Today’s readings: Acts 2, 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12, 3-7.12-13; John 20, 19-23.
The Church’s claim that it is both human and divine has always been a bone of contention. For many, the Church is simply the world institution we know, and as such, subject to scrutiny in all senses. For others it is that and much more. On Pentecost Sunday it is worth revisiting this issue, given that today’s celebration should focus on the state of the Church now and also on the need of a revamp so that we can clearly envision the way forward.
Its beginning in time was very uncertain, with those known as Apostles, who first believed in Jesus of Nazareth and yet who also were the first to betray him or flee the scene when he was in trouble with the authorities. In today’s gospel we read about them as gathered with doors closed “for fear of the Jews”. Then, in Acts we read how they became empowered, acquiring the gift of speech.
The alternating between fear and courage, between being mute and having the gift of speech, has always characterised the Church’s story. Pentecost is not about a Church that suddenly turns fully empowered once and for all. The principle that we receive according to capacity also applies to the Church.
Pentecost was only the beginning, causing, as Olivier Clement writes, a river of life to spring up and which has been flowing ever since, sometimes underground, other times on the surface. It is not a Church event but a world event. Jesus’s words “Receive the Holy Spirit” today are not just words addressed to adolescents on their day of Confirmation. It is the world we live in and which still groans for redemption that needs the unction with the Spirit.
The Spirit of Pentecost can bring about a great awakening to make us realise the real need for justice, respect, love and compassion towards those whose dignity is systematically trampled upon and denied. This is where the Church needs the gift of speech in order to recover and rise to the situation to put together the pieces of a broken body.
Lately the so-called civilised world has again been alerted by the Panama Papers leaks which reveal the darkest side of an affluence that refuses to share and to care in the face of so much inequality, injustice, poverty and marginalisation. It is in the face of this stark and sad reality that the Church and the churches need a Pentecostal reawakening.
Pentecost is about the gradual transformation of people’s attitudes, especially in matters that concern equality and justice, peace and freedom. Unfortunately we have many a time seen the movement of the Spirit as an inward movement, as the Spirit empowering those who have authority in the Church. But the Spirit’s movement is an outward one, to enable our reaching out to others and to the world.
The real issues on the Church’s agenda in such times are not who can or cannot be admitted to the sacraments, or the Church’s stance on issues of a sexual nature. We need to move on from that. The real issues the Spirit is alerting the Church about today concern more the loss of meaning and purpose in life and the drama of a soul-less politics that governs much of our Western democracies.
The Spirit we celebrate on Pentecost is about life, not just about life in the Church. The crucial question we are called to answer on this Pentecost Sunday regards what the Spirit is alerting us to at this juncture of history. We have domesticated the Spirit, caging him to issues of internal ecclesiastical consumption, whereas the same Spirit of the risen Christ is alerting us to issues much deeper and of global implications.
The Holy Spirit is inseparable from our freedom. No wonder that the first time in John’s gospel we read about the Spirit is in the context of Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus, who stands for the rigid attitude that sees the law as exhaustive of all that there is to know and desire. Jesus invites him to let go and to experience the freedom of being reborn.
The Spirit of Pentecost gives us deeper awareness and capacity to read the signs that speak loud and clear in our culture and that cannot remain ignored.