On Sunday the Church will celebrate the great feast of Pentecost. The feast of Pentecost, fifty days from Easter Sunday, celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to guide and inspire, in all places and for all time. Having always been, with the Father and the Son outside of time and place, the Holy Spirit descended to the earth in the dramatic form of wind and tongues of fire to complete human understanding of the Trinity.
The Church teaches that all scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit; the words of the Bible are ascribed to a number of different writers, but these are the scribes of the word of God rather than authors. Recently when the Cardinals gathered together in Conclave and elected Pope Leo XIV they prayed that the choice that they made would in fact be the choice of the Holy Spirit; that they would simply be the vessels through which God’s will was done. So the Holy Spirit works in large and powerful ways that have an impact on the whole world.
At Christmas time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, I am fond of reminding myself of the awesome fact that if I was the only person ever to have lived, Jesus would still have been born, for me. There is an extremely personal way of thinking about God’s gifts. Just as Jesus was born for me, so is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, given to me. It is not only the writers of the bible and the Cardinals of the Church to whom the Spirit has been sent. The Spirit is for you and for me as greatly and as importantly as for anyone else who has ever lived.
The Spirit is given to us to inspire and to guide us, leading us towards the fruits of charity, patience, kindness, peace, joy, gentleness, faithfulness and more. The Spirit will lead us to be more like Christ. What a blessing that we do not have to navigate the challenges and potential pitfalls of life alone – the Spirit is always with us, should we choose to invite and allow the Spirit to light and energise our way.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise, and ever rejoice in your consolation, Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
