45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” [Luke 24:45-49, NRSV]
Pentecost, by El Greco.
At the end of his Gospel, Luke tells us that just before Jesus departs, he gives his rather deflated and shaky group of followers this instruction: “Return to the city and don’t leave until you feel yourself clothed with power from on high!” [Luke 24:49]
In volume two of his great work, The Acts of the Apostles, Luke lets us in on how Jesus’ followers interpreted that instruction. They met and waited in an “upper room” which Christians later identified as “The Upper Room” (the Cenacle) in the Old Jerusalem where Jesus had his Last Supper, until they experienced the fire of the first Pentecost.
They had shifted to living a life quite different from their earlier professions after having been called or drawn by Jesus of Nazareth to literary follow him. Now, for a second time in their lives, they would embark on a life of discipleship which would be nothing like what they could possibly imagine when they first “signed up” to follow Jesus. So radical is this second journey that, literary, it is a journey of no return – no turning back once their hands are on the plow (Luke 9:62), letting the dead to bury the dead (Luke 9:60), as they plow on with the urgent work of preaching the Good News of the Crucified and Risen Lord.
Of the inspiration from that episode of the first Pentecost, one crucial lesson takes precedence before all else. That lesson emerges from a reflection on the pattern of the followers’ journey. It was a journey of a return after a painful period of humiliation and purification. It was almost as if the followers had to be humbled, before they were granted the door of return, for that return was nothing other than a return to the path of radical faith exemplified by Christ their Lord. That door of return was not available, except through the Holy Spirit.
There is deep insight right here that ought to detain us, for it captures and resonates the best of the human spirit – a spirit of service, instead of a spirit that manoeuvres towards titles and privileges. Where that spirit of service prevails, the people close by will see and believe a genuine attempt on the part of the servant in evacuating worldly desires.
The excruciating life journey of the fourth son, named Hongli (弘曆), of Yongzheng Emperor, helps illustrate this genuine human attempt.
- Before he became Qianlong Emperor (乾隆帝) and ruled China from 1735 to 1796, Hongli was privately favoured by his father to be his successor, replacing the crown price of many years. But Hongli had to undergo severe trials and tribulations before becoming emperor. On that score, his personal counselor and hand-picked private tutor to his sons, impressed this teaching from Mencius upon him: Before heaven bestows great responsibility on anyone, it will first burden his heart and will, stretch his bones and sinews, starve his body, and evacuate all that he has. [天将降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨, 饿其体肤, 空乏其身.]
Today, to the delight of the secular culture, church scandals, particularly in the way of colossal sex scandals, financial corruption, and a widespread lack of ministerial diligence, have for some time now morally weakened the Church in a serious way and rendered her open to marginalization and humiliation. The logic is quite paradoxical: it is only when one is filled with the right kind of spirit – the spirit of gentleness, kindness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), the kind that is exemplified by the likes of Pope Francis, that members of the Church could again walk tall and hold their ecclesial-heads high.
It is no surprise that Pope Francis, ever since his election on 13 March 2013, has been systematically exposing the false idealization of ecclesial arrogance and clerical privileges. Catholics around the world who had been feeling despondent in seeing any real renewal in the Church, know that it was not a moment too soon when the Holy Father began to name and dismiss as unhealthy many outrageous practices in the Church. Drawing an analogy from the Upper Room episode, Pope Francis is sending the Church back to an “upper room”, for he knows that Church leaders need to:
- go through serious humiliation before they could return to the path mapped out by the Jesus of the Gospels, not Jesus of doctrines and laws and liturgies;
- pray and sort out their confusion;
- re-ground themselves in the basics carved out by the Way, the Truth, and the Life;
- so as to prepare to receive a new life, a true life in the Spirit.
So Pope Francis and the disciples in the Upper Room share something in common. Like them, the Holy Father is hearing Jesus’ instruction to lead the Church to remain in “the city of Jerusalem”, which in Luke’s writings is an image for the Church and the faith. The point of this remaining in the “Upper Room” is to be attentive to what Jesus had come to do, and what he wanted to see his disciples do “in memory of him” – to help build the Kingdom of God here on earth, just as it is in heaven.
Before we can talk about converting the world, then, we need to take a serious look, certainly a humbling look, at the ecclesial and spiritual indifference amongst the ranks of the clergy and the laity. Incumbent upon us all is the adult duty to think and discuss seriously the issues of the increasing secularization of ordinary consciousness, the declining church-attendance, and the closing of formation houses. To return to the “upper room” to await the descent of the Holy Spirit, is to return to God – the basic foundation of the faith. In this regard, Richard Rohr OFM in Everything Belongs leads us to a liberating contemplation:
- God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.
- True contemplatives know themselves as part of a much larger Story, a much larger Self. They are conservatives, knowing that they stand on the shoulders of their ancestors. Yet, they are courageously but often quietly determined risk-takers and reformists, precisely because they have no private agendas, jobs or securities to protect.
The season of the Pentecost alerts us in a special way to the need to return to the God of Jesus Christ who is mercy and compassion, patience and charity, warmth and hospitality. This God of Jesus Christ warms hearts and grows faith. Above all, this God is a Holy Trinity, a Holy Community that inspires prayer and communal fellowship. In the Vatican Two Council’s ecclesiological message, which is geared towards surmounting any form of reductionism, a renewed and full perception of the mystery of the Church lies in a Trinitarian perspective of the Church:
- “When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth (cf. John 7:4) was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of the Pentecost in order that He might continue to sanctify the Church, and that, consequently, those who believe might have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father.” [Lumen Gentium, 4]
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, June 2017. All rights reserved.
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