A Japanese Buddhist, while trying to understand Christianity, commented: ‘I get your God the Father because he is the Creator of all and also God the Son, who came to show the way back to the Father – but God your holy bird? I do not understand’. Indeed, how can we explain the tongues of fire and powerful wind that sent the apostles out to preach to the people in such a way that many were left bewildered and some thought they must be drunk? What does it mean? Are we open to understanding?
Maybe we too have locked ourselves in our own upper room with our cynicism and doubts and closed the door on a troubled world. Yet the passion of the Spirit’s fire and the power of its wind call us to meet something bigger than we are. Even the greatest human minds will never totally understand God; He is beyond the extent of our imagination and at Pentecost showed himself to be the God of Surprises.
The Holy Spirit is the outpouring of God’s love which has the power to change everything – and it is for you! It means that God’s love lives in us, not outside, but is living and breathing and residing within each of us and we can tap into it whenever we like. Try it, it’s like turning on spiritual electricity, and others will see you glow if you do because there is nothing more compelling and irresistible than love. God is always offering something new from within us. To accept is to progress on a journey where we are always changing and this is to experience true conversion. So let’s truly celebrate Pentecost when new doors are opened and new ways become possible.
