Pentecost: "BLESSED MOTHER TERESA"

Pentecost"SANCTE SPIRITUS, VENI!""After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: 'Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'" (Acts 1:3-5)"They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." (Acts 1:14)"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." (Acts 2:1-4)" 'In the last days,' God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.'" (Acts 2:17-18)All that Jesus had done for 33 years was to prepare the people of Israel, and in a special way His own disciples, for His "hour" of glory on Calvary - the revelation of the Father as Thirsting Love. Yet those most sacred words, "I THIRST," were not an end in themselves; they were not meant only as theological revelation to shed light on the nature of God, but to prepare us for the GIFT, the communication of God's Thirsting Love in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: "the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given us..." (Rm.5:5). The revelation of Jesus' Thirst on Calvary was for the communication of Jesus' Thirst on Pentecost.The Holy Spirit is Himself the Thirst of Father and Son - He is the gift of love by which they eternally and infinitely surrender Themselves to each other. He is the Thirst of Father and Son, and He is the Satiation of Father and Son. The Father's Thirst to love is satiated by the gift of the Spirit to the Son. And the Father's Thirst to be loved is satiated by the Son's gift of the Spirit in equal measure to the Father (and of course in this same eternal process the Son's Thirst to love and be loved is satiated by the same mutual gift of the Spirit).If this Spirit of Love is capable of satiating the infinite Thirst of the Almighty, can this Gift not satiate the thirst of my heart, and of all the world? And is this omnipotent Spirit not able to purify and focus and divinize my own human thirst for God, so as to satiate Him as He would wish? Everything depends on the gift of the Holy Spirit - both the satiating of God and the satiating of man.Without the Holy Spirit, the Trinity collapses in disunity (as does the Church, our Society, my community - as do any of the images of the Trinity in the world). Without the Holy Spirit, the gospel is a dead letter, the Church is only an organization, the words of Jesus on the cross are merely history, the resurrection has absolutely no connection with us, the sacraments are empty rituals, Jesus is an infinitely distant memory, our Society is merely a group of social workers, and the poor are nothing else than hopeless victims in a hopeless world. But with the Holy Spirit, the gospel is the living Word of God, the Church is the very Body of Christ, Jesus' words on the cross, "I Thirst," become a personal invitation to every human being, the resurrection is my own victory over sin and death, the sacraments are vessels of eternal life, Jesus is closer to us then we are to ourselves, the Society is the voice of His Thirst in the world and the channel of His satiation, and the poor are the very face of Christ. And above all, the Thirsting love of God is poured into every human heart (Rm.5:5), so that every human heart can be satiated by God, and can satiate Him in return. The prophetic symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles has been fulfilled: the crucified and glorified Son of God has revealed the Thirst of the Father, and He has poured out upon the parched desert of our world the Living Waters of the Holy Spirit. And our desert begins to bloom, as the Holy Spirit satiates our thirst and makes us capable of loving so as to satiate the Thirst of God.But if it is Living Waters that Jesus has promised to send, why did the Holy Spirit descend on Pentecost as tongues of Fire? Is there some contradiction, or is there instead some connection? What is God saying to us in using both these symbols to refer to one and the same reality? The gospel portrays Jesus as the One who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Mt. 3:11), and yet the same Jesus tells us that we must be born again "of water and the Spirit" (Jn.3:5). And throughout the Old Testament as well, the Spirit of God is likened both to fire and to water. Fire is a symbol of love ("Our God is a consuming fire," "Kindle in us the fire of your love"), and Jesus himself portrays His Heart emanating flames of fire. And yet look at the imagery He chooses in describing the gift of the Holy Spirit, which "shall become a fountain of living water springing up unto eternal life" (Jn.7:38). How does all this relate to Jesus' cry of Thirst from the cross, and how are we as MC's to view the role of the Holy Spirit in our charism?Actually, there is no contradiction in these two symbols of the Spirit, neither for the Church nor for our Society. Rather this double symbolism serves to clarify and confirm our "theology of Thirst," and it reminds us of the "one thing necessary" to fulfill our Aim as MC's:1) FIRE: God's Thirst to love and be loved is indeed a "consuming fire" (Dt.4:24). It is something ardent, dynamic, burning, transforming as is fire. Anyone who has experienced thirst, knows that it is indeed a "fire." And so the Holy Spirit, the Thirsting Love of Father and Son, is in fact best portrayed as He came on Pentecost - as the living Fire of God's Love. God's Thirst to love and be loved = Holy Spirit = "consuming fire."2) WATER: But how are we to quench the fire of God's Thirst (or our own for that matter) with the Holy Spirit unless He is also, as Jesus promised, "living water"? And how can that be if He is above all a "consuming fire"? Very simply. Let us remember what it is that God Thirsts for - unless we have very clear ideas in this regard we will never know how to satiate Him, how to accomplish our Aim.As we saw earlier, "Thirst can only be repaid by thirst," or in St. Augustine's words, "God Thirsts to be thirsted for." The fire or our thirst does indeed quench the Fire of God's Thirst - for that is what He seeks from us. And the Fire (Holy Spirit) of God's Thirst does indeed quench the fire of our thirst - for nothing else will ever satisfy us.3) HOLY SPIRIT - FIRE AND WATER:The same Spirit, the same thirsting love, is as fire to the one who loves (be it God or man), and as living waters to the one who is loved. And so we experience the Holy Spirit as both -our thirst for God is as Fire within us (yet to the Lord it is refreshing water), and His Thirst for us we experience as living water (yet to Him it is a consuming fire). How much truth and beauty the Lord reveals in this double symbolism, how much material for meditation (the more my thirst for Him becomes as a consuming fire, the more His Thirst is being quenched), and what a confirmation of our belief that it is indeed our thirst that God thirsts for, and His Thirst that will satiate this world.Text © Missionaries of Charity Father

Mother Teresa Center

Mother Teresa Center