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Feast of
Pentecost, Cycle C
Priest Wellness Program at Mepkin Abbey
May 19, 2013
Pentecost Sunday: The Descent Within Us
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
The
Descent of the Holy Spirit
There
is a 15th Century Russian icon entitled The Descent of the Holy Spirit. I would like to have had a large print
of it for all of us to see, but lacking that, I will describe it and invite you
to use your imagination to picture it.
The
icon depicts Pentecost with an overall sense of complete quiet and calm. It is in sharp contrast to the strong wind,
the fiery tongues, and the fearful disciples that we see in today’s readings.
It
portrays the Apostles sitting in a semi-circle with complete serenity and peace
and in doing so it conveys the coming of the Holy Spirit as a personal and an
inner event.
The
idea is that through the birth of Jesus, God becomes “God-with-us.” And now, through the sending of the Spirit,
God becomes “God-within-us.”
Surprisingly,
the figures in the icon are not looking at or talking to or working with one
another. Instead, they are all listening
intently to God-within-them.
Each
of the persons is portrayed differently.
Each has different color hair, different way of sitting and even clothes
that are different in style and color.
And
yet, despite all of these differences, the icon portrays complete overall harmony. The message is clear: the God-within-us makes
many individuals into one community.
The Lesson of the Icon
That is the great lesson from this 15th Century
Russian icon in the depiction of the
Descent of the Holy Spirit.
The presence of God-within-us is the common ground
between each of us and God. And because
of that it is what makes us one.
As a result we need to quicken our awareness of the
Spirit’s presence as what grounds us, gives us surety, solidity and strength,
much as the Apostles do in the icon.
This awareness helps us experience and bring to fuller
realization God’s presence as our common grounding with all people – the most
solid and lasting basis of community that we could ever hope for.
Thomas Merton’s Insight
Thomas Merton has an excellent insight on
this. Listen to what he has to say and simply let the words sink in:
“The deepest level of communication is not communication, but
communion. It is wordless. It is beyond
words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept.
It is not that we discover a new unity – we discover an older
unity.
My dear Brothers and Sisters, we are already one, but we imagine
that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we already are.”
Application
Merton’s thoughts are simple and yet quite
profound.
We sometimes make the differences between us
obstacles to communion, community, and union.
The examples are legion:
Ø Black, white, brown, and yellow,
Ø Christians, Jews, and Muslims
Ø Politically liberal and conservative
Ø Catholic progressive and traditionalists
Ø People in the Catholic Church and outside the Catholic Church
Ø American citizens and immigrants who want to be citizens,
Ø People from the South and People from the Northeast
Ø And on it goes
The icon and the feast itself affirm that we do
not allow differences to obscure the communion and community and unity rather
because of the coming of the Spirit within us, we celebrate the diversity that
is cause for our richness.
Conclusion
As Merton writes, “We are already one. What we have to recover is our original
unity. What we have to be is what we already
are.”
And this, my Sisters and Brothers, is through
the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, “God-within-us.”
