Building God's Kingdom through Worship, Outreach, and Fellowship

Looking out my window – May 3

May 3, 2016 Uncategorized


Jesuit scholar, John Haughey, wrote of the events recorded in Acts 2, the giving of the Spirit on The Day of Pentecost:


“Pentecost was a jail break!  What had bound them was now loosened.  Their dancing feet, marveling tongues, and exuberant hearts were the evidence that bound (people) men were now free.  Free from what?  From the images that they had entertained about themselves.” … “The joy of the Kingdom belongs to those to whom it has been given to inhale the truth about themselves….”  [John Haughey, The Conspiracy of God: The Holy Spirit in Men. (New York: Doubleday, 1973), pp. 92-93.]

As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday on May 15, I am praying that we all will take a deep breath and inhale more of the truth about ourselves.  Then, let’s all stage a jail break – escape from the limiting images that keep us confined in a less-than-fully-abundant living out of our relationship with God.
How have others labeled you in ways that you’ve unwittingly accepted, ways that are not true to who you are?  How have our sins and failures caused us to mislabel ourselves as well?  How have we missed the gifts the Spirit has so freely built into our psyches?
Jesus had a much higher estimate of his friends than did they.  And, he persisted in expecting more of them than they expected of themselves.  He persisted in leading them into a larger view of themselves and their lives.  And, Jesus still is at it with all of us.
Would you dare pray with me in preparation for this Pentecost Sunday?
“Risen Christ, break me out of the jail that my self-definitions have locked me into.  Keep stretching me toward a larger vision of who I am and what I am on this planet to be and do.  Release your Spirit in me and take me there, in spite of my fear and resistance.  I will follow.”
Peace,
Fr. David Perkins