Wednesday 22 May 2013

Pentecost Reflection

By Jack Chui

Its been a while since I wrote something on the blog. I've finished studying, preparing for a big birthday party (not my own) and so now I should have more time to write. I know I should share more about the STAY ministry sometime but for now, I'll start back with a sharing of an amazing homily I heard at Pentecost Sunday by Father Bernie at St. Augustine's.

Father Bernie came as a guest of Father Victor upon his request to say the homily for Father Victor's 39th Anniversary as an ordained priest. Father Bernie is a professor who teaches theology and so his homilies which I had heard before are of the very thoughtful kind. He manages to blend the massive amounts that he knows about God with his own take on things to bring it down to us at the unlearned level.

There were many things said by Father Bernie, some of it related to Father Victor and his ministry but the one I want to share about is about his simple way of understanding Pentecost. I'm a big fan of the Holy Spirit as I have a charismatic background from Sydney - its the main reason why my faith is at the level it is today. I thought I knew lots about Pentecost and what it means when the Holy Spirit came to the disciples, but had not heard it in the way Father Bernie put it.

In Luke's writing (he wrote Luke and then Acts of the Apostles) the gift of the Holy Spirit came to the disciples 50 days after the resurrection. 

In John's gospel, Pentecost on the same day as the resurrection.

John 20:19-23 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Jesus breathed on the disciples. The significance of this can be related back to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:1-14). God led his great prophet Ezekiel to a valley. Ezekiel looked around and all he could see was lots of bones - dry bones. God asked Ezekiel "Mortal, can these bones live?" Ezekiel looks around and says something like "Well........... only You know...". Then God breathed on the bones and they came to life, tendons, flesh and skin. He breathed on them again to make them stand - to give them life.

It is like that with the disciples when Jesus breathed on them - Jesus gave them life! Through the Spirit! So Pentecost is about "life". Father Bernie went to on the reflect on the instances over his time which gave him 'life'. One was Vatican II (he's been around a while) and most recently the election of Pope Francis. Pope Francis is like a breath of fresh air to Father Bernie in the different and radical way he approaches things.

I reflect a little at the times in which I have been given 'new life', like when I first baptised in the Holy Spirit several years ago. But since then and coming from the spiritual high that came from it, the most recent years have been like a desert... where its difficult to feel and pray. I hang in there because my faith keeps me going and knowing that with God, He has the best path and this path is guided by His Church. I wonder when I will next receive 'a new breath' --- for now I will just have to endure and wait patiently.