Sometimes things simply happen!
Sometimes we say coincidence!
Sometimes we may even hint that the Spirit is at work!
Sometimes we judge that the Spirit is at work!
Consider the Jewish people from all over the then-known world were gathering in Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot. A most holy time in their civic and religious calendar. Initially, a time of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest but was transformed, in time, to recall the giving of the Law to Moses with the implied revelation…God loves you, diverse, unruly, stubborn and full of failure as you are.
What the reading tells us today is that what we call Pentecost happened that year when diverse, unruly, stubborn and separate people from all over the then-known world, all came to Jerusalem to remember their history. To their surprise, and that of the gathered followers of Jesus, the bar was heightened by the gift of the Spirit. They heard for the first time that the same God loves even Jews and Proselytes, Cretans, and Arabs. And we celebrate the same feast this week with the competing sounds of rockets on Jerusalem and bombs on Gaza. How the Spirit must weep!
We also celebrate this week the beginning of the Ignatian Year, celebrating the cannonball that put Ignatius of Loyola on his back for a long recuperation and eventual conversion. Now, 500 years later, we marvel at the contribution Ignatius made in reminding our world that God loves us.
Teresa of Calcutta, to the observation that her work was but a drop in the ocean responded that the ocean was made up of many drops! I add…and some drips! As others have added their drop to the message of God’s great love for us and his desire for the creating of peace and harmony, perhaps this Pentecost Sunday we can cheerfully commit ourselves to adding our drops to the great ocean of love, peace, and truth that the Spirit has invited us to contribute to our world…and if you are feeling a little down, remember, many drips make a drop!
Happy Pentecost
Mons Frank