INDEED PENTECOST DOES REVERBERATE

Unlike Easter, Pentecost does not have its own octave. But Pentecost still reverberates after we move into Ordinary Time! This is always the case, but even more so this year in the life of the parish of which I am the sacramental minister, St. Patrick’s in Halifax. The story of Pentecost recalls the powerful Wind sweeping over the face of the chaotic waters according to the first verses of the creation account in Genesis. But there are also winds of lesser intensity, ranging from gusts to breezes, and these lesser winds also characterize the ways of the Spirit, which remain subtle and elusive.

St. Patrick’s did have a powerful wind experience about five years ago when, faced with closure, its community rallied to have that decision reversed, taking on a more active role to help the parish survive and flourish. This was a moment of Pentecostal grace. Having heard accounts of what happened then, the image of tongues of fire occurs to me, but I will not develop it.

As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, the Spirit in the years after Pentecost continued to be active in the life and development of the first Christian community, opening some doors and closing others, raising up apostles like Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas needed for the task of wider evangelization, and so forth. These are winds which are quite noticeable but of lesser intensity. Our experience at St. Pat’s is similar: having gone through the re-founding of our community once the decision to close the Church was rescinded, now we are rebuilding, consolidating, refurbishing our building and our parish structures, finding new ways of reaching out to others, growing our numbers, just as the primitive Christian community did. And there are moments of success and moments of failure as we seek to implement ambitious objectives. The Spirit was present to us at the a critical turning point: the Spirit continues to be present in our present struggles.

What makes us note the continuing presence of the Spirit right now is the influx of children to wanting to be initiated into the Christian faith. In recent decades the parish was mostly made up of older adults with a lengthy connection with the parish, and other adults who found the style of worship and community congenial. In more recent years some younger adults came with their children. After Christmas this year the realization dawned that we now have a good number of youngsters that need to be introduced to the life of the sacraments. It did not take long for resources to emerge, programmes to be organized, and in the last few weeks we have experienced the deep joy of incorporating a number of young Christians into the life of the Church. We celebrate baptisms from time to time, but in the course of preparing fourteen youngsters for first communion and reconciliation this year, we realized that four of them were not baptized, which meant further formation for them to receive that sacrament. While any baptism is a joyful experience, to have a child who is able to speak for himself or herself eagerly wanting baptism and stepping up to the baptismal font touched me and the whole congregation deeply. Eight older children were confirmed, and again qualified persons took on their formation, and I conferred confirmation on them and on one adult member of the parish as well, with delegation from the archbishop and the pastor. And on the feast of Corpus Christi, fourteen first communions took place.

Fifty years ago, when religious practice was regular and lives were simpler, this formation sequence was taken for granted and the young people of the parish were simply slotted into the programmes that led them to the next stage of their Christian initiation. But to carry out this formation today is to swim against the cultural current. So many influences, attractions, commitments to be entered into the weekly schedule beckon both children and parents today that finding time that all can agree on for a programme is quite difficult. And there is much greater unevenness in family situations and religious commitment. Often things which at an earlier period of time would be dealt with in a regular way fall through the cracks, like those baptisms which fifty years ago would likely have been done in infancy. All of this is our way to share the primordial chaos out of which God creates a beautiful and harmonious universe. The Spirit blows mightily and good things happen. New energies and vision emerge, new freshness and enthusiasm. In our atmosphere of prevailing secularism, more and more this will be the way that the Church will continue to grow. To let go and let the Spirit.

Numerical increase is important, but even more important is the desires that stir within young hearts, desires which they themselves can express only imperfectly given their lack of full human maturity, but which are transparent to those who work with them. For instance, the grace of the sacraments we conferred will lead to new mass servers.

An experienced pastor who reads this will probably ask “What else is new?” I have been in the field of theological education and administration for over forty years, and this assignment at the age of 72 has opened my eyes. What I have recounted is new to me. Upon receiving this the assignment to come here from my provincial superior, trained administrator that I was, I saw all the pitfalls, I recounted all my inadequacies, my total lack of experience. But now I know that these pitfalls and inadequacies are not the last word. The last word is the ministry of Jesus to the people I serve, and the energy of the Spirit which constantly surprises and renews me.