Views From The Pews – Day of Pentecost – Sunday, June 5, 2022

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

We meet today to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, a feast day many of us look forward to each year.  The celebration of Pentecost challenges us to ask of ourselves how do we understand the Holy Spirit.  I share with you a definition of the Holy Spirit.  This means the Holy Spirit is the presence and activity of God in the world.  God’s presence in the world is with a view to transform the world.  This presence is active and dynamic.  The implication from this is that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world dealing with the issues and challenges, the joys we experience, our ailments and failures.  In reality God in the power of the Holy Spirit is involved in every element of our lives, both as individuals and in community.  The Holy Spirit brothers and sisters is involved in our social, economic, political and cultural life.  The Holy Spirit of God is not confined to the Church or restricted to the lives of good religious people.  I suggest to us, that as the Church we are not called to prove that the Holy Spirit is real and authentic, but to make ourselves available to become channels through which the presence and activity of the Spirit is experienced.  In this regard we are being challenged to become channels of clarity as we bring the counsel of the Spirit to bear on the situations of tension, conflict, anxiety, helplessness and, hopelessness in our world.

Let us seek the wisdom of the Spirit to understand the issues and concerns of the present moment and speak a word of direction and focus.  The gathering on the first Christian Pentecost saw the Apostles speak a word of salvation.  They proclaimed the good news of God’s involvement in human affairs. 

As we celebrate Pentecost this year, we are being called and sent by God in the power of the Holy Spirit to speak in the language of the people.  This is a word that the people can understand, a word that relates to lived reality.  We pray sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly dove, stay right here with us filling us with your love.

Love and Blessings always

Fr. Eddie