Pentecost Reflection
Reflection for the Feast of Pentecost. Let us pray to be fulfilled and immersed in God’s love and the Power of the Holy Spirit so we can receive and give to the Persecuted Church.
By Davide Barbieri
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. (Credit: Ilona Budzbon/Aid the the Church in Need)
In this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit (1 John 4:13).
It is the Holy Spirit that makes us abide in God and God in us. This is precisely what love does. The Holy Spirit, then, is the gift of God who is love. When the Holy Spirit has been given to man, He inflames man with the love for God and his neighbour. Man has no ability to love God except through God.
Nativity scene at the Cathedral in Zahle, Lebanon. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Nothing is more excellent than this gift of God. Other gifts are also bestowed by the Holy Spirit, but without love they profit nothing. The Holy Spirit is imparted to us in order to allow us to love God and our neighbour. The Spirit is specially called the Gift for no other reason except love; and he who does not have it, even if he should speak with the tongues of men and angels, is as sounding brass and a clashing cymbal; and if he should have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if he should have all faith so as to remove mountains, it is nothing; and if he should distribute all his goods, and if he should deliver his body to be burned, it profits him nothing (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). How great, then, is that good without which such great goods lead no one to eternal life?
Love presupposes one who loves, the one who is loved, and their love itself. If the Sacred Scripture proclaims: God is love, and that love is of God, and acts in us that we may abide in God and He in us (cf. 1 John 4:7-16), and we know this because He has given us of His Spirit, then the Spirit Himself is the God who is love. Furthermore, if among the gifts of God none is greater than love, and there is no greater gift of God than the Holy Spirit, what more logical than that He Himself should be love?
The Holy Spirit is called the gift of God (Acts 8:20; Jn 4:10). He is the gift of the Father and of the Son, because on the one hand he continues from the Father (John 15:26), as the Lord says; and on the other the apostle’s words, whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not one of his (Romans 8:9), are spoken of the Holy Spirit. When we say, “the gift of the giver” and “the giver of the gift,” we say each with reference to the other. And if the love whereby the Father loves the Son, and the Son the Father, reveals in an ineffable manner the union between both, what more fitting than that He, who is the Spirit common to both, should be properly called love?
A Brazilian man praying. (Credit: Ismael Martínez Sánchez / ACN)
The Holy Spirit is an inexpressible communion or fellowship of Father and Son. So, to signify the communion of them both by a name which applies to them both, the gift of both is called the Holy Spirit.
If you want to live by the Holy Spirit, remain steadfast in love, love the truth, let your desire be for unity, and you will reach eternity. As at the time of Pentecost the fact that one person was able to speak various languages was a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, so now the love of unity that makes people one is a sign of his presence. Know therefore that you have the Holy Spirit when you adhere to the unity by the sincerity of your love. If you love, it is no small thing that you have. If you love the unity, everything that belongs to anyone is your possession too! Cast out envy, and all that is mine becomes yours, and if I cast out envy, all that is yours is mine. Envy causes division but love unites.
In your gift we find our rest and joy. Our rightful place is where we find rest. Love carries us there, and your good Spirit (Psalm 143:10) exalts our humble estate from the gates of death (Psalm 9:13). In a good will is our peace. A body gravitates to its proper place by its own weight. This weight does not necessarily drag it downward, but pulls it to its proper position: thus, fire tends to move upwards, a stone downwards. Drawn by their weight, they seek their own place. Oil poured under water is drawn up to the surface on top of the water. Water poured on top of oil sinks below the oil. They are acted on by their respective densities, they seek their own place.
Things which are not in their intended position are restless. Once they are in their ordered position, they are at rest. My weight is love. Wherever I am carried, it is love that takes me there. By your gift we are set on fire and carried upwards: we catch his flame and up we go. We climb the steps in our heart as we sing a song of ascents (cf. Psalms 120-134). Lit by your fire, your good fire, we are making our way upwards to the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). For I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord (Psalm 122:1). There we will be brought to our place by a good will, so that we want nothing but to stay there for ever.