The Spirit Takes You Where You Don't Want To Go	05/30/04	Click to Print
Pentecost Sunday	Father Tim Lemlin
Today we mark the end of the Easter Season. Many of you who are over forty (and maybe some who are younger) know that everything ends and something new begins. Even those of us who like change find it difficult when change actually occurs. Change, at least momentarily, takes away our sense of control, and as I have mentioned before, it is this lack of control that makes us suffer. Illness, broken bones, broken relationships and moments of embarrassment can cause us pain, but it is the control that they seem to have over our lives that causes us to suffer. Ironically, that which we equate with the love of God - the Holy Spirit - is also the Person of the Trinity that causes us to suffer the most. The Spirit cannot be contained or controlled. This is the significance of our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Once released, the Spirit gives in abundance and can never be made to stay within boundaries that we create or that we feel are necessary. We see this when Moses prays that the prophetic spirit come upon those who are gathered before him, and the spirit also comes upon others who are in the camp and apart from the gathering. We hear Jesus tell his disciples when they want to stop people who are not associated with their group from healing and casting out spirits, that if they are not against them then they are for them. We see it today when the Spirit flows freely upon those who are gathered in the room and upon many others who are not even aware that the Spirit exists. We will continue to see examples of the seemingly careless disregard of boundaries when the Spirit comes upon Gentiles and others who are considered sinners. The Spirit can be stifled - thwarted - (and often is) by established structures. (Now before you think that I am anti-structure let me say that structures and buildings are both good and necessary. It would be most difficult to celebrate Mass without some kind of building.) The flip side of structures and buildings however is that once they are established we are obligated to maintain them, and because they provide us with a familiar and safe feeling we don't like to change them. This is the oppositional energy that Paul faces when he begins to proclaim the gospel message to the Gentiles and declares that they don't need to become Jews to become followers of Jesus. The Spirit also undermines our felt need and our learned need to be worthy. It is the Spirit who is present whenever we gather and announce, as we do at the beginning of each Mass, that we are unworthy and must rely upon the mercy of God. Then the Spirit can begin the Spirit's primary work - that of transformation. Anyone who believes that they are worthy cannot be transformed. There is no need for transformation if we already feel worthy. The Spirit, then, always takes us where we don't want to go - a place in which we feel at a disadvantage and must rely upon the power of another rather than upon our own power. Whenever this happens we feel out of control and suffer. This seems to be the path that leads us to God. Hence we hear Jesus say to Peter, "When you were young you went where you wanted (you were in control). When you get older another will put a belt around you and take you where you don't want to go (you will be out of control)." It is the way of life that is marked out for each of us - the only way to be embraced by God.