Pentecost Sunday 2019

Lectionary: 63

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh;

on the contrary, you are in the spirit,

if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you,

although the body is dead because of sin,

the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Rhetorically, there is no better way to make an emphatic statement than to state its opposite also. Or, to demonstrate this point, the worst way to make an important point is to say it only once. If you want people to hear what you say, you have to say it several times, in several ways, positively and negatively.

And so, Saint Paul makes his point about life in the Holy Spirit with affirmative and negative statements: "you who are in the spirit..." and "whoever does not have the spirit..." It is not his intention to speak derisively of anyone who is apparently not in the Spirit, but to highlight your privilege and your responsibility.

You belong to the Lord and so you will want to nourish and protect the Spirit of the Lord within you.

And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

When I was a boy the standard expression was, "the state of grace." The priest might ask a new parishioner, "Are you in the state of grace?" meaning, "Have you committed a mortal sin since your last confession?" Mortal sins, unfortunately, were broadly defined, anything from murder to missing Mass on Sunday, including both abortion and artificial birth control.

The "state of grace" was a static concept. It simply meant you had not sinned; it didn't mean you were actively attentive to your spiritual life. If you had touched all the bases and missed none, apparently, you would go home to heaven. You had scored a run in the heavenly game.

With the popular rediscovery of the Holy Spirit, we are learning to pay attention to that which is not so easily defined. Much as the doctor watches for depression and teaches his patients what signs to look for, we learn to "discern" the spirit. We begin each day asking God to guide our attitudes, thoughts and actions; and we end the day asking, "What spirit moved me to say this or do that?" Often I will be grateful that the Spirit urged me to hold my tongue, and I did! Sometimes I will realize that I was compelled by a less-than-generous spirit when I did something.

With those practices at the beginning and end of each day, we become aware of God's presence throughout the day, making the whole day a prayer. In recent years, many people have been attracted to Asian practices of awareness, especially with yoga, karate, and various forms of meditation. These movements have helped them live healthier, better lives. But our western religion has also practiced disciplined awareness with fasting, the daily examen, discernment, and centering prayer.

When the children in our family came of age Dad and Mom introduced us to the daily rosary. We didn't know it at the time but it's a breathing prayer. After the excitement of the day, we prepared for bed and the next day's work by reciting the rosary. I can't say we were aware of the Holy Spirit but we had been told, "The family that prays together stays together." And fifty years later, although both parents have died, the ten of us still gather many times each year.

...if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

On this Solemn Feast of Pentecost we praise God the Father for drawing us into Life, through His Son Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit, our eyes are opened to see beauty within us. It's not only out there in the sunrise and sunset, the Grand Canyon and the sparkling iceberg; beauty is also within the gleaming, crystal splendor of our grateful hearts. God is Good!