Human beings often live in a state of constant discontent, sometimes heightened by pain and suffering. Frequently, that discontent is of our own making. Witness the actions of the people migrating in the east in the Book of Genesis, who decide to stop in Shinar and build a tower there. God recognizes their self-centeredness and arrogance and scatters them from there all over the earth. Creation has forgotten that God and only God is the source of all, that God is responsible for all that is. Recognizing the manifold works of God, Psalm 104 asks the Lord to send out his spirit, and renew the face of the earth. Even after Jesus’ death and rising, the Romans still experienced discontent: all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now, Paul writes to them. But the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, Paul reassures them, interceding for the holy ones according to God’s will. Moreover, as Jesus had promised at the Jewish feast of Tabernacles in John's Gospel, Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me. We thirst for the fullness of God; if we believe in Jesus, we will find what we seek and that source of life that is the Spirit will flow from us into other people’s lives. The promise of the Spirit is that unity that will heal the disunity of Babel in Shinar; what God reveals in Jesus transcends all human limitations, eliminating division and allowing all to become conduits of the Spirit.
The confusion of Babel gives way to the unity of understanding when, in the Acts of the Apostles, the time for Pentecost was fulfilled. In Jerusalem on that day, each one hears the disciples speaking in his own language. Their proclamation of the good news is meant by all and understood by all, to bring them all together in belief in Jesus as the Messiah. Something extraordinary is happening, something that defies their ability to explain. Psalm 104 notes that when you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. In Jerusalem that day, all can say Jesus is Lord thanks to the Holy Spirit active in their midst. The Spirit may work in each of us differently, Paul tells the Corinthians, but it is all for the sake of the whole; the purpose of the Spirit is to draw us together into one body. When the disciples receive the Spirit directly from Jesus on the evening of that first day of the week, in John's Gospel, they are not yet ready; the doors are locked and will still be locked a week later. We know that the Spirit is in us as well; we know that Jesus believes we have it in us to be his disciples. We may need to grow into it, to grow away from our fundamental discontent, but we have what we need because we receive his Spirit in baptism, and we are thus a new creation. And then? We must live Christ, giving witness to the mercy of God, remaining fully present in him and allowing him to be fully present is us. Our job now is to love the world and to let love do what it is meant to do, serving our larger community through our unity, thanks to the Spirit, in the Body of Christ.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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