Today’s readings: Acts 2,1-11; 1Corinthians 12,3-7.12-13; John 20,19-23.
We are living a very particular moment in history when we badly need to share a common outlook and perspective at least on a set of issues that are vital for to safeguard our future. The coming of the Spirit that we celebrate on Pentecost stands for the force and the wisdom we all need to read the times we live in and to discern truthfully the malaises that distort the face of humanity and the remedies that heal our being.
Christianity, as a religion, was a catalyst for innovation at its inception. With the coming of the Spirit, Christianity in the ancient world was assigned a revolutionary role. But then as things evolved, it became more and more inward looking, it developed even its fundamentalist aspects and tendencies, and eventually lost its punch on history.
In contrast with the broad perspectives of the early Fathers of the Church, later theology explored more the role of the Spirit in connection with the internal structures of the Church, elaborating on differentiations of ministries and charisms. The role of the Spirit instead, is more to be explored in connection with the Church’s own openness and sensitivity towards the world we inhabit.
The Spirit as a guarantee of the institution translates as power. The Spirit as a guarantee of the individual’s growth in faith is empowerment. The central issue to be contemplated on today is not leadership within Church structures but the leadership of the Church, and of all believers, in society at large.
This is what Pentecost is about. It is about a Spirit who empowers people in their individuality. There is a very interesting detail in the Acts account today. The tongues of fire that appeared, “separated and came to rest on the head of each of them”. And in the second reading St Paul highlights the “particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person”.
The Spirit goes beyond the law and the temple, and opens up the way to salvation for all those whom the law and the temple exclude. The Spirit is the antidote to our tendency to restrict, even in spiritual matters. The Spirit speaks a universal language and connects even with the estranged and the foreigners. The real threat to the spiritual life is perhaps not secularism or all that adds gloom to our daily headlines. What really we must fear is the collective paralysis of our consciences which ultimately is capable of blocking the Spirit from finding enough space in our lives and hearts.
When Jesus, in John’s gospel, suddenly appears to his fearful disciples, he gives them responsibility for the ongoing drama: “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Their sending is similar to his being sent. The community now assumes the same responsibility and mission Jesus had in coming to the world.
The Spirit is normatively seen in the drama of Jesus, from his baptism to the inauguration of his mission, when he claims to be fulfilling the words of Isaiah in his first public statement: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” The Spirit even leads Jesus on the way of the cross, and now that he is the risen Lord he still shows to his disciples his hands and his side because he is inseparable from his life and death.
As David Ford writes in his book The Future of Christian Theology, Jesus breathed into them his own Spirit, decisively sharing with them his responsibility. Yet St John here links intimately the gift of the Spirit with the forgiveness of sins, implying that the community that receives this Spirit constantly needs a means of coping with what is corrosive and destructive of that same Spirit.
St Basil, a fourth-century influential theologian and Greek bishop, writes: “The Spirit is like the sun to each person. Through the Spirit hearts are raised, the weak guided, the strong made perfect. Even as bright and shining bodies, once touched by a falling ray of light become even more glorious and themselves cast another light, so too souls that carry the Spirit become spiritual themselves and bless others with new graces.”