The Spirit Who Creates and Unifies

I can’t remember who said it, but I once read somewhere that we human beings are the most like God when we create. There’s something inherently wondrous, for example, about writing a poem, or painting a picture, or playing music – anything that springs forth from within ourselves. Or, in a different context, think of how spouses cooperate with God in the creation of new life through the mutual sharing of their love. When we participate in creation, in whatever form, we rise above our status as creatures and share in something godly.

The human spirit of creativity though can go awry. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the Bible in the Book of Genesis, when the inhabitants of Babel desire to glorify themselves by building a tower into the heavens. When the ingenuity of the human spirit is separated from the creative purposes of God, disaster results. What is produced is not something artistic or life-giving, but something destructive and divisive.

Antonio Palomino, Pentecost (c. 1705)

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, the third greatest feast of our liturgical year and the commemoration of that event when 50 days after the Lord’s Resurrection the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and other disciples. The Holy Spirit comes to inaugurate the Church, to radically reorient the followers of Jesus to make them capable of fulfilling his mandate to spread the Gospel.

How does the Spirit do this? In two ways. The first is by re-creating those who receive it. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is the breath of God that gives life to all creation, especially the body of Adam, formed from the clay, into which God breathes life. In the New Testament, this Spirit comes not to give life to our bodies, but to breathe life into our souls – to re-create us in virtue and grace. We see this clearly in John’s account of Easter Sunday evening when the Risen Jesus, who comes to the apostles saying, “Peace be with you,” also breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. The disciples are created anew by the Holy Spirit, forgiven of their sins and made sharers in the divine grace.

The second action of the Holy Spirit is to unify. In Luke’s account of the Pentecost event, the Holy Spirit comes upon the early Church and enables them to speak to all peoples and to be understood by them – Jews and non-Jews of every different race and nationality. It’s clear that this is unification is the reversal of the divisions of Babel – that in the Holy Spirit a common language of love is spoken that unites what otherwise would be divided. The Holy Spirit thus is the ultimate creative force: remaking what had been corrupted, unifying what had been divided.

These two works of the Holy Spirit ­– to renew and to unify – are still happening today, in the communal life of the Church but also in the heart of every believer. When we reflect upon how the gifts of the Spirit are given to us, in order to produce the fruits of the Spirit, we should consider these actions, “How does the Spirit want to renew me? In what way do I need to be re-created?” In the bulletin this week, you’ll find a beautiful quote from Pope Francis from a couple Pentecosts ago that speaks to this point. Here’s just an excerpt of what he said: "The Spirit keeps our hearts young – a renewed youth. Youth, for all our attempts to prolong it, sooner or later fades away; the Spirit, instead, prevents the only kind of aging that is unhealthy: namely, growing old within. How does he do this? By renewing our hearts, by pardoning sinners." The Holy Spirit brings forgiveness, reassurance, and peace. He reawakens within us the belief that things can really be different, be better, and then he inspires in us the conversion and renewal to begin that with ourselves first.



Once we have been re-created ­– forgiven and renewed – then we are ready to work toward unity. I don’t know if we think of division today as an evil, as a spiritual danger, but it is. We may not want to admit, but we have become too comfortable with the seeds of division present among us – certainly as a society, but even as individuals too. Maybe that manifests itself in the fear of someone with a different skin color, or frustration with someone who speaks a different language, or hardheartedness toward someone we deem to be violating law and order in some way. The Spirit here, too, speaks to us – to root out from within our hearts and from society as a whole the evil of racism, the ever-present dangers of partisanship, the systemic corruptions that lead to poverty, indifference, and injustice.

The current pandemic has exposed injustices present in our society, and we have seen in recent days other injustices manifested and even spilling over into violence. As Christians, of course, we always insist upon peace; violence and destruction are not the answer. But we also should wrestle honestly with the questions of why so many people in our country are upset. After all, peace and justice go together; without one, the other is impossible. That’s why Pope Saint Paul VI, whose feast we celebrated on Friday of this past week, was right to say: “If you want peace, work for justice.” As Christians, we have the responsibility to do both. Just as the Spirit worked through the disciples to bring together the different races and nationalities on Pentecost, so too he desires to work through us for harmony and unity in our day as well.

Friends, the prayer of the Psalmist today should be our prayer, too: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” The greatest work of creativity we human beings can do is to be authentic disciples – that is, to open our hearts to the Spirit’s work of renewal, rooting out the darkness and division that still may dwell there. Only then can we honestly continue the Spirit’s work of unifying rather than dividing, to work for harmony and forgiveness, to labor for justice and to strive for a peace that will last.