Peace I give you!

Perhaps no other year has Pentecost had so much need as this pandemic Year 2020! It’s hard to believe that it is 50 days since Easter, a feast that as official church services, we were not able to celebrate.

Now it is in a very limited way we celebrate this gift of Peace, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Take time today and during this first week of June to allow the word peace to echo in your mind and heart. Let the word and all it may mean fill your body, mind and heart. This peace is the common promise of Jesus to all his followers. It is a gift that nobody can take from us. Please God, and you will experience that peace, and with prayer, a note or a call send this peace to those who sorely need it today.

We are all still surrounded by fear, anxious hearts, stubborn conflicts, difficult relationships all multiplied by this coronavirus and the adjustments necessary to return to a sense of normal living.

Our Psalm for this Feast of Pentecost is l04, “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” The Spirit is without a face, and is the wind who is not seen, but who makes things move and the fire that ignites faith, hope and love.

When the Spirit came upon the Apostles, the church was born and the Spirit caused the growth of this faith to move like a strong wind and a fire that can ignite the world, as described in the entire book of the Acts of the Apostles. The power of the Spirit that the Apostles received on that first Pentecost is stunning in the gift of tongues that reversed the confusion of Babel in the Old Testament.

St. Paul also speaks and writes at great length about the Spirit. He tells us how the Spirit calls individuals to different forms of service or ministry. Paul also states that “no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit”. Our challenge is to make the Spirit visible and help renew the face of the earth. Now more than ever we must be instruments of that peace of the Holy Spirit in our deeds and actions. Perhaps no Feast of Pentecost is as important or compares to that first Pentecost as this year 2020, and our needs during this Coronavirus pandemic.

The Holy Spirit gives each believer a different gift to share. This Spirit will raise each unique body to new life on the last day. We are called this week and this new month to see and use peace as our unique gift and to communicate God’s love to all on this new journey in a pandemic season.

Through the work of the Spirit in each of us, God will draw near to creation and breathe new life, love and peace to all. When I doubt about how well you are being and instrument of peace, don’t think about what to do just do it with prayer. Your actions will show the Spirit blowing and acting in a most real way. For the modern day, peacemakers remember, tweet as you would be tweeted about!

Strive to give peace and be a peace maker in all the ways you can, to all the people you can , in all the places you can, at all the times you can, as long as ever you can!