A listening Church

Today’s readings: Acts 2, 1-11; 1 Cor. 12, 3-7.12-13; John 20, 19-23.

There is powerful symbolism in the way the Pentecost event is narrated in the Scriptures. It needs to be decoded to uncover the real meaning and implications of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.

There are three key principles in the life of the Spirit which we cannot afford to separate one from the other. These are prayer, praise, and moving in faith. Only the Spirit can empower us to do all this.

In the early Church, the im­mediate outcome of Pentecost was a Spirit-led imagination, an act of imagination that offered an al­ternative world never imagined before by the Apostles. When the early Church claims Jesus is Lord, it does so in the same way that Israel of old claimed God as Lord.

The early Church re­fused the claim of the lordship of Caesar. The confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ became hence a deeply subversive claim that effectively undermined the establishment in general and the rule of Caesar in particular. The emperors under­stood that all too clearly. Hence the persecutions that followed.

If strategy is the key to success in any organisation, why should it be any less so in the realm of listening to the Lord? The way Jesus speaks about the Spirit of truth with his disciples seems to suggest a sort of strategic listening. He never provided his disciples with a master plan, which would have stifled the Spirit and increased rigidity.

Jesus instead suggests a listening that is patient but constant. The Church needs to listen just as much as it needs to proclaim.

In the second reading, Paul writes to the Corinthians that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit”. The role of the Holy Spirit in our lives is so important that without his influence we cannot even acknow­ledge Jesus as Lord.

This confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ is the heart of the Christian message. From the liturgical standpoint, for the past weeks since Easter there was sort of a build-up to bring the community of faith to acknowledge that Jesus who was crucified, dead and buried, has truly risen and is alive. Without this confession, the Church would have remained with doors closed and fearful of the Jews.

The Spirit is not given merely to consolidate the private faith of the individual. The Spirit makes the necessary connections between the Gospel of Christ and social justice, between religion and politics, between the personal faith of the individual and its implications for the public square. The Spirit speaks in the intimacy of our hearts just as much at it speaks through all that happens around us.

Acts today narrates the pluralism of peoples, races and religions all witnessing to the miracle of a common language in the preaching of the Apostles. We still struggle with the lack of a common language which makes communication of beliefs and values so difficult.

But our problem today is not only how the Church speaks with sense to a pluralistic world. It is also internal – between those who claim to be believers, there is no common language and understanding.

Until the 6th and 7th centuries, the Church faced differences in interpretation of the basic procla­mation of faith. The remedy to the emerging heretical movements at the time was the formulation of doctrine. But today it is becoming clear that the communication breakdowns in our faith communi­ties are not going to be solved by just reaffirming doctrine.

The truth towards which the Spirit was sent to lead us is not just doctrinal truth. Jesus’ major concern for people was deeper than that. Those in his time whose major concern was the truth of doctrine, were less ready to accept the truth of salvation.

It is amazing how the Spirit works in history and how free it is to speak out not only through the system but very often and unexpectedly through the people.