Jesus' disciples hung around him all the time. Some of them had been hanging around him for years before he got crucified. They heard him speak his wisdom. They saw him perform miracles. They were witness to his selfless and sinless life. Then, after they saw him crucified they saw him rise from the dead and walk among them before ascending bodily to Heaven. They stuck their fingers in his wounds and wiggled them around in there.
You would think that experiencing all of these things as the close companion and confident of the one and only begotten son of God would have impressed upon them the nature of Jesus' Godhead. It did not. Instead they lost their faith and sank into despair.
It was sometime later that all the disciples were together and the Holy Spirit descended upon them and entered into each of them. They experienced fiery tongues of flame all around them but were not consumed by it. When the Spirit entered into them they writhed around on the floor and spoke and understood all of the different languages of mankind. When this experience was over, each of them were forever changed and only then did they go out into the World to spread the word of God. This entering of the Spirit of the Lord into all of the disciples at the same time, after the death of Jesus, was completely involuntary on their part and is known as the Pentecost.
If actually living with Jesus and being a witness to his life and times was not enough to make believers out of his own disciples, why would anyone today want to become a Christian based on the ministerial efforts of the pathetic charlatans that pass for Christian leaders. Charismatic Christians believe that in order to become a Christian, you must experience a Pentecost of your very own. This makes perfect sense to me. There is no other way that a rational person could believe in God.
I haven't ever had an experience even remotely like this although I have been with others when they claimed that they did. It's not the same as having it yourself.
3 comments:
Very interesting and thoughtful posting, you red dog you.
I thought I would pop over from Father Tim Moyle's blog and check you out.
Because of all of your bashing of the Catholic Church, I was inclined to just refute whatever you said, or ignore you. Instead, I have decided to listen to your thoughts, as best I can.
I get what you mean (at least what I think you mean) about a personal Pentecost, and I think there is a lot of merit in what you say. Without some type of experience of the love of God, in some form or another, it is difficult for us to move into loving God in return.
But, before the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, they were in the process of getting it. They did many good things, and quite a few of the not so good variety. It was the Holy Spirit that made it all come to life for them, and broke down the barriers between their view of the world, and the glimpses into God's view of the world.
There are a lot of charlatans out here in the world, who are faking it, and making God a bad word.
Father Tim is no charlatan, as I am sure you already know.
There was a guy named Denis Diderot, who died on the eve of the French Revolution. He can without a doubt be named one of the fathers of modern liberalism. He was a Catholic or at least he started out as one.
He wrote a lot of things. Some of them were pretty inflammatory, most were smart. One of my favorites is that God spent a lot of effort making the apple nearly perfect and not nearly as much on humanity. Makes you wonder what his priorities were and how much we owe him, doesn't it? Maybe when the serpent gave Eve the apple, he was trying to tell her something important and not just opening the door to original sin.
Neat Blog Reddog! I'm impressed.
Fr. Tim
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