By Sister Mary Scholastica, O.C.D.
Pentecost is not just one day on the liturgical calendar that comes at the end of Easter. It’s the spirit in which you live your life in the Spirit. It’s a reminder that not only is God with you, guiding you, He’s also within you, breathing life in and through you.
To simply be alive is pure gift. Our natural life. To be alive in the Spirit and to allow the Animator of all to animate your life. Our supernatural life. It’s an “un-see-able” gift and grace that has the potential of breathing His life into all things, all peoples and all circumstances. This is being put forth in a very simplistic manner to capture the point that when we open wide the doors of our minds, hearts, our soul, the impact the Holy Spirit can make within and around us knows no bounds. It’s immense. It’s immeasurable.
Pentecost is a reminder to us that our resurrected Lord is our end. He alone profoundly knows and understands our toils, blessings, good and bad choices, sufferings, inconsistencies and struggles of life. Father Wilfrid Stinissen in his book, The Holy Spirit, Fire of Divine Love says, “The goal of the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrection is Pentecost.” Jesus has gone before us in and through everything. Everything. And He has redeemed it all.
Yet it is so easy to forget. I reflect on this often. Our forgetfulness. The cares of the world, our families, jobs, communities can tend to wear us down, make us weary, move our gaze downward fixed on the ground. Christians, by nature of who we are, are called to look up and remember. In the movie The Lion King, there’s a great scene where Simba is brought to the brink of the water (after running away from his identity). He hears his father’s voice telling him “Remember who you are”. He is the son of the king. You and I are – we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Sons and daughters of the one true King. Yes, we forget. We need to look up at the skies and remember who we are.
Nothing in your life may change exteriorly but if you live life remembering and believing who you are, the son/daughter of our Father in heaven, it’s the everyday Pentecost. It’s the air you breathe. It’s how you show up. It’s how you engage. It’s how you live.
