Jn. 20:19-23
“Life is difficult.” John Speck starts the first line of his masterpiece ‘The Road less Travelled’ in this way. Most of us are fighting a battle within us. It may be because of our own weakness such as emotional imbalance, depression, certain addictions, sorrows etc. These battles are realities of our life. If someone says that he/she doesn’t have any problem would imply the person is not being fully honest. Life is not an easy task. It is a challenge to live on. We are familiar with the principles of evolutionary theory especially the principle of the survival of the fittest; the implication of this principle explains to us that those who accept life as a challenge, faces it with hope and courage wins this battle. But, what about the fragile people?
The feast that we celebrate today, the feast of Pentecost is the story of a fragile minority and how they were strengthened and influenced the majority. As we all know that the disciples were very fragile, they were afraid to come out of their room after the death of Jesus but on the day of Pentecost, we see that this fragile men who were afraid to confess their discipleship to Christ, come out of their comfort zones and proclaim that their Master Jesus is the Universal Saviour and the long awaited Messiah. They knew the consequences of the stand they took. Once, they were controlled by fear;but now, there is no more room for fear because they are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of courage.
In today’s responsorial Psalm we read that ‘Lord send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.’ We may be fragile people, struggling to face the challenges that life sets before us. It is the Spirit who renews our life. We need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to win the battle that we fight within. Every Pentecost is a reminder for us to surrender our life to the Holy Spirit,that like the disciples we may renew our life as well as that of others. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, our fragility becomes our strength and God uses us for his mission to renew the face of the earth. Let us celebrate the Holy Spirit who sets our life on fire…