Pentecost

Pentecost

            With Pentecost we come to the end of Easter. We have been preparing ourselves for a while to receive the Holy Spirit. Once a year we have the opportunity to get to know the third person of the Holy Trinity better, who Saint Josemaria calls the Great Unknown. He is still unknown and we would like to become closer to him. It is easy for us to see God as a Father. Easier to see God as a man when we look at Jesus as our brother. But it is not easy to see God as a dove, our spouse, who is Love. It is good to desire his coming. We should foster it. The more we desire something, the more God will give it to us. We can say Come Holy Spirit, Veni Sancti Spiritus. We desire his coming, his presence.

            The Greek philosophers talk about the four classical elements that constitute the universe: air, fire, water and earth. Three of them are representations of the Holy Spirit. We are the fourth one, the earth. We come from dust and we will become dust again. We are normally very earthy and we would like to become more spiritual. Original sin has made us more inclined to the earth. Our eyes normally look down more, rather than up. Material things are very important to us. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit to transform us, to help us to become more spiritual.

            Air. On the day of Pentecost a strong wind shook the whole house. It was the sign of the Holy Spirit coming. But Holy Scripture normally represents the Holy Spirit as a soft breeze. We can feel it but we don’t see it. He prefers to pass unnoticed, to disappear, to be in the background, to work from within. This is how the Holy Spirit works in our soul. We need air to breathe; we don’t realise how important it is until we cannot breathe if we are under water. We need the breath of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, for us to live a spiritual life. The bishop when he consecrates the holy oil during the Chrism Mass, breathes air into it. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to breathe his holy air into our lungs, so that they become filled with his power, like the sails of a ship. We ask the Holy Spirit also to send a strong wind to remove all the dead leaves from our soul.

            Fire. On the day of Pentecost tongues of fire rested on the heads of the apostles. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. We ask for the same thing today: Burn us, Holy Spirit, purify us. We say with Saint Josemaria: “Remove that filthy crust of sensual corruption which covers my heart, so that I can feel and readily follow the touches of the Paraclete on my soul.” Like a log when the fire burns it, it transforms the wood into light and warmth. We too want to be transformed into love by the third person who is Love. We want to become glowing embers who look like rubies. Instead of becoming ashes, we want to become like God.

            Water is part of life. We cannot live without it. It is not as essential as air, but very close. Water quenches our thirst, washes our body and refreshes our spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit does to us. But first we need to realise that we are thirsty, that our soul is dirty and we need his love. We need to approach that well of living water that Jesus promises the Samaritan woman, to collect that pure, fresh, transparent water, that leaps into eternal life. To fetch water from a well we require a bucket. No bucket, no water. The well is too deep. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to lend us his bucket to reach for God’s grace.

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