Send Us Your Spirit

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser has observed that after any loss, we are always given new life—“but if we are trying to live that new life with our former spirit, we will find ourselves deeply out of sorts.” He says we need to let Pentecost happen so we can receive a new spirit for the new life we are now living.

The United States has been deeply out of sorts since it was visited with new life in the form of the 13th amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery. Although black people slowly gained rights through great struggle in the ensuing years, as a whole, the U.S. has been trying to live a new life of equality for all with our former spirit, which held that white lives are more valuable than black lives. As Fr. Bryan Massingale says, “The only reason for racism’s persistence is that white people continue to benefit from it.”

As protests devolve into violence throughout the country after the killing of George Floyd, many people are expressing dismay at the deeply entrenched racism and white privilege of our society and wondering how it can ever be rectified. Mary Stommes offers the following advice in Give Us This Day: “When we…make a mess of things, we would do well to turn to our Blessed Mother. This wisest among all women turns our attention to Christ and tells us simply, ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (John 2:5). Christ is the one in charge of this household of God. Listen to him.”

And what does Christ tell us? “Love one another as I have loved you.” As Benjamin Franklin once observed, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Justice will not be served until love compels us to recognize the humanity of all people and act to ensure they are respected and their rights are upheld.

Mary Stommes continues, “Listen also to the Spirit, the Breath of God who loves to enter—sometimes quietly and sometimes with great force—through locked doors and even through walls. Through the barriers of all our doubts and fears.” The Spirit is equal to the task of giving us a new heart. But first, we must let Pentecost happen. It’s way past time for us to stop letting our love of privilege deflect love of neighbor and the new spirit God wishes to bestow on us.