Pentecost VIgil

These last weeks have been a time of exile.  We have been separated from those we love, relationships of family and the sacraments.  Dry bones.  Ezekiel was a prophet of doom and no matter what news channel you tune into these days doom is what you hear.

God though refuses to leave us in a state of death.  He invites us to come up out of the pit. He calls out for his Spirit to come upon us.  The bones must be remade to life with sinews, flesh, and skin; all of which must receive breath, spirit, to be alive. And in that life we become a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.  Ezekiel has shown his people and us a way to the resurrection: “ Make yourselves a new heart and new spirit.”  This is a call to renewal.  What is already present in our own hearts through baptism we now respond once again to in this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

 The force that this outpouring is seen through is Love because this is how the Spirit enlightens us.  In receiving this Love we become the dwelling place of the Spirit. This is the reason for Love; to be with the Father and the Son.  Do not think of this Love as love, for the self is forgotten.  This Spirit of Love seeks only the other.  It is the pinnacle of Christ’s teaching.  Love one another.

Throughout these past weeks I am assured my friends that our hope has not been lost.  In the great shadows and solitude we are now rising from, those now open graves intend to receive a new spirit to go forth.  “ I have promised, and I will do it.  I am the Lord.”

Veni, Sancte Spiritus!