The Liturgical Season of the Apostles:
In Pentecost, among other factors of the
Holy Spirit’s manifestation, fire and wind make an
impressive effect. What a combination! What a powerful
force, whose consequences may be devastating, especially
for people aware of it like us living in California!
But, how significant that same force could be in the
service of the Spirit!
Indeed, fire is the force that penetrates
and consumes the being of what it touches. So the Holy
Spirit is sent from the beginning of Church life to
penetrate the whole ecclesial body, warming it up with
faith and love, connecting it to the divine sphere of
the Kingdom of Heaven, and tying its members to each
other. The “Disciples” became “Apostles” because of the
reception of that transforming force which gave them
wisdom and fortitude, patience and peace, most of all
the assurance that their master Jesus the Lord is the
eschatological king of the universe.
If the immediate effect of fire is to
transform the being of what it touches, it belongs to
wind to spread it all over, wave after wave, so that the
initial witnessing Church is
propelled with infinite energy into a missionary
universal mandate. It did not take thirty years since
Pentecost before we saw Rome, the Capital of the world,
engulfed by its flame. Nero, the lunatic emperor, wanted
to confuse the Roman fire and wind with Pentecostal
fire and wind, but attentive historians were
better informed, and we can observe with them how the
effects of Pentecostal power are universal and
perennial.
Furthermore, our generation, surrounded by a
materialistic culture and distorted
civilization values, has an urgent need for the
transforming and sanctifying energy of the Holy Spirit,
which is given to humble souls through the sacraments of
the Church and a
sincere and ardent prayer. The Holy Spirit is the
bastion of hope for our generation to
overcome the temptations of materialistic culture,
centered upon physical pleasures and earthly desires, as
though they are the fulfilling parameters of human
happiness. What a
deception and what a myopic vision of human experience!
At the end of the day, every
experienced and mature person knows that a human heart
can be genuinely filled only by the Spirit of God.
As the liturgical season takes to the
apostolic times, it makes us realize that while the
Church is the sacramental Body of the Lord, where all of
the faithful are organically
organized according to their ministry, it is perennially
animated by his Spirit for the
fulfillment of its transforming and missionary mandate.
