Today's readings: Acts 2, 1-11; Galatians 5, 16-25; John 15, 26-27; 16, 12-15.
Unity and truth cannot be sought in terms of some kind of uniformity. Truth is symphonic. Diversity does not necessarily hinder the search for truth.
This Sunday we celebrate the Holy Spirit descending on the Apostles, and through them, on the whole Church. This same Spirit communicated to humanity by the risen Christ continues to be mediated to the world. It was Christ's gift of life, and as a gift, it was never meant to remain bound to any one specific institution. The Spirit we believe in is the Spirit creator, not the spirit fitting all in one size.
In Acts, Luke describes the manifestation of the Spirit in terms of imagery, what sounded like a powerful wind and what seemed like tongues of fire. Paul in Galatians speaks in terms of the fruits of the Spirit. It is through its manifestation in our hearts and around us that we can sense the presence or absence of the Spirit.
It is commonplace today to speak of the lack of public discourse on practically all aspects of life and society. The experience of the Apostles - when people from different nations and cultures were amazingly understanding their proclamation - is inverted in modern-day Christianity. Many of our dogmatic formulations of faith today remain incomprehensible to society and devoid of meaning.
The Church has been struggling hard for this last century with the issue of language, to find ways and means how to make its message comprehensible. But the language of the Spirit is a sign language. God is an event, and as such, can only be experienced. His Word, in the fullness of time, has become flesh. The so-called signs of the times are the signs of the Spirit, the language of the Spirit, the language God speaks.
Speaking of the intensifying phenomenon of globalisation on one hand, and of the individualism that marks Western culture on the other, Nicholas Lash poses the very pertinent question: "From this cacophony, how could conversation come?" This is a major challenge for Christianity and its claims in today's world. How can the Church address diversity and pluralism with the unique message and person of Jesus Christ? How can we perceive diversity and pluralism as challenges rather than threats?
Pentecost can bring down the walls of division. In a world characterised by what Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, calls 'cultural disharmony', truth is tradition-dependent, and learning how to speak the truth takes time. This is the time of the Spirit to which Jesus is referring in the Gospel. It is the time we make for the Spirit, the time that makes our experiences mature to become learning experiences. Creating time for the Spirit means letting go of our tight agendas and spiritual rigidity, to let the Spirit of Jesus lead us to the whole truth that otherwise can easily remain hidden, even for a lifetime.
Being led by the Spirit means also being educated, being led out of whatever enslaves our being human. By nature, we should be in search of integrity, of true humanity. But unfortunately, there is so much that is dehumanising in the way we live and in the culture we inhale.
The work of the Holy Spirit as envisaged by Jesus is precisely this: "He will lead you into all the truth." Truth here refers mainly to what makes us fully human. It is truth in contrast not with error, but with whatever falsifies our image and distorts our human face.
At times, we enter ruts in life and forget all that suits our nature as humans. The Spirit intervenes to remove our blockages, to make conversation possible again, to make us enjoy life's symphonies. This is holiness. Holiness is not primarily a moral quality. It is the territory of the Spirit where we can be safe against all that distorts God's image in us.