Is it Really The Spirit Speaking?...

The celebration of Pentecost Sunday is only just a few days away…to be precise, 50 days after Easter Sunday, hence its name; from the Greek, pentekostos meaning fiftieth.

Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (and the Blessed Virgin Mary) in the Upper Room – the birthday of the Catholic Christian Church.

St Peter, the first Pope, was already the leader and spoke for the Apostles on this first Pentecost; he preached with such joy that 3,000 were baptized that very day.  From thereon, the Catholic Church has been empowered by the Holy Spirit for over 2,000 years, to live differently in the midst of a chaotic world, to journey as a community of pilgrims, to lead the world lovingly back to God the Father


“…Rome represents the entire world and therefore embodies Luke's idea of catholicity.  The universal Church is brought into being, the Catholic Church, which is the extension of the Chosen People and makes its history and mission her own.” – Pope Benedict XVI, St Peter’s Basilica, Pentecost 2008


However, back then, Pentecost might not have been much of a celebration because the disciples of Jesus would probably have been more confused, anxious and unsure of what to do next…perhaps worrying about their own safety and grieving over the brutal crucifixion of their Rabbi and Master.

Like them, we can relate to similar emotions but we often remind ourselves that to lead a good Christian life, we must listen to the Holy Spirit; to be obedient to what the Spirit asks.  But then, more often than not, how can we tell if it is really the Spirit who speaks to us?  All of us wonder about this voice within us amidst the many other voices that are outside of ourselves.


In today’s world grown weary of God, there are many people who do not trust much in the workings of the Holy Spirit..Not only that, they do not even trust much in their own ability to respond to the Spirit.

These people often have a passion for control, as if they could harness and manage the power of the Spirit to their own judgment; deep down, these people are actually more afraid about the freedom that is a prerequisite for life in the Spirit.

Being obedient to the workings of the Holy Spirit (does not mean speaking in a tongue that one has never learnt) means being able to love in a way that can be learnt only through commitment to the Spirit – a power that can change the face of the earth because it has the ability to transform the hearts of humanity.


So, back to the same question, how can we tell if it is really the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the course of our daily lives?  I would like to think that we should be able to measure what we ‘hear’ against the Gospels.


“There is wholeness in the life of a person who lives by the Spirit, an integrity that is not destroyed by the stresses of life…  A man (or woman) of faith fits together and his (or her) actions flow from a consistent pattern of Gospel convictions…giving a testimony of faith.” – Fr Eugene C Kennedy, The Pain of Being Human, 1974

The Gospel is the best test and the service of others (servanthood) is still the best sign of those who are truly living in relationship with the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit always leads us to spiritual growth and sharing within a community, instead of pride, selfishness and the manipulation of other people.


People living in the Spirit comes to life in relationship with others…willing to die to what keeps him or her from loving others better…gives new life to others…in the process, discovering a richer life.

As pilgrims on a journey, we know that, although life can be challenging and serious, we are not grim…life can be a constant struggle, but we do not mistake it for a battle…faced with death or the culture of death, but we are filled with life.

We always carry a deep and serene sense of peace, if we live by the Holy Spirit; a peace that the world cannot give, a peace that the world may not understand…a peace that fills, renews and transforms the world around us.

Life's Journey...Did You Ever Feel Like Crying?

This week, I came into the presence of a friend battling terminal cancer, a little child growing up with Muscular Dystrophy, a couple facing the challenges of infertility and someone losing their only source of employment.  Words cannot describe the pain they are feeling and the tears they shed…neither can I…

I pulled out an old book entitled, “The Pain of Being Human”, written by a Eugene Cullen Kennedy, back in the early 70s.

The author was ordained a Roman Catholic priest back in 1955 and subsequently somehow married a nun sometime in 1977…but we shall not go into that part of the road.  Instead, what I would like to do is to quote a small chapter from this simply brilliant writing on the human condition.


“As humans, we experience the pains that come from just being human.  In our journey, we are not inoculated against the aches and struggles as a human being; a child of God.  Pain is experienced we face freedom’s choices and we are not certain what the right course will be, coupled by the uncertainties that are a constant part of our journey.

Tears say a lot but sometimes they are hard to understand.  We can weep for joy as we weep for sorrow; some people weep at almost anything while others hardly ever weep at all.

Tears are a language that everybody speaks, but with different accents and meanings according to the complicated laws of how we have learned to express our emotions.


The French, they say, cry quite freely while Americans shed private tears to express something very deep in their lives.  How can something so wrenching to the soul be described as “having a good cry”?


The truth is, of course, that we have all felt like crying and we know from experience that it can have many meanings.  Tears can be the recourse of children who are on the spot – the defense against adult questioning or accusation which wins them mercy rather than justice in the small missteps of childhood.  These are the tears that must be put away if a person is to move into maturity.

 Sadly enough, there are those who go on weeping the defensive tears of childhood for the rest of their lives whenever they are in difficult circumstances.  These people never understand grown-up tears, the tears that are much more than the sobs of self-pity.

Oh, we can all feel sorry for ourselves at times but if we are relatively mature we can catch our emotions and save ourselves and others from the self-indulgent tears we might otherwise shed.


Tears in the mature person’s life come at very deep moments of sadness and joy, on occasions of separation and reunion, whenever love shows through life.  Tears are above all, a sign that we are alive, that the heart still beats because we care about someone or something enough to cry.


Only the dead or the totally despairing have no tears.  People who live with hope and trust can cry aloud; they are alive and have known the meaning of love.


Some men hide their tear to show their strength; others keep their sorrow secret because weeping seems a source of shame for them; and heavy hearted are those whose eyes are dry because their wound is so deep that they cannot let the hurt out at all.

The loneliest of men are those who have no one in whose presence they feel free to weep, no one whose responding love can redeem them from the sadness that has settled into their souls.

It is a hard thing to cry but it is not a bad thing.  It is a tragic thing to cry alone because this means we have built walls around our lives, walls so high that nobody else can see over them.

Our tears not only express the deep wells of our feelings but they also make us one with all men who have ever loved or tried to reach out in a tender and caring way to anybody else.


Our tears, Dickens said, are “rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.”  Our tears redeem us when they reveal us clearly to another, unshielded from the consequences or risks that are involved in being human.

If we have cried ourselves, we find something of ourselves to give back to the suffering and sorrowful all around us.  We need not move away from them, bidding them to hide their tears because they hurt us so much.


We have gone along the same human path and we understand how, in our grief, the presence of another person can bring a certain wholeness to our sorrow.

We give life when we learn from our own weeping how to give ourselves with gentleness and compassion to the sighs and struggles of other people.

The psalmist was no stranger to weeping and neither was the Lord who cried over Jerusalem and at the death of his friend Lazarus.  St Paul tells us that the whole earth groans and cries out, longing for fulfillment.  Mature tears are signs of the same kind of longing, a kinship with a world as yet unfulfilled.

Our tears tell us that we are alive, that we have roots in the lives of others, and that we have been touched by the warmest of suns, human love.  We should resolve that nobody we love ever has to cry alone.”


God will provide us with all that is necessary for us to complete our sacred journey...each journey having its own special pattern.  This pattern, designed by God, aims to bring out our deeper, hidden but real self, which is the goal of our journey of growth through life; sometimes, as we know through our experiences, accompanied by lots of tears.  Jesus wishes to accompany us on this journey…He has assured us that the home is God’s house, a mansion with many rooms.


...Continue to be patient…be gentle…be compassionate…to anyone struggling to make it to home.