Scripture Reflection, May 11: Pentecost Sunday

Scripture Readings:
Acts 2: 1-11
Psalm 104
I Corinthians 12: 3-7, 12-13
John 20: 19-23

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“Come Holy Spirit, and from heaven direct on us the rays of your light. Come, God of the poor, come giver of God’s gifts, come, light of our hearts. Kindly Paraclete, in your gracious visits to our souls you bring relief and consolation. If we are weary with toil, you bring us ease. In the heat of temptation, your grace cools us. If we are sorrowful, your words console us. Light most blessed, shine on the hearts of your faithful people, even in our darkest corners. For without your aid we can do nothing good. Wash clean the sinful soul, rain down your grace on the parched soul and heal the injured soul. Soften the hard heart, cherish and warm the ice-cold heart, and give direction to the wayward. Give your seven holy gifts to your faithful people, for our trust is in you. Give us reward for our virtuous acts. Give us a death that ensures salvation; give us unending bliss. Amen. Alleluia.”

This beautiful prayer – the Pentecost Sequence – is traditionally read or sung just before the Gospel on Pentecost Sunday. I think that it helps us connect our belief in the Holy Spirit with our experience of life. The Spirit is mysterious, difficult for us to image. This prayer helps us to identify the presence and work of the Spirit in our lives – the Holy Spirit poured out on the disciples at the first Pentecost and given to each of us in a special way at Baptism and Confirmation.

This prayer tells us that when we are weary with toil, the Spirit brings us ease. The Pentecost Sequence reminds us of all of those times when we have toiled to study for that final exam, to earn enough money to pay the bills, to be attentive to important relationships in our lives, or perhaps just to mull over a nagging problem in our minds in order to find a solution. In those moments of feeling weary – physically or mentally – the Spirit of God visits us. The Spirit reminds us to rest, to renew our trust in God, and to accept our limitations in not being able to do it all. The Spirit gives us rest by moving us to entrust our lives and concerns into the hands of God.

This prayer tells us that in the heat of temptation it is the grace of the Holy Spirit that cools us. Each of us experiences temptation in some way every day: the temptation to utter that really nasty word which that other person so deserves to hear; the temptation to criticize or even demean a fellow student or co-worker; the temptation to engage in small infidelities which we think won’t make that much of a difference in our commitments. The Sequence urges us to be receptive to the Spirit at those moments – to open ourselves to God’s presence dwelling within us in the heat of those temptations. When we do, we are enabled to gasp something of the bigger picture – the larger perspective of the kind of person we are called to become. The Spirit gently reminds us of the kind of person that, deep down, we really do want to become.

This Pentecost prayer says that when our souls are sorrowful the words of the Holy Spirit console us. In moments of grief, of the pain of loss, when someone says to us, “I am thinking about you; I am with you” – those are the words of the Holy Spirit. When we have hurt another person and are filled with regret, the words “I forgive you” are the words of the Holy Spirit. In moments of loneliness, the echo of God’s presence that wells up from within, reminding us that we are not alone, is the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is God’s voice speaking to us in the silence.

The Pentecost Sequence reminds us that it is the Holy Spirit who softens the hard heart. Hardening our hearts is just so easy to do. Sometimes it seems very appealing. That relative who is just impossible to deal with, who always makes things so difficult. The roommate who never seems to appreciate anything I do. My father, or my mother, who is always on my back. Those whites, or Hispanics, or African-Americans, who are “all the same.” The poor, who just don’t want to do an honest day’s work. But every now and then, sometimes almost miraculously, we realize that a hardened heart is deadly. It poisons the blood of our spirits. And our hearts become just a little softer. When that happens, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit is working within us. Would that it happen to us more often.

The Spirit who was given by the risen Christ to his disciples, the Spirit who was poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, is alive and well. All of us have been given to drink of this Spirit. The Second Vatican Council taught that it is the Spirit who enables the Church to “grow young,” perpetually renewing the people of God. As we pray on this Pentecost Sunday, may we ask God to renew the gift of the Holy Spirit within us. It is the Spirit who gives us ease in our weariness, who cools us in the heat of temptation, who consoles us in sorrow, who softens our hard hearts, who always shows us the way home to God.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp