Pentecost
Free as the wind
According to the poetry of the Testament, the wind of heaven is within us; a surprising message that we might experience at Pentecost. Our hearts may become a new environment, a heaven in which the Wind of God comes and sings. He is free, joyful, buoyant, within us. We may become the Windswept heaven of God. We as Christians, like Christ, are called to be freer than the wind. God’s freedom within us may set us free in a new way. In Baptism we are not only born of the Spirit, we are spirit (Jo 3:6), we are the wind, hence freedom, peace, joy, lightness of heart. The wind in our back.
The wind blows where it wants. Because of the graciousness of God the Wind comes to us not because we asks for it, but because it wants us (Jo 3:8). Paradoxically the Spirit comes to us to set us free for service: we must serve others as Christ serves us. There can be no other genuine criterion of whether Christ’s Spirit is blowing in our lives and in the sails of our fellow people.
To be as free as Christ means: freeing not only the poor from their chains but also the exploiters from their crimes. It does not help to love the weak by hating the strong. The perpetrators of racism, capitalism and ecclesiasticism are our brothers quite as much as their broken victims. He alone among us is really free who is like God in having no enemies and loving everyone, the handicapped one, the unlovable included. What a freedom!
The apostles suddenly heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven. The Holy Spirit took possession of the apostles. They were imbued with a mysterious power from on high that lifted them out of their fearful selves to make them the first freedom-marchers of the Christian era. And they unlocked the doors of the upper room, flung them wide open and went out like freed men "to the end of the world".
Have you ever met anyone you would characterise unreservedly as a free person? Would he/she have been easy to live with?
Pentecost Morning Prayer
A mighty wind invades the world,
So strong and free on beating wings:
It is the Spirit of the Lord
From whom all truth and freedom spring.
To all of you, my friends, a happy and free Pentecost,
Fr John Heijnen
According to the poetry of the Testament, the wind of heaven is within us; a surprising message that we might experience at Pentecost. Our hearts may become a new environment, a heaven in which the Wind of God comes and sings. He is free, joyful, buoyant, within us. We may become the Windswept heaven of God. We as Christians, like Christ, are called to be freer than the wind. God’s freedom within us may set us free in a new way. In Baptism we are not only born of the Spirit, we are spirit (Jo 3:6), we are the wind, hence freedom, peace, joy, lightness of heart. The wind in our back.
The wind blows where it wants. Because of the graciousness of God the Wind comes to us not because we asks for it, but because it wants us (Jo 3:8). Paradoxically the Spirit comes to us to set us free for service: we must serve others as Christ serves us. There can be no other genuine criterion of whether Christ’s Spirit is blowing in our lives and in the sails of our fellow people.
To be as free as Christ means: freeing not only the poor from their chains but also the exploiters from their crimes. It does not help to love the weak by hating the strong. The perpetrators of racism, capitalism and ecclesiasticism are our brothers quite as much as their broken victims. He alone among us is really free who is like God in having no enemies and loving everyone, the handicapped one, the unlovable included. What a freedom!
The apostles suddenly heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven. The Holy Spirit took possession of the apostles. They were imbued with a mysterious power from on high that lifted them out of their fearful selves to make them the first freedom-marchers of the Christian era. And they unlocked the doors of the upper room, flung them wide open and went out like freed men "to the end of the world".
Have you ever met anyone you would characterise unreservedly as a free person? Would he/she have been easy to live with?
Pentecost Morning Prayer
A mighty wind invades the world,
So strong and free on beating wings:
It is the Spirit of the Lord
From whom all truth and freedom spring.
To all of you, my friends, a happy and free Pentecost,
Fr John Heijnen
posted by Johannes @ 3:16 AM
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