Practically this whole week's readings, office of readings, scripture passages and all the intercessory prayers somehow lead to the event of the Pentecost. A curtain raiser on the Holy Spirit.
The image of the whole feast of Pentecost too is a bit dramatic! I guess there was no other way of expressing somethig which is not so common a phenomenon. The flames landing on each individual! Somehow I find it odd also. Not the event but the interpretation and the way this descent of the spirit is treated by very many in the Church.
It is a top-down event! God giving and we receiving... now that's fine with me. But what I find it difficult to understand and accept (or even accept and understand) is that the moment that 'flame' lands on one, the whole person is 'ablaze'!! Too dramatic! Too charismatic (pun intended!)!
I'd like to see the picture as a spark which triggers. Now for a spark to trigger off a fire, it has to feed on something. If the spark lands on a sheet of ice, don't expect fireworks or a furnace!! But if it does fall on something even remotely inflammable, not necessarily petrol or jet fuel but even something that can catch fire, if not immediately but after a while, then fine one can expect a fire, sooner or later. Bereft of that basic requirement of 'combustibleness' no spark can launch a fire! If it did, then there was something else that caught fire, not the 'ice'!
P.S.: Sparks are in galore!
The image of the whole feast of Pentecost too is a bit dramatic! I guess there was no other way of expressing somethig which is not so common a phenomenon. The flames landing on each individual! Somehow I find it odd also. Not the event but the interpretation and the way this descent of the spirit is treated by very many in the Church.
It is a top-down event! God giving and we receiving... now that's fine with me. But what I find it difficult to understand and accept (or even accept and understand) is that the moment that 'flame' lands on one, the whole person is 'ablaze'!! Too dramatic! Too charismatic (pun intended!)!
I'd like to see the picture as a spark which triggers. Now for a spark to trigger off a fire, it has to feed on something. If the spark lands on a sheet of ice, don't expect fireworks or a furnace!! But if it does fall on something even remotely inflammable, not necessarily petrol or jet fuel but even something that can catch fire, if not immediately but after a while, then fine one can expect a fire, sooner or later. Bereft of that basic requirement of 'combustibleness' no spark can launch a fire! If it did, then there was something else that caught fire, not the 'ice'!
P.S.: Sparks are in galore!
No comments:
Post a Comment