A New Springtime

As I write this article for God’s Field, the weather is finally starting to get wonderful and warm.  It is often beautiful outside and even the rainy days remind us that new growth and a beautiful rebirth of nature is beginning all around us.  Of course this reminds us that there is also another birth that we focus on this time of year.  Sunday, May 23, 2021 is the
Solemnity of Pentecost, the celebration of the birth of the Church.

In this Solemnity we remember the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the first apostles and then them going out into the world to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. The first reading for this Solemnity of Pentecost from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the story.

“Suddenly from up in the sky there came a noise like a strong driving wind which was heard all through the house where they were seated.  Tongues as of fire appeared which parted and came to rest on each of them.  All were filled with the Holy Spirit.  They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them.  Staying in Jerusalem at the time were devout Jews of every nation under heaven.  These heard the sound and assembled in a large crowd.  They were much confused because each one heard these men speaking his own language.  They asked in utter amazement, ‘Are not all of these men who are speaking Galileans?  How is it that each of us hears them in his native tongue?  We are Parthians, Medes and Elamites.  We live in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya around Cyrene.  There are even visitors from Rome – all Jews or those who have come over to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs, too.  Yet each of us hears them speaking in his own tongue about the marvels God has accomplished.’” (Acts of the Apostles 2:2-11)

In this birth of the Church, there is much that we must concern ourselves with.  We notice first that the presence of the Spirit makes a noise so that everyone notices.  And yet it is not a noise that is entirely unfamiliar to those who heard it.  It reminds us that we need to be on the lookout for the action of the Spirit around us in our world today.  If we are looking for some sort of supernatural occurrence, it won’t happen like that.  God acts in and through the world that surrounds us, but if our eyes are open and attuned to the stirrings of the Spirit, we will see His action and comprehend that the Holy Spirit continues to be at work among us.

This shows us that as we see the rebirth happening all about us in this season, there is also much to remind us that now is the time for a rebirth of the work of the Church.  And this is true within ourselves, within our families and especially within our parishes.  It reminds us that all things come together for the work of God within our lives.  We see that following the times of closure from the current pandemic, now things are truly starting to be relaxed and we can fully return to Church and, more importantly, to the work of the Church.  In this, if we have eyes to see it, the first actions of the Spirit are taking place around us.  But the thing is that we must see it, and then in response to that acknowledgement, begin to take action.  In acknowledging the work of the Holy Spirit, we can and must put ourselves at the Spirit’s disposal to accomplish great things for God’s kingdom.

A second thing we must notice is that the flame appeared which then parted and came to rest on each of them.  It was the same flame, the same presence of the Spirit, that each of them partook in.  It speaks of an equality among the gathered Apostles, in their ministry of announcing the Good News to the world, and in a larger way it speaks of an equality among all Christians who do the work of the Church today.  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13) So each of us, as a follower of Christ, has a role in the body that is the Church.  None of us is an afterthought to this work.  Each of us is vital to this work of building up the body of Christ in the world today.  Each of us has a gift to offer for the work of the Church. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God Who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)  This shows us that when we do some good work for the building up of the Church or the spreading of the Good News, it is actually the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and because of that equality of the actions of the Spirit, every bit of it is vital to God’s work in the world.

Because of this none of us can say that what we have to offer is not needed, or that what we do within our role and life in the Church is of little value.  It is all of great value because it is directed and prompted by the Spirit of God acting within us.  In fact it is all absolutely necessary and vital to the witnessing that takes place in Christ’s Holy Church.

The scene of the day of Pentecost also sees a crowd gathered to hear the Apostles as they begin to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to a hungry world.  Here is where things might have changed a little to our world today.  Those Jews who heard the strong driving wind were attuned to the actions of God around them, and so they gathered at the Spirit’s prompting, even if they didn’t fully understand.  Today most people are so removed from recognizing the actions of God around them that they just can’t see it.  Therefore, the response of the Church must be to go out into the world and bring the work of the Spirit to them.

We see a bit of this in the fact that the Apostles rushed outside to begin to preach.  They had been fearfully locked away, but then because of the presence of the Spirit, they could now fearlessly go out into the world and, through their work and action, witness to Jesus Christ to all that they met.

It is here that we must consider our world today, especially in that we are just coming to the point of once again taking up our mission and work to spread the message of Jesus Christ.  In some senses we have been locked away.  The pandemic had caused us to curtail our public worship and the public work of building up the kingdom of God.  It had become a time of private introspection, a time of private prayer.  But now as the medical community has said that we are able to resume our public life, first and foremost we must resume the public life of the Church.  As the Apostles went out into the streets to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, we, as faithful members of our parish churches, must go out into our own communities to once again show the very life of
Jesus among us in our works of worship, fellowship and community outreach.

I know that some of our parishes and communities of faith have done much to continue this work, at least in some limited capacity during the entire pandemic.  Others, for a number of reasons, had to curtail this work to protect the health and safety of their members.  But now is the time for all of us to emerge in stronger and more active ways.  Now is the time for a rebirth, the time for a new Pentecost, where we can rededicate ourselves to the ways and works of God’s Holy Church, shown to us by Jesus Christ and lived in the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

We will gather in our parish churches to celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost this Sunday.  Let us all experience a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the work of each member and each parish of the entire Polish National Catholic Church.