A New Pentecost Today?

Luke 6:12-16: Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, spending the night in communion with God. At daybreak, he called his disciples and selected twelve of them to be his apostles: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who turned traitor.

Two thoughts strike me as I read this gospel. Before choosing 12 men from among his disciples to be his Apostles, Jesus went by himself to the mountain and spent the night in prayer. He prayed to make the right choice. He spent the whole night in communion with his Father.

Does that tell you something about how we are to make important decisions? He did not choose, then ask God to bless his decision. He prayed to know the will of God. He sought to be “led by the Holy Spirit” and he was.

The gospel then gives us the names of the 12 Apostles Jesus chose. For most of them we know very little about who they were and what they did. Simon and Jude are among the most obscure of the Twelve.

Yet, Paul declares in his letter to the Ephesians that the Apostles, all together, are the foundation of the Church. When we realize that most of these men were simple peasants, fishermen, with little education, although not lacking in intelligence, isn’t it a miracle that they gave the Church the solid foundation that enabled it to grow and continue its divine mission to this day?

Those apostles are the foundation of the Church, not because of their personal talents and skills, but because they allowed themselves to be used by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, the divine principle that gives to the Church life, power, and direction. If he used simple, ordinary people to found his Church, surely he can use any and all of us to renew the Church in our day.

Do you believe that the Holy Spirit wants to use you to renew the Church today? If Catholics are not convinced of that, then we will just keep complaining how bad things are and do nothing; and the Church, by our default, will continue to lose its power and influence. The Holy Spirit can work miracles and bring about a new Pentecost in our time. He will if Christians like us are willing to take up the challenge and work with him.

A New Pentecost Today?

When Pope John XXIII decided to hold a Council, he turned to the Holy Spirit and spoke these prophetic words as he prayed: “O Holy Spirit…pour forth. we pray, the fullness of your gifts upon the Ecumenical Council…renew your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost” (September 23, 1959).

Those words of Pope John were indeed prophetic. With Vatican II, the Church entered a new era: the era of the Holy Spirit. Not that the Holy Spirit was not there all the time, but with the Vatican Council there was a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people, Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox alike. Pope John’s prayer for a new Pentecost in our day was heard.

The Vatican Council: An Extraordinary Working of the Holy Spirit

When the Council opened, an agenda had been prepared by the cardinals of the Curia in Rome. They wanted little or no change in things. They were definitely not on the wavelength of the Holy Spirit. As soon as the Bishops from all over the world who had come to the Council with great hopes and expectations for a genuine renewal of the Church, they scrapped the agenda offered them and began with a fresh approach.

A great Bishop at the Council, Cardinal Suenens of Belgium, was chiefly instrumental in having the Council affirm strongly the all-important role of the Holy Spirit and the Charismatic Gifts in the Church. Without the Holy Spirit, he said, the Church has no life; it is dead; it is just a big administrative body, providing it becomes the work of men. Only the Holy Spirit can bring new life and, as Pope John said, “fresh air” into a stale Church. Without the Holy Spirit, the Church is like a body without a soul. We need both: body and soul.

This reminds me of a striking statement I heard from Pat Robertson one time: If you have the Word, but no Spirit, you’ll dry up; if you have the Spirit, but no Word, you’ll blow up; if you have the Spirit and the Word, you’ll grow up.

For the Church to be constantly renewed and alive, we need saints, people filled with the Holy Spirit, and we need good administrators too, to govern and lead God’s people wisely. But, most of all, we need in all stations and ministries, people who are led by the Holy Spirit, from the Pope down to the common lay person.

A very significant remark was made about Pope John at his death, by a prominent theologian, Dr. McAfee Brown: “To me Pope John was a prophet, like the great prophets of the Old Testament.” A welcome reminder that we do have prophets in our own day. We have more than we think. And we need them. People through whom the Holy Spirit speaks to our time.

In the Aftermath of Vatican II: The Charismatic Movement

The Vatican Council ended December 8, 1964. Little more than 2 years later, in February of 1967, a group of faculty members at the Catholic University of Duquesne in Pittsburgh, were gathered in a retreat. They had been praying for a prolonged period that they might be filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit as in the early Church after Pentecost. During that retreat, in which much prayer rose to Heaven, the Holy Spirit came down with power on this little group. As a result of this experience of the Holy Spirit, a small prayer group was founded. From then on, Charismatic Prayer Groups spread like wildfire to the Notre Dame campus, then across the country and to all the continents. A great renewal in the Spirit resulted in the Church. An incredible outpouring of the Spirit, like a new Pentecost.

Catholics who get involved in the Charismatic Renewal soon experience wonderful workings of the Spirit in their lives. Examples:

• their relationship with God becomes very personal, close, and loving.
• they learn to pray better, with greater faith and filial spirit, and their prayer spontaneously turns to praising God, instead of mostly asking favors.
• the fruits of the Spirit become manifest in their lives, most notably, love, joy and peace.
• they want to share their joy with their neighbors and friends and they attract others to the Lord (witnessing to the Lord becomes so simple and natural).
• they soon acquire a love for the Scriptures, and the Word of God, which before did not mean much to them, now speaks to their hearts and they become avid readers.
• they go to prayer meetings, usually once a week, where they find inspiration, encouragement, and support for their life with Jesus in a loving Christian community.

Those are some of the things that have been happening in the lives of Catholics who become more spiritually alive and more open to the Holy Spirit working in them.

A last word about the Catholic Charismatic Renewal: it has always been and is thoroughly Catholic. It is primarily a Lay movement, although a lot of priests and religious are involved too. The leaders of the Renewal work closely with priests and bishops. Our Bishops have a special committee to supervise and guide the Renewal. Three times they have issued statements, evaluating the movement, and have encouraged it heartily. Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have received world representatives of the Movement and given it strong endorsement. It is a movement of the Holy Spirit in our time.

You don’t have to be part of the Charismatic Movement to be a good Catholic, but you cannot be a good Catholic unless you are charismatic, that is, one who lives by the Spirit. Only by the Holy Spirit do we have life.

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