coming weekend, the hearing of confession, the dedication of a new church such as at St. Ann in Arlington at the end of April, or the daily celebration of Mass — always have a way of focusing our hearts on what is most important.

So often I sense that as the celebration of the Mass gets underway, the static and tumult of our busy lives give way to a prayerful stillness which allows us to become more aware of God the Holy Spirit. As we near the Church’s birthday, Pentecost, I invite you to pause, reflect and invite the Holy Spirit into your life anew.

"Come, Holy Spirit." With these words, the Church teaches us to invoke the Holy Spirit daily, especially at the outset and the end of every important action (Catechism, No. 2670).

But before we hear these words this Sunday, let us pause. Read the Scriptures for Pentecost carefully. If you can, put yourself in that upper room with the disciples and imagine the "noise like a strong driving wind" which "filled the entire house" (Acts 2:1). If a sudden wind has ever whipped through the open windows of your home — slamming doors, scattering piles of loose paper — then you already have a sense of the unease that must have pervaded that room.

Then, we encounter a perplexing image. The "tongues of fire … parted and came to rest on each one of them." For help in understanding this, we can turn to second reading from St. Paul for this Sunday: "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord … To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Cor 12:4, 5, 7). St. Paul then continues with the analogy of the body to say that we are all members of one body; as such, "we were all given to drink of one Spirit" (1 Cor 12:13).

Our Pentecost readings pose several searching questions: What gifts do you have? Do you recognize them as coming from the one Spirit? Do you use them to serve the Church, the Body of Christ?

Throughout the Scriptures Jesus impresses upon us the fact that He has personally given each of us, as individuals, unique gifts. These personal gifts are not for our private enrichment, however; they are intended to serve "the common good" or "the body of Christ." We would do well to identify our gifts. They are, after all, intricately bound up with our own salvation. As Father Pedro Arrupe, S.J., once wrote, "Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything." In a similar way, each of us must be so in love with Jesus that we cannot but use our gifts "absolutely" to serve His Body, the Church.

With our gifts in mind, we need to acknowledge their source: the Holy Spirit. Do we know this source? Do we personally invite the Holy Spirit into our lives on a daily basis? Do we cultivate an awareness of and love for the Spirit’s gentle leading in our lives?

Finally, we need to use our gifts to serve the Body of Christ. In the Gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday, Jesus first shows His disciples the wounds on his side and hands; only then does He breathe on them and impart the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul writes, "No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3). We can see here how Jesus and the Holy Spirit are "distinct but inseparable" and how the Holy Spirit "unveils" Christ (Catechism, No. 689, 687). In like manner, our gifts are distinct, unique, yet inseparable from their source. We might say that the Spirit "unveils" our gifts and frees us to use them well.

Our Catechism refers to the Holy Spirit as the "interior Master of Christian prayer" (Catechism, No. 2672). This coming Pentecost Sunday — and indeed, every day of our lives — you and I will be in the upper room, attentive to this interior Master. Will we make it a new beginning through a renewed appreciation for our gifts, their source and their purpose? I sincerely pray that we will.

"Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love" (Roman Missal)!

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