Fr Paddy Byrne: The spirit of God, loving and free …
Pentecost is a living gift for all generations
TIME moves by too quickly. Soon we will arrive at the longest day of the year – 21 June. These long, bright days I pray will bring blessings of faith, hope and health for us all. Traditionally in the month of June, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus takes place. This Sacred Heart is one of deep love that pours out affection and grace to all our lives. I pray that we all will afford ourselves the opportunity to find rest and a sense of renewal during the summer months. I am sure we all would warmly welcome lots of sunshine!
I am very conscious that thousands of young students have sat through their leaving and junior certificate exams. I do hope that our wonderful young students own their gifts and talents. No state exam can ever measure how valued and loved these young people are to their families and friends. May the spirit of God bless them with knowledge, wisdom and confidence.
Recently in Church, we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit, the great feast of Pentecost. The night before he died, aware of the implications for his followers of his forthcoming death and eventual return to his Father in Heaven, Jesus promised that he would not leave his disciples to make their way in this world on their own and would send the Holy Spirit to guide them on their journey. In that sense, the Holy Spirit gives expression to the ongoing presence of Jesus with his followers. This is what we celebrate on this feast.
Pentecost is not just something that happened; rather, it is a living gift for all generations. As followers of Christ, the Spirit of his love anoints us all with great hope and rich blessings. This Pentecost, the Spirit of Christ offers opportunity to indulge in a wonderful gift. The Spirit of God anoints each one of us with courage, wisdom, hope, resilience and a deep confidence that all will be well.
In the last years of his life, the great cellist and conductor Pablo Casals suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and emphysema. At 90, he was badly stooped, his head thrust forward and his breathing laboured. He needed the help of his wife Marta, to dress up in the morning. Marta would then help him shuffle into his studio where, with great difficulty, he would arrange himself on the piano bench. Casals would then manage to raise his swollen, clenched fingers above the keyboards. A visitor describes what he saw next: “I was not prepared for the miracle that was about to happen. The fingers slowly unlocked and reached towards the keys like the buds of a plant towards the sunlight. His back straightened. He seemed to breathe more freely. Now his fingers settled on the keys. Then came the opening bars of Bach’s , played with great sensitivity and control. He hummed as he played, then said that Bach ‘spoke to him here’ – and he placed his hand over his heart. “Then he plunged into a Brahms concerto and his fingers, now agile and powerful, raced across the keyboards with dazzling speed. His entire body seemed fused with the music; it was no longer stiff and shrunken but supple and graceful and completely free of its arthritic coils.
“Having finished the piece, he stood up by himself, far straighter and taller than when he had come into the room. He walked to the breakfast table with no trace of a shuffle, ate heartily, talked animatedly and finished the meal, then went for a walk on the beach.” (From by Norman Cousins).
Like music that inspires and exhilarates, the Spirit of God is the melody that energises the Church, uniting our countless different voices into the song of the Love of God. God has formed us into a community, or Church, an instrument for bringing his life and love into our world. But what makes our Church more than just a gathering of good people is his ‘breath’ infusing the Church, his mystical body, with the music of his divinity. Today, we celebrate that presence. In Jesus’ breathing upon the assembled disciples on Easter night, the new life of the Holy Spirit, the community of the Resurrection – the Church – takes flight. That same Holy Spirit continues to ‘blow’ through today’s Church, giving life and direction to our mission and ministry to preach the Gospel to every nation, immersing all of humanity in the music of God’s love, the symphony of the Resurrection.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
