Taken together, our readings for Pentecost (both Vigil and Sunday) give us a sense of God as life-giving restorer of God’s people. And the people need it! The story of the Tower of Babel, in the Book of Genesis, points to the growing wickedness of the people migrating in the east, who build themselves a ziggurat as an exercise in arrogance, a condition that has plagued humankind over the ages. But God will intervene over and over to save God’s people from themselves. In the Book of Exodus, God sends a message to the people via Moses, assuring them that, if they hearken to his voice and keep his covenant, they shall be God’s special possession. Ezekiel speaks of a vision of dry bones transformed by the Lord God by means of sinew and flesh, that the Lord might breathe life into them. In the Book of Joel, the Lord similarly pours out his spirit upon all flesh. It is an extraordinary promise of restoration, one that offers the hope of salvation to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Thus can Psalm 104 come to pass: Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
It is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that is the fulfillment of all of the prophecies in salvation history. In John, Chapter 7, Jesus proclaims that anyone who longs for the life God has promised can find it in Jesus himself: Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink, he says. Faith, hope and love are byproducts of the living waters of Christ – the Spirit of truth itself that proceeds from the Father, John 15 tells us, going forth and being shared. That Spirit or Advocate is meant to guide all to the truth; it is through the Spirit that Jesus, once he has ascended to the Father in Acts of the. Apostles, continues to be present to the disciples, allowing them to say Jesus is Lord. It is through them, as they come together in the Body of Christ, that the Lord himself will be revealed, as first happens at Pentecost, when tongues as of fire rest on each of them, and they are all filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to proclaim.
It is this same Spirit, as Paul tells the Romans, that perfects our prayer, coming to the aid of our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. All of creation is groaning in labor pains, waiting to receive the fullness of life, longing for something, yet unable to identify what precisely it seeks… But we can, because we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, which gives us an intimation of the fullness of life that is possible in Christ. Moreover, every spiritual gift, Paul tells the Corinthians, every gift from the Spirit, exists to benefit the whole, gathered together in one Body, united in Christ, bringing Christ’s love to bear upon the world. It is the Spirit, in short, dwelling with us, that makes it possible for us to be Church and to function together in a way that benefits our world. Peace be with you, Jesus says to the disciples in John’s Gospel, breathing on them as they receive the Holy Spirit – their access to salvation, and ours, ours to share. Peace be with you!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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