May 2020
Dear Friends,
Today is the feast of Pentecost, but it's also May 31, the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. (We will celebrate that tomorrow). It's a double dose of Holy Spirit! Elizabeth was "filled with the Holy Spirit" when Mary arrived, and she prophesied about Jesus. Mary, who had been visited by the Holy Spirit, sang in praise of God, prophesying in her turn. In the first reading for Pentecost, Eldad and Medad are prophesying "in the camp," in an unauthorized location. Joshua wants to stop them, but Moses is delighted: "Would that all the LORD's people were prophets!" (Numbers 11:29). Indeed.
If ever we needed prophets, it's now. We have some, as we always do, but we may have to venture outside the meeting tent to find and hear them. They are on the edges of the camp, speaking for poor people, for prisoners, for the exploited and oppressed. They are raising the lament at injustice, and they are encouraging and inspiring us to organize and speak in turn. They are reminding us of what God has done before, and what can happen now.
Of course, we aren't all prophets. Paul reminds us that the same Spirit that leads some to prophesy equips others to discern, to heal, to work wonders, and other things needed by the body of Christ. Some of us will be the "support staff," feeding and clothing those who are on the front lines. Some of us will bind up their wounds, physical and emotional and spiritual. The deeper work of the Spirit is to know what gifts we've each been given, and to use them.
And in the end, Jesus' gift to us is peace (John 20:21-23). Peace, a mission to forgive and spread peace. Peace is a hard thing to find these days: we might hide away and call that peace, we might just go numb, but the real peace of Christ is active and engaged.
What gift have you been given by the Spirit? How are you using it in these hard times? How might you use it? Today is a good day to pray for direction and strength.
Actually, every day is good for that.
Start today.
Blessings,
Shane, for the Companions