The Holy Spirit will come through you
If we asked someone an unbeliever what holiday we are celebrating today and if it is a holiday at all, most of those people would probably shrug and say they don’t know. On the one hand, we can say: ‘it is their fault, they should be interested’, but on the other hand, it is a matter for us to think about. Isn’t it a mistake somewhere in us that they don’t know? That we don’t show it enough? We celebrate the third most important holiday, the pillar of the liturgical year, the third, popularly said, the feast of God, and these feasts of God often pass unnoticed. These are not folk customs, we do not send greetings with congratulations, there is no leave, for many it is an ordinary Sunday. And so this pillar disappears from our lives and then, of course, something is missing.
Today’s feast of the Sending of the Holy Spirit has already been celebrated by the Jews. They did not glorify him like this and remember the Holy Spirit, but what did they remember? They remembered the acceptance of the Ten Commandments, the covenant with the Lord made in Sinai, and that Ten Commandments was also a sign of that covenant. In that covenant, God says, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” God says, “I will protect you, and you will keep my commandments.” The covenant was something basic to the Jews, something they lived on. Today’s feast was the second largest for them, the first was the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and then the feast today. We are reminded today that the apostles and other people, it is estimated that there were about 120 people, prayed.
Today’s holiday is to remind us that prayer is something that belongs to a Christian. A Christian who does not pray is not a Christian. To pray is to be in contact with God, to ask, to seek an answer. The fact that it wasn’t just the apostles was a great encouragement to us. Because if there were only the apostles and the Virgin Mary, could anyone say? “It’s for the chosen ones, it’s for the few upstairs.” But there were actually all the disciples. We can say that at that time the Church had about 120 people. They were all there, and the Holy Spirit descended on all of them. At first, it is said that they heard it, then they saw it, and finally, it explains what actually happened. There are usually a bit of a problem with this holiday, how to explain it. Many just shrug, but it wouldn’t be that hard, but we would have to do something about it. On Easter, we celebrate the vigil, we meet on Saturday night to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection at night, and we read many readings, and those readings explain it all to us, and then we understand it better. And similarly, the church wants it to be on Pentecost.
It is recommended that the Whit sun Vigil, which should directly evoke the atmosphere of prayer of the first disciples and the Virgin Mary, it should directly evoke the moment of that expectation. Unfortunately, the Whit sun Vigil did not take place here at all – in our regions. All the texts in the Whit sun Vigil have one theme – the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, in the Church, in history. The Holy Spirit has been here from the beginning, and we can read about it in the first pages of the Bible. There is such a brief mention of the creation of the world that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. The Spirit of God is called RUAH in Hebrew, which literally means “Breath, God’s Breath.” What breathes lives. On purpose, this Divine Person is so named that it is clear what he is causing — life, exhalation, inhale, exhale, inhale, all the surrounding time. It helps to live, not to feed, to live.
Then, when the Prophets speak of the Holy Spirit, they say that when He comes, there will be great signs – in heaven, on earth, the sun will be darkened, the moon will be bloody. In particular, the prophet Joel speaks of this. But when Jesus speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit, he speaks of him differently. He says, “He will be a helper, a Comforter, his coming will be peaceful, without disaster.” Of course, Jesus speaks several times during his lifetime about that Helper, about the Spirit. I read to you a piece that would be read in that vigil: “Jesus rose in the temple, and cried, He that is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, and within him that believed the rivers of living water flow, as the Scripture says.” Everyone who works in agriculture, who has a garden, knows that without water it simply will not work, that without water nothing will be born to us. And Jesus says, “It won’t be possible without this Helper, but I offer it to you.” And there are just two more moments – to accept him and pass on – breath, exhale. He that is thirsty, he that seekers, let him come. We meet many people who say, “I’m not looking for anything anymore.” They gave up, resigned.
Today’s holiday reminds us that a Christian should never give up always has to look. He is even supposed to be the one who shows the way, helping others to find the way, despite the obstacles. And what next? Here this statement of Jesus is very important, it is basically essential because Jesus says, “the Holy Spirit will not come through some catastrophe, through the eclipse of the sun or the moon, but will come through you. You have to accept it and you have to give it on. ”In other words, it won’t even need to be seen in the beginning, it will be inconspicuous, but it will be much more effective. We know when a solar eclipse is supposed to be (for example, everyone today knows what it is and how it is caused), so people are willing to travel thousands of kilometers for it so that they can observe this natural phenomenon for three or four minutes. Then they will return home and nothing, end. That’s the way it is with all the sensation – huge enthusiasm, momentary experience and nothing. But that’s not the point.
The point here is to receive the Holy Spirit constantly, to have an attitude, if Mary and those disciples, the attitude of those who are waiting, who, in Jesus’ words, have thirst who want to get if they get to pass on. There are two such planes in each of us. One level, when we’re excited: “Yes, I would also like to do something big, something real. I would help others selflessly. ” And then? Then there is such a plane when we are tired, sick or lazy, for example, and we say to ourselves: “But no, it doesn’t matter anyway.” enthusiasm to win our willingness to move on. In our lives, inhaling and exhaling are connected. It is not possible to just inhale and it is not possible to just exhale. And in our faith it is also the same – to accept and pass on, otherwise it is not possible. But let us ask us to understand this, and let us ask for the help and strength of the Holy Spirit to do so.
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