Pentecost in the XXIst century

by Margaret Quirke FCJ

Kraainem (06 June 2006).- If Pope Benedict XV1, in his Easter Vigil homily (2006) can boldly claim that Christ’s resurrection is « a qualitative leap in the history of evolution » can we not claim with equal boldness that the event of Pentecost as experienced by the first disciples of Jesus (Acts 2: 1-21) marks the beginning of a new era in the history of humankind – the age of the Spirit.
At Pentecost we read that God’s Spirit, powerfully descended upon Jesus’ disciples gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem filling them with a new spiritual energy that utterly transformed them (Acts 2: 1-21).
The critical question is, ‘Has this experience of the first Pentecost of the infant Church any relevance for us to-day as individuals and as Church? Is it just a matter of early Church history or is it more?
If we believe, as we profess we do, that all Scripture is the inspired word of God, alive and active in every time and place, then Acts 2: 1-21 and the following chapters are for our instruction. Do we dare read these texts as if for the first time, and allow ourselves to be moved by the Spirit? With the assembled crowd can we too cry out ‘What must I/we do to receive this amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit?’
The answer to this question will be given if we sincerely ask. Are we perhaps blocked by preconceived assumptions that the Holy Spirit was given in this way for THEN and not for NOW?
The disciples, as witnessed in the Acts of the Apostles, took Jesus at His word:
‘Go out to the whole world, proclaim the good news to all creation’ (Mark 16: 16).
As disciples of Jesus in the twenty-first century do WE dare take Jesus at His word? Are we prepared to allow the Spirit of Jesus invade our spirit, transform us and act through us to-day?
For a powerful inspiring modern day account of what could well be described as ‘The Acts of the Apostles’ of our time, read the following book: “The Heavenly Man” by Paul Hattaway, ISBN 1 85424 957 X (UK) or 0 8254 6207 X (US).
This is the remarkable true story of a Chinese Christian man and the amazing growth of house churches in China 1980 to this present time.

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