There are fires inspiring people to travel to Paris this year.
The first is the fire of the Olympic Games. The Olympic flame inspires athletes to reach new heights in their sport and its spirit points to a more peaceful and better world together.
The second is the fire that burned the Notre Dame Cathedral. This fire inspired people from all over the world to join together to restore this iconic and sacred landmark of Christian faith.
Both of these fires speak to a particular moment, but also point to a spirit and movement that transcend the moment.
On Pentecost, we recalled the fire that inspired and sent forth the Church. The fire of the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and moved them with a fire for God’s word, gifts for healing and service, and gathering people from many lands and languages to become one body in Christ. The Holy Spirit accompanies the Church as the Paraclete to encourage and advocate for us. The Spirit comes to comfort us and lead us into greater understanding of the truth yet to come.
When I was reading about the current restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral, I was surprised to learn that the original cathedral took nearly 200 years to build. Those who founded this church were not present to see its completion. Their vision and efforts would be handed on to future generations of people who had not even been born yet.
What’s it like to think this way? What’s it like to begin a project you will never see finished in your lifetime? Maybe they understood that they were part of a great chain of relationships serving God’s mission that came before them and would continue beyond them. Their generation has a part to play in a much bigger story yet to be written in the Spirit. They shared their passion, their gifts and their work for their moment on the stage of life and then handed it on to the next generation to continue. Now, it is in our hands.
This reminds me of part of a prayer associated with St. Oscar Romero:
“It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. … We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.”
We cannot overestimate the number of people, known and unknown, who have witnessed to, suffered for, and handed on this fire of faith to us. The great enterprise of God’s saving plan has been handed on to us to build, to heal, to grow and restore in our time. It is the Spirit of God who connects us to our roots and goes ahead of us into the future. We are part of a great living tradition of faith in the Church.
I am a beneficiary of this tradition which was handed on to me. The tradition of God’s word and sacrament, worship and witness, prayer and service has been placed in my hands now to love and serve God in this moment. I think of how my family, my faith communities, my teachers and many saints have all helped to show me and form me in this tradition.
Each of us received these gifts of the Spirit, handed on to us in the Church’s tradition. This tradition reaches back to the Apostles and reaches forward to the age yet to come. We are called to live it in this moment. We each have been given a limited time on the stage of life to do our part to continue building the kingdom of God. Jesus is still the vine and the light of the world. The fire of the Spirit is still inspiring and sending us forth. Let us discern the fire inspiring us to love and serve the Lord in our time.
Deacon Friesen is director of the Center for Mission, which supports missionary outreach of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He can be reached at friesenm@archspm.org.
