“Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” “O Lord, my God, you are great indeed! How manifold are your works, O Lord.” These words from the Psalm 104 on Pentecost help to reveal the work of the Holy Spirit. How does the Spirit renew the face of the earth? Is it done in just one way, or are there a multitude of ways that grace is at work in the world?
The first reading on Pentecost Sunday is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, put aside their former fears and go to tell all those gathered in Jerusalem that Jesus is risen and He is Messiah and Lord. The crowd has come to Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, a feast that recalls the giving of the Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai and the covenant that was made between God and His people. The apostles are speaking in Aramaic, yet each one in the crowd hears the Good News in his own language: Greek, Coptic, Syrian, Persian, Arabic, Latin and others.
The work of the Holy Spirit is clear: to bring all of God’s children together in one in Christ Jesus. True renewal means unity – unity in diversity.
As St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem sees the grace of the Holy Spirit as being living water raining down upon the earth, producing many different effects, causing those it waters to bring forth many different fruits. He says, “The Holy Spirit … apportions grace as He wills. Like a dry tree that puts forth shoots when watered, the soul bears fruit of holiness when repentance has made it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit never changes, the effects of the Spirit’s action, by the will of God and in the name of Christ, are both many and marvelous.
“The Spirit makes one a teacher of divine truth, inspires another to prophecy, gives another the power of casting out devils, enables another to interpret the holy Scripture. The Spirit strengthens one person’s self-control, shows another how to help the poor, teaches another to fast and lead a life of asceticism, makes another oblivious to the needs of the body, and trains another for martyrdom. The Spirit’s action is different in different people, but the Spirit is always the same. In each person, Scripture says, ‘the Spirit reveals his presence is a particular way for the common good.’”
To say that the Holy Spirit is always the same is to recognize that it is love and its work is love. Theologically, the Spirit is the love that binds the Father and the Son together.
The Spirit’s work is to transform us in love. Thus the Spirit fills us with peace and casts out fear. It is the peace that the Risen Christ gave to the disciples during the 40 days of
His appearances. It is the peace that allows a person to forgive his or her enemies and become a reconciler. Most of us are old enough to remember the terrible genocide in
Rwanda, when Hutus massacred about a million Tutsis over a period of a few months, one ethnic group killing another. Most were Christians and many of those were Catholic. Let us listen to Marcel Uwineza as he tells of the work of the Holy Spirit in him:
“So where did the God of Rwanda go? It is clear now that God never left us! We left God; we realize this ever more deeply as we search for the truth and our faith is deepened.
Over the last 20 years, God has led me though a school of forgiveness. One day I met one of the killers of my brothers and sister. Upon seeing me, he came toward me. I thought that he was coming to kill me, too. But I could not believe what happened. As if in a movie, he knelt before me and asked me to forgive him. After a time of confusion, asking myself what was happening, and by a force which I could not describe, I took him, embraced him and said: ‘I forgive you; the Lord has been good to me.’ Ever since that moment, I have felt free. I have realized that forgiveness heals the forgiver even more than the forgiven. My wounds have been able to heal others.’” (America, April 4-11, 2016).
This is the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of a love that forgives and heals. It is the love that God has for each of us, so that we might become reconcilers in a nation and in a world that is broken.
May we use our gifts and the strength of the Holy Spirit in us to heal the wounds, to break down walls, to bring people together, and to bring hope and love to a world that longs for the living waters of grace.
“Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.”
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is the parochial vicar of St. Peter Church in Charlotte.