Preparing for a 'personal pentecost'

The 50 days of the Easter season allow us to appreciate, ponder and savor the reality of Jesus' resurrection. Easter is truly the turning point of human history. Thinking about the meaning of God having power over all things, even death, is worthy of our full attention.

This time also prepares us for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and this week's preparation is very specific. Just before his Ascension into heaven, Jesus tells his disciples that they "will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon" them, and they "will be [his] witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The Ephesians passage gives more definition to just what they will be proclaiming when Paul writes of "the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion. ..."

Taking on this view of the world changed Jesus' disciples from their indecisive ways into men who traveled to the far corners of the world to tell others that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

But first they had to wait for the Holy Spirit and then be obedient to Jesus' command to proclaim this good news, that he had conquered death, and his Father had proclaimed him Lord.

When I first came to my adult faith three decades back, I experienced a profound reorientation of my life. Instructions in the Catholic faith, a Life in the Spirit Seminar, then service on my parish liturgy committee and in the pro-life movement displaced the regular companionship of my unbelieving young adult friends. New friendships with Christians and new activities filled my time and became my passion.

I still have those old friendships, but they ceased being my primary relationships, the ones that formed my values and view of the world, as my life became reoriented around the truth of the Resurrection.

It's been 34 years since those pivotal times, the times of my own personal Pentecost. I have no regrets. Preparing for the coming of the Spirit is worthy of our best efforts
 

God's spirit renews the face of the earth

May 11 Pentecost Sunday Cycle A Readings: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

BY SHARON K. PERKINS

In April 1994, a large and powerful tornado ripped through my hometown and the house where I had grown up.  The tornado forced my parents to take shelter in a stairway closet while the roof above them was lifted free of the structure and the nearby garage was torn from its concrete slab. It also tore through the thick stand of mature pecan trees that for decades had divided our property from the neighbors' property, making visible what previously had been hidden from view and changing the landscape forever.

The Hebrew Scriptures often relied on the metaphor of wind to signify the appearance of God in this same way. It was with a driving wind that Yahweh parted the waters of the Red Sea and opened up the path to the Promised Land for Israel. And while no rooftops were blown away in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, the changes wrought by that tempest were profound. People of all nations were able to hear of the mighty acts of God in their own language. The previous barriers of religion, language and ethnicity proved to be no match for the "driving wind" of the Spirit, and centuries-old barriers between Jew and Gentile became obsolete in the wake of its power.

For those first disciples of Jesus, the "landscape" of their world was changed forever as they, in turn, were empowered to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all parts of the known world.

In our world today, global telecommunications and rapid travel have done away with geographic obstacles of distance that were previously insurmountable -- and yet in an effort to protect our own "landscapes," we allow barriers to remain among one another, even within our own parishes and neighborhoods.

Fear of change and anxieties about letting those who are "different" into our world occupy our energies and sap our resources, drowning out the declaration of the mighty works of God in our midst. The psalmist declares that when God sends out his Spirit, the "face of the earth" will be renewed. It is an open invitation to allow our landscape to be changed through the power of his Spirit.