Two little things happened yesterday which helped me understand the meaning of today’s feast and the gift that the Holy Spirit is.
First, a friend a mine said goodbye after staying a few days at the abbey. When she arrived last Sunday evening, she very kindly brought a little gift: a box of fine chocolates which I am very much looking forward to enjoying with my brethren at coffee time after lunch. Their good quality will remind me of what is so special in her, what makes the unique quality of her being. But now that she has left, I am fully aware that what she brought to me is much more than chocolates – even very good ones. When your friends have left you, your heart is filled with a renewed feeling of their unique presence. It remains in you as something like a sweet perfume speaking to you of your friend.
This is an image o the Holy Spirit. Jesus left His disciples and went to the Father. He left them many gifts to be cherished by the Church: His words, His Sacraments, His graces; the hope He uniquely opened up in His disciples’ lives. But Jesus did more. As a good friend, He left His very presence. He left His Spirit. Deep down in our hearts, the Spirit is the inner presence of Jesus in our lives. He is Jesus’ friendship made present. Even better: He is the Friend in whom and through whom we experience friendship and love with Jesus. Jesus and the Spirit: two divine Persons, but one God; one love; one truth; one presence in the lives of believers.
It was yesterday, too, that a friend of mine sent me a message announcing that he had reached Compostella. He had been walking towards this shrine for about a month. He is familiar with the Camino – the Way, which he has walked a few times already. He likes the freedom which walking gives you. It frees you for unexpected and often marvellous encounters with other pilgrims, but also with God, and with yourself. It can be hard and demanding at times. It is certainly tiring. But you experience something which is genuine and true in human relationships. When you have walked many days, you cannot pretend, you are just yourself. This is a rare gift of truth. It makes you wish to do it again.
For my friend the Way finished on the eve of Pentecost which he is celebrating today in the basilica of Compostella. When the Way is finished, is there anything left apart from a few photos, lovely memories, and blistered feet? Today’s feast gives us the answer: When the Way is over, the Spirit of the Way continues to live in you. Jesus declared: “I am the way, and the truth and the life”. In a sense, the Way must finish so that we can enjoy the Spirit as the fruit and the gift to which the Way has always been leading us. “If I do not go away, says Jesus, the Counsellor will not come; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
This is the deep rhythm of love. God’s love draws Him near to us; the Son is sent into the flesh; the Bridegroom is united with the Bride; He dies for her on the Cross and rises from the dead; then, He departs and the Spirit comes into the space which Jesus’ parting has opened up. The Spirit dwells in the space of love as the permanent link between the Bridegroom and the Bride, Christ and the Church, Jesus and all who walk after Him on the way.
The Spirit of love and truth, who dwells in the space of love between the Father and the Son, is given today to the Church and the world. The Spirit dwells in the space of love which Christ’s sacrifice has opened up. The Spirit frees us so that we, too, may inhabit the divine spaces of eternal love. In the Spirit of the Father and the Son, we, too, run “with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of God’s commandments”. We walk the Camino in the Spirit. We are with our Friend in His Spirit. In the same Spirit, He is with us always, “to the close of the age”. Amen.