Pentecost Sunday
I’ve worked with a lot of groups of Confirmation Candidates over the years. I’m going to a Confirmation tonight in fact. These liturgies are always nice. The Parish usually pulls out all the stops with the music ministry, there are beautiful floral arrangements, and everyone is excited for the Bishop to be there. There’s a sense of anticipation – as there should be! Then after the Mass, families have parties or go out to dinner.
And then the next day it’s back to business as usual, as if the day before had never happened. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one reason, I suspect, is that on the first Pentecost, we hear about the strong, driving wind that filled the house. We hear about the tongues of fire that appeared. Then there is this miraculous experience where people from all different nations hear the Apostles preaching in their own languages of the mighty acts of God. So perhaps a lot of newly confirmed and their families go home from Confirmation Day thinking, “That was nice, but I didn’t necessarily ‘feel’ anything. I didn’t ‘see’ anything miraculous. I guess God just doesn’t work that way anymore.” And then with this lowered expectation, they may very well go through life not expecting God to do anything at all in them or through them.
While it may be the case that there aren’t often visible manifestations of the Holy Spirit moving like that during the average Confirmation Mass, the reality of what is taking place during that Sacrament is no less important and no less efficacious. We receive a deeper outpouring of the same Holy Spirit that the disciples did at the first Pentecost.
Another Scripture passage that might be helpful for us to look at is 1 Kings 19: 11-13. “Then the Lord said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord—but the Lord was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake;after the earthquake, fire—but the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave…” We see some of the same elements from the Pentecost story here, but in this case, we hear that “The Lord was not in the wind” and “The Lord was not in the fire”. If we’re always looking for the Lord in these dramatic and obvious ways, we’ll either miss Him speaking to us in that still small voice, or we’ll assume He’s not working in us at all when those big flashy signs don’t happen.
Confirmation indeed for all of us is a Personal Pentecost – but our experience of it may be less like the first Pentecost and more like Elijah’s story. If we’re confirmed, we should be on the lookout for the Holy Spirit moving and speaking to us throughout each day. Highlighting little things for us to pay attention to, like a friend or coworker who seems like they need a listening ear, or a nudge to our conscience not to give in to a certain temptation. It may be a friend who comes to mind out of the blue that we take a moment to pray for. It could be clarity that we get about a big decision we need to make, especially if it’s the choice we weren’t leaning toward before we started praying about it. There are all sorts of daily life ways that the Holy Spirit works in us through this “still, small voice”.
So don’t make the mistake so many of us do when we sit around and wait for the mighty rushing wind and assume God isn’t working. At the same time, don’t assume that God won’t work in these big ways either, since we have countless examples of that throughout the history of the Church and even around the world today. But if we learn to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us and start to follow his leadings and promptings, the Lord just might use us to renew the face of the earth.
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