Transformed by the Holy Spirit
The other day, as I was attending daily Mass here at the Co-Cathedral, I had a surprise, along with the other Mass attendees. The priest was late! As we all gathered in the Chapel waiting, discomfort and uncertainty mixed in the air. No one knew when the priest would show up and if they might have time to stay for all of Mass. When the priest did show up, everyone seemed to ease back into the familiarity of Mass, until we got to the homily when the priest announced he wasn’t going to give a homily (to adjust for the lost time). I share this story not to point fingers at the priest, but to reflect on how jilted everyone in the congregation felt. Half of us stood up for the next part of Mass and half of us sat back down and it was such a reminder of our humanity and how sometimes God just needs us to be jostled to refocus our hearts on Him.
In this weekend’s first reading (Acts 2:1-11), we hear about the experience of the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit. It’s a wild moment. I’ve heard some try to compare the rushing sound that fills the house to the roar of Niagara Falls. Personally, I prefer to think about the sound of the wind blowing through the aspen and pine trees in the Rocky Mountains. Both of these are sounds we would never expect to hear inside a building though. It is definitely not a normal occurrence. But this moment that the Acts of the Apostles accounts changes the Apostles’ actions. They move from being within a house in their own familiar group to going out and proclaiming God to all nations. They are jilted out of what has become ordinary for them to proceed to the extraordinary mission of God.
Pentecost is a time for change and fulfillment rooted in moving us beyond our comfortable routines to stepping out. The name comes from the Greek word that marks the end of a 50 day period and is also the Greek name for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot which means the ‘Festival of Weeks’. In the New Testament, this festival takes place roughly 50 days after the Passover and is often considered to be a harvest festival where people would gather and bring their first fruits of their harvest to the Temple (International Fellowship of Christians and Jews). In the context of this feast, our own Pentecost’s meaning shifts. The Jewish people of the New Testament first celebrate the Passover and the sacrifice of lambs for sins; we first celebrate Easter, the sacrifice of Jesus for the sin of all. Then after a period of fifty days, the Jewish people offer the choicest parts of their harvest back to God. This offering recalls the offering of Abel in Genesis, which is marked as a pleasing offering to God (Genesis 4:4). In a similar way, we through the gift of the Holy Spirit offer the best parts of ourselves back to God to be sent out into the world. Pentecost is a time for the Holy Spirit to come and transform each of us and unite us more with God.
After having our hearts jostled during daily Mass, I caught myself smiling more than I normally do during the consecration. And it wasn’t because I was laughing at how human we all were. In the middle of trying to decide whether we should sit or stand or what was going on, I had the thought strike me that God the Holy Spirit is actively at work here at the Mass and in many of our moments of confusion. God desires to draw us to Himself and that means that He can transform the little human mistakes we make into a beautiful celebration of the Mass. When I am in a time of feeling off-balanced, it is the perfect time to invite the Holy Spirit to work in that moment and to transform me and move me beyond my ordinary experience and expectations.