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June 6, 2022"Living With Passion"
Yesterday we arrived at the goal of our fifty day Easter Season – the Great Feast of Pentecost. The Scripture reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2: 1-11) spoke of rushing wind, fire and Spirit that brought a group of frightened disciples out of hiding and energized them to go out and inflame the world with the love of Christ. They were filled with enthusiasm, and all who witnessed it were amazed. The events in the Scripture reading probably stand out in sharp contrast to how we normally experience life, and especially our mission to be witnesses of Christ and His Gospel message. It is so easy for life to become humdrum, if not discouraging. The never-ending responsibilities and ordeals we routinely face every day have a way of draining our ambition. Yes, we do what we have to do, but very often our heart isn’t in it. We work at our job and tend to our obligations, but do so with less and less enthusiasm. Even prayer and worship become dry. Sometimes it strikes us that we should be doing more with our lives, but the feeling doesn’t last. Over time we become more resigned to life than excited about future prospects.
In yesterday’s Scripture reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, he says, “Now there is a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit.” What we need to understand here is that we share the same Spirit that flooded the apostles with energy and enthusiasm. The Spirit is the same and is always with us. Our personal development is never complete this side of the Resurrection. We have much work to do to build ourselves up as members of Christ’s Body and co-sharers in His saving mission. The Spirit continually urges us on to new heights.
The work of the Holy Spirit, however, can be significantly thwarted by our proclivities toward laziness, apathy and resignation. As we get older, we tend to stop setting goals; we back down from commitments and run away from challenges; we’re reluctant to try something new. If we wish a better quality life, however, we need to fight these tendencies. The Holy Spirit is always present to us as Divine Energy, but it is up to us to tap into that Divine Energy by struggling against the forces of gravity that would pull us down. What this means is that we make a conscious choice for growth rather than comfort, for risk rather than safety, for more life rather than slow death. As Christians, we are “Pentecost People,” people with “the Holy Spirit.” We stay “alive” and feel most alive when we determine to live with passion.
We all know what a potent force enthusiasm can be. As a good coach might revive his or her dispirited team at half-time, it is up to us with the loving help of God’s grace to rally ourselves to new zest in our marriage, our priesthood, better performance in our job, new friends, new interests, new activities and new heights for our spiritual growth. We raise our spirits by living with the Holy Spirit in everything we do.
As we celebrate the end of the joyful Season of Easter with the Feast of Pentecost, we’re likely not going to find ourselves speaking in tongues or caught in a windstorm of spiritually epic proportions. More likely, we will have to look for the Holy Spirit amid the ordinariness of our daily lives, but, to be sure, the Holy Spirit is there, waiting for an entry point, hoping that we will slow down long enough for the “movement of grace” to catch up to us and propel us forward. Sometimes this happens in prayer, but often it happens when we are going about our daily chores and responsibilities. A friend of mine calls those moments God-incidences, and they are all around us, all the time.
Welcome back to Ordinary Time – Monday of the Tenth Week!
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be recreated and You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen!
