Chapter Talk – Pentecost Sunday – June 5, 2022, cycle-C
‘Come Holy Spirit, kindle in us the fire of your love.’ Let us ponder: Is it not the fire of love that alone brings true and lasting change?
Pope Francis has said: “The Spirit frees hearts chained by fear. The Spirit overcomes all resistance. To those content with half measures, he inspires whole-hearted generosity. The Spirit opens hearts that are closed. The Spirit compels the comfortable to go out and serve….The Spirit does not revolutionize life around us, but changes our hearts. It does not free us from the weight of our problems but liberates us within so that we can face them….” (Pope Francis, Solemnity of Pentecost, 2018). Keep in mind the Spirit is the love bond within the dynamic of the Trinity. It is the love force of the Spirit that ‘frees hearts chained by fear’, that overcomes our multi-layered resistance, that leads us to give of ourselves totally not in half measure, but whole-heartedly. The love force that is the Spirit changes our hearts, strengthens our hearts, so that we are free to face our problems rather than being dragged down by the weight of them.
Even in suffering the Spirit is active and present…breathing forth words of consolation, breathing forth Divine life and love. With Pentecost we leave the Easter season, but we don’t leave the Easter gift and grace of what Jesus fulfilled and has left us with. We will continue to be taught his words, his eternal words that pierce the heart and soul…and that always have the component of love. Jesus says: “I have come not to condemn but to save” (Jn 3:17). His saving life is Love. We learn the true depth of Christ’s life and words through the Spirit. The Spirit continues to bring us the fullness of love that Christ embodied. This love is a transforming love, a love of forgiveness and compassion, a love that is ready to give all for the sake of spreading God’s healing love, a love that never counts the cost, a love that stretches even to include one’s enemies. The height depth length and width of the Spirit, this is the immeasurable reality of Love…Love forms a cross as it stretches everywhere to reach out to human hearts. Will we be willing to receive? The gift is given daily…Jesus breathes the Spirit upon us right now….The Spirit comes to shape and form us anew into the reality of God’s transforming and all- encompassing love.
Let us indeed pray: ‘Come Holy Spirit, kindle in us the fire of your love’….
Sr. Kathy DeVico, Abbess
