Not Settling for Established Ways

Pentecost Sunday, the conclusion of the great Easter season, is a wonderful occasion to take a deep breath and set our course. Easter is about celebration and reflection on the depth and breadth of God’s love for us.         

Recently I heard “the Advocate” described as a fiercely protective presence, accompanying, and guiding us into the unknown. Jesus promises his disciples the Advocate (John 14:15-16, 23-26) and, filled with that Holy Spirit, they burst from the upper room (Acts 2:1-11) preaching confidently and fearlessly to all people. This is celebrated as the birth of the Church. In an astonishingly brief few years those Spirit filled disciples made Christianity a major player around the Mediterranean and beyond. In those same few years though was revealed an issue which has plagued us since. Some zealously fired up with passion for Jesus’ message, but forgetting to consult the Spirit were very soon proclaiming their own words rather than Jesus’.

Australian theologian Fr Frank Moloney alerts us that, “without the nourishing yet critical presence of the Holy Spirit, the “Word” of Jesus is soon forgotten, and we begin to settle for our own “words”……. abandoning the never-ending task of learning from the Spirit …. settling for established ways …. no longer admitting the uncomfortable “memory” of all that Jesus has said to us”. (Moloney, F. This is the Gospel of the Lord p110)

In stillness, openness, and humility we must contemplate, reflect, pray, chill, before undertaking any preaching or teaching or missioning and indeed in our daily lives. Allowing the Holy Spirit into our lives is often confronting; upsetting our prejudices and biases, our programs, plans and policies. Forgetting or ignoring the Holy Spirit though dooms our activities, whatever good intentions we might have. Pentecost is time to be still, to wait on the Lord, realising that Jesus approaches me as he did the disciples, wishing me peace, conferring his gift of the Holy Spirit, and empowering us to pass these gifts freely to others.

Deacon Mark Kelly