Message of Abbot Paul - Pentecost Sunday
Message from Fr Paul for Pentecost Sunday, 23rd May 2021
It strikes me that you must be very tired of reading my poor words, so today, for a change, let’s read someone else’s words. These were written by the great German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904-1984) in his book, Servants of the Lord, published in 1968.
The Spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of holy unrest, of eternal discontent, the Spirit that again and again startles us with the cry, “You have still far to go,” the Spirit that makes even the saints dissatisfied with themselves, makes them their own accusers. The Spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of repentance ever renewed, the Spirit that makes the heart humble and contrite. It is the Spirit that renews the face of the earth, the Spirit of life ever new in new forms, on new roads, in new conveyances, on bold ventures. This is how he is and wills to be the Spirit of the Church.
If we daily revise our thoughts in him, if we do not misinterpret our experience in life to mean that God’s Spirit himself has grown enfeebled and has withdrawn into the distance, but learn from them that we constantly look in the wrong places and in the wrong way, that we are constantly trying to confuse him with something else, then time and again we shall have the heart-stirring happiness of realising: Here he is, he is with me, the Spirit of faith in obscurity, the Spirit of victory through weakness, the Spirit of freedom in obedience, the Spirit of joy in tears, the Spirit of eternal life in the midst of death. Then, for all the earthly improbability and the stillness with which the Spirit works in us and in the Church, the holy certainty will fill us: Here he is, he is with me, he prays with me with sighs too deep for words, he consoles and strengthens, he sanctifies and sustains, he gives the confidence of eternity. But we must renew our thinking daily, daily we must allow ourselves to be changed by the Spirit of change.
Come, Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son; come, Spirit, Spirit of love, of sonship, Spirit of peace, of confidence, of strength and holy joy. Come, secret jubilation in the tears of the world, come, life victorious in the death of earth. Come, Father of the poor, bulwark of the distressed. Come, light of eternal truth, love poured forth in our hearts. We have no means of forcing you into our hearts. But therefore, we are confident. Our sluggard heart secretly fears your coming, yet that is really the firmest assurance that you will come. Come, then, each new day, more each day. Move us, change us. We put our trust in you. In what else could we put our trust? We love you because you are love. In you we have God for our Father, because you cry in us, “Abba, dear Father!” We thank you, life-giver, Holy Spirit who dwells in us, for willing to be the seal of the living God, the seal that marks us as his own. Abide with us, Holy Spirit. And change us. Come, Spirit of God.
