WE NEED GOD’S SPIRIT NOW
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
May 31, 2020
It was very unnerving to be out on the freeway this morning
and to see every few miles an electronic traffic monitoring sign overhead that
wasn’t reporting on the road conditions. Instead it simply read, “Curfew in
effect 8pm – 6am.” This has been a very difficult week in the Twin Cities, and
it remains so now, with a vague but very real sense of fear and danger in the
air, to which we are not accustomed during more normal times. These days are
not normal.
We’ve been made to confront some of the darkest instincts in
human nature: the willful torture and killing of a man by a police officer; the
pent-up rage and anguish of a community that lives under the shadow of suspicion
and discrimination most of the time; and the opening of our eyes to the cancer
of systemic racism in our culture that just never seems to go away; ‘and the
opening of our eyes to the cancer of systemic racism in our culture that just
never seems to go away, even despite some of our best efforts and intentions.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, depressed and impotent to
respond to it all. And it’s even easier to blame it all on somebody else, or
some other group. That’s yet another symptom of being scared—and we are often
very good at it. This is not how human beings were created to live. And we know
that.
And amid all the chaos and sadness comes today’s liturgical
feast of Pentecost—the culmination of the church’s celebration of the Easter
season—this time of exceptional joy and thanksgiving, and it all feels wrong
because it doesn’t seem to cohere much at all with what’s going on outside our
windows and on the TV. How can we dare to celebrate while the world is coming
unraveled? (And let’s not even mention the raging viral pandemic for the moment.)
Just who do we Christian’s think we are to be gathered in grateful praise
today?
We are the recipients of the greatest gift that could ever
be—God’s own spirit dwelling within and among us, making us stronger than every
threat, every danger, every sinful inclination. Together.
This gospel is not a fairy tale. It is the most rock solid
truth about God and ourselves, and it needs to be heard again, loud and clear,
most especially when time and events cause us to wonder and doubt and worry.
God’s spirit is alive, and well, and in our midst every day. Now. There is a
Holy fire at work in the world that is even more pure and penetrating than what
an arsonists’ fire wishes to destroy. This we know. The disciples of Jesus were
self-quarantined, self-curfewed in an upper room on that first Pentecost day
because they were terrified. The authorities had already done away with Jesus,
and they knew that they were likely to be next to face death. And for many of
them, they were next.
But in the very midst of all that, the Lord arrived, stood in
their midst, and offered words of “Peace be with you.” And these were not words
of sweet sentiment, because the next thing he did was to show them his wounds,
his pierced hand, his slashed side. And even while gazing upon the scars, John
tells us that the disciples rejoiced. None of those disciples was destined to
live happily ever after. Quite the opposite was true. They all suffered for
being faithful to Christ, but they did so in the knowledge that nothing and
nobody extinguishes the fire that is God’s.
That must have required super-human courage and confidence,
the kind that only the Holy Spirit is capable of making present—the kind that
we need right here and now in MN. The spirit is here, now and has been ever
since Jesus bestowed it to us so long ago. So perhaps our task in this moment
is to remember it again, and to speak and to act as if we really believe it.
Many people don’t, so it’s more important than ever that we do.
And we can—not by our own strength, but by the fire that God
gives us. We can be peace at a time that seems to be devoid of peace. We can be
hope at a time when so many of our neighbors are afraid. We can be courageous
at a time when chaos and darkness threaten to prevail. We need Pentecost more
than ever right now.
Come Holy Spirit. Come quickly. And may we welcome you
warmly.
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