ENGULFING POWER - Pentecost, Year B
The coming of the invisible Holy Spirit was and is invisible. We can’t see the Holy Spirit coming to a person, any more than we can see the wind. We can know the Holy Spirit comes through faith. We know by faith and the signs that the Spirit comes to someone who is baptized. We know by faith that the Holy Spirit comes to change the bread and wine into the Risen Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, and acts in all the sacraments.
The signs of the Spirit’s coming to empower the Church on Pentecost were fire and wind, two powerful forces of nature. The fire symbol represents a number of spiritual realities: the love of God, the purifying presence of the Lord, and the light of Christ coming to overcome sin’s darkness.
Whatever natural fire does physically, spiritual fire does spiritually. Fire changes whatever it touches. Fire melts and shapes steel, destroys and forms. Fire, representing the love of God, changes and forms, consumes and moves, breaks open hardened hearts, overcomes sin, and empowers someone to love. As there are different degrees of natural fire, so there are different degrees of spiritual fire. Some fires are easily put out, others aren’t. There are different degrees and kinds of human love, so there are different degrees and kinds of spiritual love.
The fire of God’s love engulfed the infant Church. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” This burning of God’s love overcame their fear and self-consciousness, and they began to be able to proclaim Christ the Risen Lord, and do the signs of His power. Up to that point, they were powerless and in fear, locked in a room. Love has a freeing power. “Perfect love casts out fear.” Being open to divine and human love is a major way to overcome the fears that reside in the human person as a result of human brokenness.
God’s love is meant to heal us. The Holy Spirit is God’s love showered on us, poured into us, coming upon us, and spiritually burning out the obstacles to living in the love of God. The darkness of sin and fear gives way to the light of grace and courage. Pentecost sets the Church on fire with the love of God by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes and acts in every age and time and place. The Holy Spirit is like the wind which moves everywhere, and has many different effects. The winds of the Spirit vary as do the natural winds. The Spirit may move like a gentle breeze or a rushing hurricane and tornado into the Church or into individual members of the Church. As we go through our life, we become more awakened to the mysteries and experiences of human life. The same is true for our baptismal life. We can grow in our consciousness, experience, and awakening to our baptismal life, the life of the Spirit within us. We call those times of deepening of our life in Christ and living by the Holy Spirit, conversions.
This deeper awareness and experience of the Spirit is sometimes called the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It’s a deeper immersion in the fire of God’s love. This deeper immersion gives someone a greater awareness of the Lord’s love, greater ease in praying, seeking the Lord in His Word, and doing the works of the Gospel. The Gift of the Holy Spirit is accompanied by an awareness of the gifts of the Spirit that enable someone to give witness to Christ. The tongues of fire moved, and moves, the disciples to proclaim Christ. Like hot coals on the tongue, they couldn’t be held in!
The need for baptism in the Holy Spirit leading to deeper conversion, deeper living in the Holy Spirit, is evident in our time. All need the baptism in the Holy Spirit to be fully alive in Christ, to overcome the obstacles to keeping the commandments and living by Gospel spiritual standards. So many Christians seem to live like pagans and heathens, burdened with fears, ignorant of Christ, and moved by the forces of the world opposed to Christ. The winds of the Holy Spirit move us into deeper union and experience with Christ.
An openness to the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in our life greatly strengthens us. The Church, and each person, needs the Holy Spirit’s fire and wind power, all the gifts, ministries, services and works, prayer and praise gifts, which come with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let His power engulf you!
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