Pentecost – 8 June 2025
Imagine for a little while a moment in your life which was full of possibility. Maybe it was when we first started school, or started work, or left home. Perhaps it was a moment of commitment such as when we got married, or at the birth of our children. A moment rich in possibility, full of promise! Can we remember how there was no certainty about the future at that time, but somehow there was a sense that this what life was about? All of life up to this point somehow seemed to come together and open out into the future. And the something new was full of promise.
Our celebration of the outpouring of the Spirit of the Risen Christ upon the first disciples – Pentecost – is also one characterized by possibility. We celebrate that what at first seems to be an absence – the absence of Jesus in their midst – has been transformed into a living, vibrant, urgent presence. In his absence, we, too, have discovered a new type of presence, a new way of Jesus present to us, with us, for us, through us, in us.
For us as disciples of Jesus, this is the source of our confidence and our hope. Because the Spirt of Jesus has been given us, we have the confidence that we have a future. Our present horizon is never our final one. We can always go on from where we are. We are never locked into where we are. There is always a wider horizon to explore. No matter what we are experiencing, no matter how painful, no matter how shameful, no matter how apparently hopeless it might seem, deep within there is a gentle possibility waiting to show itself and from which new life can spring for us. There is always the possibility of fresh beginnings.
This is the miracle of Pentecost: what first appears as a dead end can become the place of a fresh direction; what first appears as a failure can become the window through which a new perspective on life begins to dawn; what first appears to be simply barren because it seems filled with sadness and fear can become a place pregnant with an unimagined gift to us.
But the Spirit is not only given as a powerful wind as we read in the First Reading, giving courage and confidence. It also comes in the gentleness of Jesus’ breath which is the experience of quiet reassurance, peace. And so, the Spirit comes to us then when we are feeling fragile through those moments of deep quiet when though we do not have the answer, we know everything will be alright; the Spirit is given us when we experience a sense of trust when all the circumstances would normally be making us anxious; the Spirit is given us at those moments when we have a quiet solid sense of purpose even though everything around us seems to be crumbling; the Spirit is given us in the gentle smile of a friend, in the recognition of the beauty of our children even when they are the cause of a great deal of trouble, when a little ordinary scene outside the kitchen window captures our attention for its simplicity and wonder.
Let us then to look at our life again. Have we lost sight of its possibilities? Have they got lost in some kind of fog? Can we re-live some of those possibilities, and therefore give witness to our world that there is a future. So let us pray on this feast of the Spirit of God:
Spirit of light: let your wisdom shine on us
Spirit of courage: make us aware of God’s presence
Spirit of fire: enflame us with the love of Jesus
Spirit of peace: help us to be still and to listen to God in our life
Spirit of joy: inspire us to proclaim the good news
Spirit of love: help us open ourselves to the needs of others
Spirit of power: give us all your help and strength
Spirit of truth: guide us always in the way of Jesus.
