The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God, that now dwells within us! Today, God pours into the depths of our hearts the very content of His inner life. He gives us the ‘Heart of His heart’, the ‘Life of His life’. The Church is all filled with the Holy Spirit!
My friends, the goal of our Christian Life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit! As early as in the Old Testament we see so many outpourings of the Holy Spirit, from God’s Heart into the heart of humanity. Likewise, and with increasing intensity, every single moment of Christ’s Life is Spirit-filled. In the life and mission of Christ, there are many ‘outpourings’ of the Spirit!
First and foremost, we see that the incarnation of God is brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit who overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nazareth! And thus, Christ was generated in her womb! Anointed by the Spirit, with His Power, Jesus goes through the villages of Galilee, Samaria and Judea proclaiming the ‘Good News’ of a New Time that has come! And even when He was dead, Jesus had His heart broken open on the Cross, and it gushed forth blood and water. Blood, in the biblical conception is the very life of a person. Jesus gives us what He is. And along with the Blood, Water, rivers of living water. This Divine Life that is poured out from the Cross quenches our existential thirst and cleanses us from our filth!
And just as this spiritual river flows from the open heart of Christ to us, He says about us in today’s Gospel that: “Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” If we believe in Him, that is, if we decide to place Jesus Christ and His Lordship at the very center of our hearts and our journey, a spiritual river – a river of grace – will lavishly flow from within us.
Then, truly risen, the One who passed through the Cross and overcame the limits that death had imposed on life, gives us His Spirit by breathing on us! Ruach : the Divine Gift proceeding from God’s lips, like a kiss of Peace, leaving a seal of Spousal Love on the soul of the Church. And finally, when Christ is about to ascend to Heaven, to reopen the path that makes us pass from Earth to Heaven, He highlights that: ‘you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem… and to the ends of the earth.’ In short, you will be my presence in the world! There is no longer only the Risen One, but the risen ones!
So, the Spirit comes from Jesus’ wide-open Heart, the Spirit comes from His breath, from His lips, He comes as power that turns the fearful disciples into new creatures and witnesses of Resurrection, with the authority to proclaim to the world the hope of a second birth.
My friends, the whole point of our Christian life is to pass from Adam to Christ, to move out from the flesh to the Spirit. It is to live a process of spiritualization/
I know that very often our heavenly desires are stifled by the awareness of our weaknesses and sins, so we end up crumbling, with no more strength to put up a fight. But the saints can help us. St Thérèse said: ‘I desire to be a saint, but I feel my helplessness, so I beg you, o my God, to be Yourself my Sanctity!’ Not I, but Your Spirit in me!
In the First reading of the Pentecost Vigil we read that people wanted to build a tower to reach Heaven by themselves. The famous Tower of Babel. They wanted to reach God without God; in a way, they wanted to ‘be’ gods without God, looking for a kind of ‘life hack’ to make a name for themselves. But it ended up falling through!
Holiness is not a fruit of my work on myself! Holiness is not ‘moral perfection’ (of one who makes himself upright, perfect), but it is ‘ontological/existential perfection’, I receive a new life from the One who has this Life to give! Holiness is living in the Spirit!
We don’t convert ourselves on our own! And I know it’s hard to wrap our head around it, because we are so hands-on and efficiency-oriented! But holiness is not a matter of ‘doing for’, but rather of ‘being and living with’. If we are in Christ, we are filled with His Spirit and enabled by Him to live in a new way. We don’t get from earth to Heaven by ourselves.
No matter how hard you try, you cannot divinize/sanctify yourself! At the same time, God wouldn’t place unattainable desires in our hearts! If we desire holiness, it is because He wants to make us holy. The Holy Spirit makes us go from ‘sinful’ to ‘saved’.
So, if your life story, wounds, and pains discourage you, the Risen One gives you the Enabler! The one who can truly touch and transfigure the properties of your nature! He is ‘God living in you’, to the point of becoming a mighty river flowing from the inside out!
A Swiss Theologian (Hans Urs von Balthasar) wrote a stunning text, which says: ‘The Spirit is the invisible fragrance of the Paradise that has arisen in our midst. He can create in you what doesn’t exist and He can make disappear what appeared to be irremovable; in the midst of a wilderness He creates gardens… and along with the truth, He creates faith in you. So you run your hand over the smooth skin from which the wound has vanished by a miracle.’
A while ago we were still kneeling by an empty grave, staring at the void of the cave, without knowing exactly what the death and resurrection of Jesus could really ‘accomplish’ in our lives. Sometimes, we get stuck and no longer expect anything from Easter. But it turns out that the Holy Spirit turns that Passover of Christ into a personal Passover for each one of us. We too receive the grace to leave the empty grave behind, and walk towards a totally new existence.
In the same way, the ‘Pentecost of the Church’ becomes a personal Pentecost for each one of us: the tongues of fire of the Holy Spirit rested on each of the disciples. Each one, and then all, were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Love of God is poured out – yes – over the whole Church, but it floods the heart of every single one of us, sanctifying each and every one of us.
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. He makes us free to be holy! Let yourself be filled by Him!
Fr. Cristiano Pinheiro C. Bede
Shalom Catholic Community
New York, May 27th, 2023 – Pentecost Vigil