Pentecost Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons: 19 May 2013

In one of his sermons Oscar Romero reminded people that God exists outside the Church, it may seem obvious to us, but a lot of people seem to think that the workings of the Holy Spirit are only to be found in liturgy, sacramental celebrations and the structures we call our church institutions.

There is also a tendency to imagine that Pentecost is the first manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Both these misconceptions are to be firmly resisted. Looking back into the Hebrew Bible we see evidence of the Spirit of God at work powerfully, gently, lovingly as well as forcefully transforming the hearts and lives of people, the Spirit at work in all living and created things. There right in our deep faith history we can find much to show us that the Living God transcends our boundaries and will use seemingly impossible and problematic situations to bring about change.

We often refer to this feast as the birthday of the Church, in one sense it is but in another sense it isn't, for Pentecost is about the vibrancy of the Spirit at work not only in the faith community but in the world outside it, in the alleyways and ghettos of poverty, on battle fields of war, amongst those who have no faith or have different belief systems to our own. The Spirit as we can hear in our readings, does not speak in one tongue, there is no sacred language except that of love, all tongues all dialects are used to proclaim the good news of salvation. We might be reminded that in the charismatic gifts tongues , though a lowly gift is really about uttering what is beyond words, the prayer of the depths where God and each one of us is invited to communicate at a level beyond human language.

When I was a young priest the Charismatic renewal spread widely and drew many to unshackle their preconceptions about faith, the Spirit was at work in transforming , renewing and nourishing faith into new birth. We hear much about the tiredness of European Christianity, I for one do not see that in the lives of those I know who open themselves to the Spirit at work in the Churches today. Pentecost is not about looking backwards or restoring the past, it is about the dynamic presence of God, who as the Holy Spirit enters every crevice of the human heart and every area of our lives. Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of our earth!

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.