Pentecost and St. Charles

From the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters, cp

Sunday, 4th June 2017

There’s a lovely simple story that I’m sure I told you before but it’s worth repeating. It’s about a young ocean fish swimming around everywhere looking for the ocean. He decides to consult an older, more experienced fish about this problem. The older fish is very surprised and says, “But this is the ocean, you’re in it, it’s all around you, you couldn’t live without it!” The young fish is very disappointed with this answer and says, “No, this is just water! I’m looking for the ocean!” And off he swims, still the looking for the ocean.

Now, as the fish is in the ocean, so are we in God.  Just as the fish is in the ocean and needs the ocean to survive so we are in God: “In him we live and move and have our being”, as St. Paul says. We could say, “In him we swim!” Needless to say, when we try to talk about God or God’s spirit, our words and images are inadequate and very limited, but some are better than others. 

At one time, I imagined God’s spirit inside me, safely locked inside me like Jesus in the tabernacle. The scriptures do speak about God coming and making his home with us, and about God’s spirit being poured into us! But that sounds like I have God’s spirit instead of God’s spirit having me which is very different. God’s Spirit which may carry me in ways I’d rather not go. This is a far better image. God is our ocean in whom we live and move and have our being.

This is true whether we’re aware of it or not. But what those who knew St. Charles remembered most about him was that this was so real to him. God was more real to him than anything or anyone else. He seemed to be able to live all the time aware of God’s presence. Fr. Wilfred, who knew him and preached at his funeral, said: “All who knew him never knew him to be without prayer, night and day. I almost think he prayed in his sleep. He prayed always.”

As well as water and fire, air or wind is another great symbol of God’s spirit and these, you notice, are all sources of energy and power. Everywhere on our mountains now there are wind turbines harnessing the power of the wind. And, if I may brag a little, long ago at home when we were children, we were the first in our area to have electricity. How come? Because my father set up our own wind turbine in the back garden! We called it a wind charger, so when the wind was strong we had great light and energy but, when the wind was weak, we had to go back to the oil lamps!

 With God’s spirit, we never have that problem; the power is always strong and constant. The only problem is how we harness this energy. As believers, we know this power is there for us but we must want it, plug into it and positively claim it day after day. The sacraments are one way we link into this power. Prayer is another, a prayer of gratitude that we can breathe deeply of God’s Spirit. So, this Pentecost day, and every day, let’s plug into the power and energy of God’s Spirit as we pray:

 “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.”