Pentecost!

Pentecost Sunday 2009

John 15: 26-27, 16:12-15

"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

If you are reading this blog I would assume that you are a Catholic Christian, that you attend Mass on Sundays and perhaps other days of the week, that you yearn for God’s presence in your life, that you pray in times of trouble and give thanks to the Lord in good times and that you are concerned about being who the Lord has called you to be. Have you ever stopped to think that on your own steam you have no capacity to be the spiritual person you are and that the only reason you can desire God and make efforts to include him in your life is because the Holy Spirit is blessing you moment by moment with vision, desire and capacity? It is the Holy Spirit who prepared your spirit for creation and continues to do so in the same way he hovered over the chaos of the world and prepared it to hear the Word. The Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is a gift beyond comprehension.

Yet, the Holy Spirit has been called The Forgotten Paraclete. Why? Perhaps it’s because we remember to ask Jesus or the Father or Mary or our favorite saints for help and guidance but we often forget to direct our prayers to the Holy Spirit. This may be because Jesus, Mary and the Saints had human bodies and human natures and the word ‘Father’ is basically a human concept which embodies in our minds a certain set of characteristics. But the Holy Spirit in scripture was never presented to us in a human form and has not been portrayed as a being with a human face or human characteristics. He is usually symbolized by flames of fire, a mighty wind or by a dove and that makes him a little more difficult to comprehend or apprehend with our minds. It’s challenging to have a close relationship with fire or a wind or a bird.

Which is a pity. Just think of a few of his alternative names: Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and Paraclete. The word Advocate comes from the Latin Advocare- “to call to one’s aid.” And the word Paraclete comes from the Greek words para, “alongside”, and kletos, “to call”. The Holy Spirit is on call 24/7 and he walks alongside with us to comfort us, counsel us and give aid to us.

Still, who is this Holy Spirit, really? What can we say about him that would fix in our minds and hearts the reality of the person that he is?

I’ve got a little list. This list is from the book of Wisdom, (chapter 7: 22-30 and 8:1) and it is one of my all time favorite scripture passages. It is actually a description of Wisdom itself (personified in the old testament as a ‘she’) but in reading this descriptive list of the characteristics of wisdom, it is so obviously also a description of the Holy Spirit. Read this list and you will have a much clearer idea of the amazing and awesome nature of the Holy Spirit who was sent to us in baptism and who has remained with each one of us ever since:

There is in her (wisdom) a spirit that is intelligent, holy,
unique, manifold, subtle,
mobile, clear, unpolluted,
distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen,
irresistible, beneficent, humane,
steadfast, sure, free from anxiety,
all-powerful, overseeing all,
and penetrating through all spirits
that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle.
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
Although she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.
She is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail.
She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other,
and she orders all things well.

When I read that I am comforted and excited. This is the One whom Jesus sent to be with us forever to guide, console, help, counsel and make us more aware of who Jesus and the Father are.

It might surprise you to know which word in that description I love the best: “subtle”. The Holy Spirit is so subtle that he penetrates all other subtleties. What this means is that if we are not experiencing blatant displays of God’s power in our lives in ways we would like to see, it does not mean we are forgotten or that nothing is being accomplished. The Holy Spirit is subtle and his power is more likely to subtly penetrate the deepest areas of our lives causing slow but deep-rooted change rather than wowing us with lightshows of his power which can thrill us in the moment but leave us unchanged in the roots of our beings. That doesn’t mean we can’t witness the beautiful movement of the Spirit. It just means we need to pay more attention to the small and subtle movements of the Spirit in our lives. He is always there, always working and always creating, but we usually miss his presence and workings unless he graces us with a really obvious display of power. Again, living in the moment is where we will gain a huge appreciation for how the Spirit moves. It may not always be the way we think he should move or the way we want him to move but the wisdom of the Spirit permeates our lives. He “orders all things well.”

This Sunday, celebrate the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life with gratitude and make a resolution that, for you, he will no longer be “the Forgotten Paraclete”.