Pentecost: Our Very Own Feastday

PENTECOST: OUR VERY OWN FEASTDAY

The Feast of Pentecost, the feast of the sending of the Holy Spirit, is in a sense the only feast of the liturgical year that is really ours. The other feasts are all about what happened to others: Jesus' conception, birth, baptism, life, transfiguration, death, resurrection and ascension; what happened to Mary, Joseph, the Apostles and all the saints.

At Pentecost we celebrate a mystery that happened to us, his followers. At least that is the intention of this feast. We can still, of course, act as if it is all only about others.

Pentecost is our feast. It is the feast of our takeoff with the Spirit. With that Spirit we have, as it were, to fly in all directions. But there is a difficulty here: that variety in the Spirit. She was given in different ways: she blew over them, fire descended on them, and they got her in noise, light and smoke.

The Spirit was also given in different gifts: in the gift of peacemaking, forgiving, speaking in tongues, healing, administering, singing and praising the Lord. This diversity is so great and problematic, that even while we are celebrating the feast, Paul is quoted from his Letter to the Church at Corinth where Jesus' followers threatened to split up because they were all flying in different directions.

But at least those in Corinth were trying to fly with the Spirit. It is to those fliers that Paul wrote: "There is a variety of different gifts, but always to the same Spirit. There are all sorts of services, but always to the same Lord. There are all kinds of ways, but it is the same God who is working in all".

So let us join with those who fly on the wind of that Spirit, and try to make the KIngdom of God a reality in our lives and the lives of others.