Preparing for Pentecost

Last week at our Catholic Callout at the prison a guest speaker didn’t show up, so I had to come up with something off the top of my head to fill half an hour after mass. I ended up inviting the men to prepare for Pentecost by asking them to consider and discuss what particular gift they hoped to receive from the Holy Spirit.

Frankly, it had never before occurred to me before to “prepare” for Pentecost. It always seemed like the Holy Spirit just magically appeared, whether on the breath of the risen Christ when he visited the disciples or on the tongues of flame that descended on them in Jerusalem. However, upon reflection it seems that we do have the responsibility to set the stage or prepare the ground for the Spirit’s arrival. We do this by readying our hearts and summoning the courage to receive the gifts the Spirit chooses to bestow by gathering together in community and through prayer.

Timothy, an early church leader, suggests that we also have the responsibility “to stir into flame the gift of God that you have received” (2 Timothy 1:6). It is one thing to be given a gift; it is another to have the good zeal to make use of it. Are we willing to invest the time and energy to help God make all things new, or are we too invested (or stuck) in our current viewpoints and patterns? Perhaps one of our prayers to prepare for Pentecost can be a line from the song God, Whose Purpose Is to Kindle by David E. Trueblood: “Lift the smallness of our vision / By your own abundant life.”

One man who had greatness of vision and the desire to share God’s abundant life, Robert F. Kennedy, famously said, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” As Pentecost approaches, let us prepare ourselves to share in the Spirit’s dream of creating a world where we say “Why not?” to overcoming division, celebrating diversity, and recognizing the divine presence in each other and in all of creation.