Acts 2:1-11, 2022/6/23, Osaka Church
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit
How do you feel when you encounter an event, thing, or person that you cannot understand? You have no clue which mental drawer to file it in, and you give up…
Yes, at such times, people are first stunned. Then they become anxious and sometimes even scared. Finally, they can’t bear it any longer, and they it out of their heads, or conversely, they put a label on it and force it into a drawer somewhere in their head, and feel relieved for the time being. “That’s just the way it is.”
But, although we somehow manage to look relieved, there is no excitement here that makes our daily lives shine.
However, what a wonderful thing it would be if, when we encounter something or a person that we “do not understand,” we could first be struck by a fresh sense of amazement, be excited at the prospect of seeing a new world beyond the one we have been familiar with, and be able to break down our old ways of thinking and enter with excitement into the new world that is offered to us.
It is the Holy Spirit who makes this possible. Christ spoke intimately to his disciples about the salvation he was about to accomplish. However, the disciples could not understand at all, and they were stunned and began to become anxious and frightened. Seeing this, the Lord encouraged them, saying, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” This Spirit of Truth, that is, the Holy Spirit, descended on the disciples as they gathered together to pray on the morning of Pentecost. All at once, the disciples realized everything they had experienced with Jesus for three years as the Gospel, the Good news. God finally sent Christ our Savior.
And that same Holy Spirit continues to overflow in this gathering that is the Church today. When each person is baptized, when the faithful gather to pray and share the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit fills all present.
We continue to destroy our preconceptions, or assumptions and deepen our communion with the true and rich meaning of this world and the true nature of the people with whom we live. We are given the power to approach that which surpasses human understanding, that is, “the One who can only be called God”. And who gives us the power is exactly the “One who can only be called God”.
When we encounter something that we “cannot understand,” it is an opportunity to make full use of the power that has been given to us. What we cannot understand is the unknown. It is something we have not yet experienced. It is a reality we have not noticed until now. If we can continue to exclaim in amazement and praise, day by day, moment by moment, the vastness, depth, and infinite newness of this world filled with the unknown, of humans and of life, to which we can only respond with a sigh, then that would be the greatest joy and gift that God has given us. All of this is the work of the same Holy Spirit that the apostles received.
However, the Holy Spirit that was poured out upon us will not work if we do not recognize it, if we do not open our hearts to it, and if we do not try to shed our old habits. Even the strongest people will be frightened by a cockroach that scurries out from the corner of the room if they are not aware of their own strength. We Christians too must know the enormous magnitude and power of the grace that the Holy Spirit gives us.
Let us recall once again how the disciples, who were dull-wisdomed, timid, and full of a desire for power, once received the Holy Spirit, went out to preach the Gospel all over the world with flexible wisdom and an unparalleled completeness of self-abandonment. It is the same Holy Spirit that renews us Christians every day.