Feast of Pentecost (Jn. 20:19-23)
“I’m spiritual not religious.” Popular culture seems to feel like these two concepts don’t belong together. Somehow that is jarring. As Roman Catholic Christians we feel that the spiritual and religious are joined. Religious people desire to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in life. And this is a very nuanced undertaking. Listening to the voice of the spirit isn’t always pleasurable either.
A story is told concerning a mother superior who was trying to guide her sisters in their religious life. One young sister named Gertrude was very much into the charismatic movement. She was always speaking about how she followed the Holy Spirit whenever she had to make a choice in her life. Her choices often led her away from the day-to-day duties of the convent. If someone wanted her to go to a religious activity outside the convent she would readily go. But other sisters had to fulfill her responsibilities; from helping with the cooking to taking her turn in leading the choir for the liturgy of the hours.
Soon, some of the sisters were upset at the constant upheaval in the daily routine. But whenever they’d try to talk to Sister Gertrude about how she was inconveniencing others, she would say, “Well the Holy Spirit is prompting me to go to give witness at the prayer meetings that I am attending. You wouldn’t want me to stifle the Spirit, would you?” The sisters finally went to the mother superior for her counsel. The mother superior gave her observation. “Ah yes, Sr. Gertrude. She says that she is always following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I notice that the Holy Ghost never tells her to do what she doesn’t already want to do. I will have a talk with her.”
Sometimes we might have the feeling that the promptings of the Spirit should lead us to something new and exciting. Somehow the Spirit should set us free. But perhaps we are looking at it wrongly. Life in the Spirit can be about making choices, about acting. But most of life seems to be about reacting to unexpected circumstances that happen in life. Some of these surprises are unpleasant.
When we think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit we think about things like love, joy and peace. I had someone say to me once when they were thinking about taking on a new responsibility that they weren’t going to do it because if they did, they wouldn’t be happy. Now I knew this person didn’t know how to say no. His response made sense. God wouldn’t want us to choose to constantly increase our busyness. But what about the responsibilities that are important, but we don’t necessarily choose? The fruits of the Spirit also include patience, self-control, long suffering, humility, fidelity, trustfulness and constancy. All these things are very important, but not necessarily exciting.
The people who are faithful to their duties follow the Spirit. And they are probably more in tune with the Holy Spirit. I am thinking of a person like Fr. Tom Taylor, a priest of the diocese of Peoria. His funeral will be on Monday. He recently died of cancer. Tom found it hard to be in charge. He couldn’t function as a pastor. But he spent his entire life as an assistant. He served under two pastors who went through a long dying process. Tom was there to baptize the babies, bury the dead, witness the marriage vows and anoint the sick because the pastor was too ill. He didn’t complain. He didn’t travel the world, but he stayed home to take care of the people. He wasn’t a great orator. He didn’t run programs in the parish, but he was the priest who would go to the hospital at 2 a.m. to minister to the dying.
Looking at his life in a worldly way we might say that Fr. Tom Taylor didn’t achieve great things in the ministry. He wasn’t asked to sit on committees nor give his opinion about things. He didn’t receive a papal medal. But he fulfilled his responsibilities. He was truly a spiritual person. He was a humble disciple of Jesus. He touched many lives, and people greatly respected him. Jesus would look at Tom’s life and say, “well done.”
On this Pentecost Sunday, it would be good to remember the simple believers who are the spiritual giants of our Church; people who are anonymous Christians living in the world, who serve Christ heroically, people who are truly in tune with the Spirit. And the proof is that when they are called to love their neighbor, they do.