We need your renewal: Come,
Holy Spirit!
Reverend Martin
Adhikary
On Pentecost Sunday today
Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the first disciples of
Christ two thousand years ago living in despair. Pentecost is one of the five
great Christian festivals: Christmas, Good Friday, Resurrection, Ascension and
the Pentecost. The theme of the work of the Holy Spirit of God runs throughout
the Bible testifying to all the works of God, renewal of lives and bring hope
in a situation of hopelessness and despair for all people of goodwill. So Pentecost
has great Christological, experiential and humanitarian significance. Pentecost
brings hope and strength of new life to people.
The Bible, as a whole, depicts
the works of the Holy Spirit as opposed to those of the fleshly or carnal mind.
We see this clearly mentioned in the Epistle to the Galatians. Two millennia
ago Paul wrote to them: “The works of the flesh are plain: fornication,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger,
selfishness, dissention, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the
like”, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”(New Testament: Galatians
5:19, 22).
The Holy Spirit will come to
dwell in our hearts and empowers us when we acknowledge our weakness in our fighting
against the desires of the flesh and all our sinfulness.
We live in a sin-sick world! We
sin against God as we sin against other people. We live in a world today which
is full of inhuman activities. There are always sins against people, who are
weak and who are innocent, the women, children, the have-nots. They are sins
committed by the powerful people, those in authority, and those who have power.
Instead of serving the people they crush them, they create an environment where
life cannot live with honor and dignity. The Holy Spirit guides us towards the
welfare of our total personality: body, mind and soul. It is the Spirit of God
that which enables us to live life worthy of the crown of creation, truly human
life. So the Holy Spirit is the transforming agent of God for his creation.
All people have the urgent need to
repent for their failures, trust in the leading of the Holy Spirit so that they
overcome the devil. There is always the constant need of renewal of our minds,
thoughts and our whole beings. We need to receive spiritual illumination for
understanding the Word and Will of God and the inspiration from the Holy Spirit
for us to be vehicle of God’s grace for other people, serving and caring for
them. The human race is going through too many problems. The dilemma and the
problems that the world is in is a spiritual one. So its solution has to be the
spiritual. This is true for every human persons, who are under the snare of
sin. Let our prayers today be that the transcendental gift of the Holy Spirit
continues to renew our lives that we may be effective in the renewal and
healing, peace and reconciliation that our world cries out for. Let this prayer
be for all people irrespective of any religious affiliation for we celebrate
life in God’s Spirit, which is for the renewal all of his creation.
(Rev. Martin Adhikary is the
Principal of College of Christian Theology Bangladesh and is a social worker).
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