Happy Birthday Church
Despite the disappointing focus on ‘Church’ in Ireland in recent times, Pentecost is the Feast of the birthday of the universal Church. It is the day when we celebrate the beginning of the Church’s mission, the birth of a new community.
But Pentecost is our feast day too, if you like. God established the Church as the people of God, as all the baptized, not just the clerical one per cent. The Holy Spirit who came upon the apostles on Pentecost day has been poured out on every single one of us as well. It is that Spirit who empowers us to be Church, to proclaim the Good News in the bits and pieces of our everyday living.
So we should wish ourselves a Happy Birthday today.
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Pentecost – The Fiftieth Day
The time of that first Pentecost Day was actually a Jewish Spring Festival which took place fifty days after their Passover celebration. It was a feast that celebrated the new harvest and gave thanks for its first fruits. Its name, Pentecost, was a Greek word meaning ‘fiftieth’ – the fiftieth day after Passover. It was while the apostles were celebrating this feast that the Holy Spirit descended upon them, filling them with new confidence, and giving them the courage to go out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
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Pentecost Sunday has to do with the Spirit of Truth, the spirit or ideal that inspires us, individually as well as universally.
The notion of being able to recognize the Spirit of God operating in our own hearts is central to our belief and can in fact be the guiding principle that really does lead us in the ways of peace.
If as a society, as well as an individual, we don’t seek after standards that are higher than ‘the lowest-common-denominator’, we’re heading nowhere. Morals, ethics, values, call them what you like, but don’t ignore them or pretend we can do without them – we cant! Doesn’t today’s Ireland (in Church and State) bear adequate and regrettable testimony to that
AO’N
A word of congratulations to the boys of St Brigid’s School who received Holy Communion for the 1st time this week-end.
We salute their families as well, as they pass this very significant milestone on their journey through life together.