We read these words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Luke 12:49-53) Is that fire blazing in our own lives?

On the first Pentecost the followers of Jesus gathered as He had commanded them. After He was raised and before He ascended, he told them, “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) He fulfilled that promise, as He fulfills every promise. In Jesus, the Apostle Paul reminded us, all the promises of God found their “Yes.”

We refer to Pentecost as the birthday of the church in the Christian tradition for good reason. Their encounter with the Holy Spirit in that Upper Room changed them. They were filled with the same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead and will one day even quicken our mortal bodies. (Romans 8:11)

That Holy Spirit made it possible for them to carry forward in time the Lord’s ongoing mission, as members of His Body. We are the beneficiaries of their fidelity and living, spirit filled faith. We are now invited to continue that same mission in this day. We need the same Holy Spirit to respond.

The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to live differently, beginning now. Jesus promised, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12) He meant it.

In that same chapter we read these words, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.”

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

The Time for Pentecost

The account of the first Christian Pentecost tells us: “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” (Acts 2)

Following this experience, they were different men and women. They went forth from their former fear — and forward into mission, through living faith. Through them Jesus truly did indeed set the earth on fire. They turned the world upside down with their preaching. (Acts 17:6) The vibrant witness of their way of life called entire Nations to the foot of the Cross where they found redemption in the crucified Savior, and walked forward through the empty tomb, into a new way of life. (2 Cor. 5:17)

The same Holy Spirit is available to you and me today. Jesus still sends His Fire on the earth — today. Do we ask for it? Are we experiencing it?

Chapter 19 of the Acts of the Apostles begins with this account: “While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came (down) to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19: 1-2)

Do we live like those disciples in Ephesus? Do we act as though we do not realize there even is a Holy Spirit? Do we believe that the Holy Spirit is still pouring out spiritual gifts and making it possible for us to work miracles and bear spiritual fruit in our own lives? We need to ask the Holy Spirit to come into our lives today — and fill us with his power. We need to be set on fire for God.

The Fire

The fire Jesus promised has consequences. Sometimes it does indeed divide families. Often, only to later reunite them anew in Him. The fire consumes all that would lead us away from God’s loving and perfect plan for each one of our lives. The fire purifies, refines and empowers us to become those new creations of which the Apostle Paul wrote. (2 Cor. 5:17) The fire changes us into the Image of Jesus Christ and shines through us into a world of darkness.

The Fire draws us into communion and participation in His Divine Life (2 Peter 1:4) and in His mission. That communion is lived in His Church. St Augustine affirmed “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” (CCC #797) We need the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the disciples He was ascending to “my Father and your father, my God and your God.” (John 20:17) He explained, “If I do not go I cannot send the comforter. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”

And in the same Gospel, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” (John 16: 7-15)

There is a lot of bad news in our own day. However, our culture is not really all that different than the cultures into which the early Christians were sent on mission. It is a lot like the culture which the Christians in Ephesus lived in, the ones who were asked if they had received the Holy Spirit. Those believers needed the Holy Spirit for their lives to flourish and to be fruitful in mission. We do as well.

The Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church began with this prayer for a New Pentecost, “Divine Spirit, renew your wonders in this our age as in a new Pentecost, and grant that your Church, praying perseveringly and insistently with one heart and mind together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and guided by blessed Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Savior, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace. Amen.”

I am one of millions of Catholics who reaped the fruit of that and many other prayers. The Holy Spirit filled me in a fresh and new way as a young man. Back then, we did not even use the term “charismatic” to describe that encounter with the Holy Spirit. We spoke of it as a “baptism” or immersion. We were even called “Pentecostal Catholics.”  I never liked labels. I am just a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. And, I am grateful that He still pours out His Holy Spirit.

We need a New Pentecost. We need to be baptized afresh in the Holy Spirit. The Church of the Third Millennium needs the spiritual power with which she transformed the world of the first millennium. Lord, set the earth on fire! Lord, set me on fire!