Today’s readings: Acts 2,1-11; Galatians 5,16-25; Jn 15,26-27; 16,12-15
St Cyril of Jerusalem likens the Holy Spirit to living water, writing “although it is always the same in itself, it produces many different effects and adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it”. As the receivers of this great gift it makes sense to dwell on where and why do we most need this Spirit.
Slowly we are discovering that as a nation we do not even know who we really are and what exactly are the values we stand for. The pressure to compromise one’s conscience is overwhelming on all levels of life and in all strata of society, and it takes both courage and conviction to withstand that pressure. We need the power of the Holy Spirit first and foremost to put conscience before conformity.
Conscience before Conformity is the title of a book by Paul Shrimpton which tells the story of the White Rose resistance by German students in Munich who dared to speak out against Hitler and the Third Reich and died for their beliefs, having the strength to resist the Nazi lie.
I am in no way comparing our times to the Nazi tragedy. But we may also be living a collective lie which needs to be unmasked if we want to be honest to ourselves and in truth. Many old certainties, which for us were a founding legacy, are fast diminishing, and in such a situation being simply cultural Christians doesn’t work. This is where again we need the Holy Spirit to reinvigorate us.
Where conscience is weak, compromise and conformity thrive. The fact that most probably there will be no debate on the bill to decriminalise abortion is no guarantee of the values we cherish as a nation but can simply be a question of political opportunism on the part of our major political parties. This means we can be in for some big surprises in the very near future.
Pentecost is about cultivating a mature conscience individually and collectively. It is about discerning which spirit is guiding us in what we do and how we live. In the second reading, St Paul writes to the Galatians that “self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit”. We read from Acts today that those listening to the message of the apostles were amazed and astonished that the apostles were Galileans and, with all their different and foreign languages, they were all hearing them speak their native language. It is the miracle of Pentecost that demonstrates that it is not our differences of language, race and religion that need to be healed but our humanity.
Jesus, whenever he speaks of the Spirit, addresses our fear, anxieties, sadness and the lack of strength to stand up to our beliefs. St Paul again in Galatians speaks of what dominates and gives shape to our character and personality and to the social fabric of society. There are values and virtues we need to cherish as safeguards against the corrosion of individual and social life.
It is laudable that nowadays we enhance a culture that gives priority to the rights of the individual, that upholds civil liberties, that struggles for equality and against all forms of discrimination. It is also a blessing that we struggle for a society that is less judgemental and more compassionate. While we enhance all this, we need also to safeguard what gives a solid foundation to our social cohesion and to family life in particular.
This demands wisdom, not foolishness; accountability, not opportunism; a sense of decency, not lawlessness. Not everything was right in the past. But we cannot afford to renegotiate everything now in the name of freedom. Here again we need the Spirit to be guided with wisdom in the choices that matter and to avoid the risk of leaving behind us a legacy that can be frivolous, ephemeral, and myopic.