The impact of the entrance of Jesus into human history is an unending source of mystery and challenge in every age. It continues to touch our minds, hearts and lives to challenge us and invite us to change. The Son of God in our flesh leads us in life through death to resurrection. This is the mystery of our faith and Jesus clearly promises that this mystery will continue to evolve down the centuries by the constant outpouring of the Spirit.
Believing in Christ is more than accepting a list of propositions that are outlined in the Creed. It is more than believing that a certain number of events once happened to Jesus thousands of years ago. To proclaim Christ Jesus means that we believe the power of God’s Spirit is active and moving in our world and in our lives. We believe that this Spirit moves us towards reconciliation, towards life, towards salvation.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus greets his disciples with peace, shows them his hands and his side, and then sends them out to continue his work. But what is often overlooked in this passage is the work itself that Jesus sends the disciples to do. He does not immediately send them out to preach or heal or to teach. He sends them out to forgive.
Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It is the Spirit of God who is the breath of the world, working invisibly to carry creation towards the Kingdom. They are commissioned to take this reconciling peace and to proclaim it to the world. But that’s not the end of the story.
By his breath Jesus has given us a new Spirit. We are also re-created with the breath of life. Breathing new life into us, Jesus sends us out to take his breath into the world. In this Spirit we are called to bring forgiveness and reconciliation to a broken world. In the Holy Spirit we believe that there is no time or circumstance in which God is not somehow powerfully active. He forces us to see life in the Spirit as a new creation. That is who we are.
That is what we celebrate on the Feast of Pentecost.
The message of Jesus is intended for all people, in all times and in all places. The language of Jesus is the language of the Spirit, one that transcends nationalities and all other divisive elements. Peace is an integral element in the vocabulary of the Spirit and we need to learn this language of the Spirit so that we can proclaim the message of peace.
But what is this Peace of God given in the Spirit by Christ?
“Peace is the very integrity of God.
Peace is that unfolding in Creation.
Peace is the harmony of the universe.
Peace is the tranquility of order.
Peace is the Love that is God accepted, shared and lived as given.
Peace is allowing God so close as to be One.
Peace is letting God be our center and shine forth through us.
Peace is welcoming the blending of God shining forth from others."
- from the Blog, Frankly Speaking
Pope St. John XXIII once said that "we are not here to guard a museum, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life." The Holy Spirit is the gardener who has planted the seeds. It is up to us to bring the harvest of that garden to fruition.
