By Kathy Horan Each year when we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, we rejoice and celebrate the Spirit of Jesus alive in our midst – in us, in the Church and in the world.
The story of Pentecost reminds us of the birth of the Church and the transformation of the disciples from being fearful, uncertain individuals into spirited, bold proclaimers of the good news of Jesus. At that Pentecost time, they finally began to grasp the importance of what Jesus had said and done, and urged on by the Spirit of Jesus, they began to take up the challenge of being missionary disciples, spreading the joy of the gospel, and baptising people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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Author: Dr Jenny O'Brien Can you imagine a world without words? I do not mean being unable to hear or voluntarily living in silence, but that words do not actually exist. For human beings life would be mere ‘existence.’ There could be no exchange of ideas, no community living, not even a name for each individual person. Communication would be only in its most basic form. Language is at the heart of who we are, how we form relationships, how we understand our world.
This is why Jesus’ title, ‘Word of God’ is so fundamental, so all-encompassing and so powerful. We remember from the Genesis story of creation that ‘God said…. and so it came to be’. The point of the story was to show the dynamic power of God’s word: the mere utterance of the word brought it into being. Jesus, as the Word of God, is the humanised expression of who and what God is. This is a most extraordinary reality, and just how wonderful a gift this is bears thinking about often. |