8th June 2025 –
There are components in our human make-up that make us different from all other animals, indeed from everything else in creation. Our creative being reveals a longing for something more, for something better; we search for truth, for what is good, for freedom, for what is beautiful, one may consider it a yearning for a relationship which will complete us and fulfil our inmost need. This yearning for something other feeds our imagination. Imagination drives our creativity. Our imagination is key to our humanity, but if misdirected may even kill creativity and poison how we relate to each other and the world in which we live.
The imperfections in the way humanity employs its imagination are pretty much self evident. The suffering inflicted by human beings on other human beings is outrageous. Of course we try different ways to sort out the mess, politics and religion being the most obvious. But throughout recorded history, different forms of politics and different types of religious belief have come and gone but the problem remains. Are we, as some might say, just moving the deck chairs around before the ocean liner sinks beneath the waves, or is there a way to avoid catastrophe? What can possibly change the situation? Well of course the problem is in us, in each one of us, thus change has to happen in us.
The problem of misdirected efforts is one we all have to cope with. We require something to change us and lead us out of our troublesome situation. Reason helps us understand the possibility of true freedom, of real justice, of actual mercy, of realised perfection. Achieving this requires someone extraordinary, a Messiah, a human being who can connect with us, yet one who is complete in himself, who does not suffer our imperfection.
As perfection is divinity and imperfection humanity, what was and is needed is a divine human being. In Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified and risen from the dead we have the Saviour of the human race in whom divinity and humanity are united. His gift to us is the divine power of the Holy Spirit. It works in our inner-selves, in our minds and in our hearts, changing our attitudes, so that we have a way to that which will satisfy our deepest purest longings; that we may be enlightened in truth; and that we may come to know what real life is.
At the moment of Pentecost the Apostles connected the significance of Jesus Christ, and what this meant for them and its implication for humanity. It was like a blinding light. Their minds were made as if on fire with the force of it. Faith and reason were united as never before. They lost their fear and openly proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Saviour. And as a tiny spark can set on fire the largest forest or the biggest building, so that new Spirit which filled the disciples with fortitude and wisdom set the whole world on fire.
Through the Church the Holy Spirit creates the true messianic age. This is because the Spirit yields a harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, forbearance, gentleness, faith, courtesy, temperateness, purity. The world offers self-centreness and indulgence, the Holy Spirit supports sacrificial love and commitment, there is no reconciliation between these two positions. All of us, therefore, who posses the first fruits of the Holy Spirit groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free, to live in the Light and Life of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
