It was a trip of a lifetime. Several parishioners pitched in to take their pastor with them on a fishing trip to a remote spot in the rainforests of Venezuela. They flew into Venezuela and, after a night’s rest, boarded a much smaller plane to fly 300 miles into the rainforest. Nine passengers, two pilots, fishing gear and provisions were crammed into the plane. The pastor began to feel very ill. He could hardly catch his breath and he noticed his fingernails turning blue. Not knowing what was wrong; he thought he might be having a heart attack. He looked around the plane and saw his companions also seemed to be in distress. Noticing his pastor’s expression of fear, one of the parishioners told him that to get over the Venezuelan mountains the plan had to gain quite a bit of altitude. Though it was very uncomfortable, because the time at this altitude was brief, the pilots had chosen not to pressurize the plane. We don’t give enough thought to what it means to be able to breathe. We just do it. If our ability to breath is compromised, we will most likely panic. Asthma and emphysema sufferers, and those with other respiratory or heart problems, live with this panic. They know what is happening to them, and fortunately their crises can be relieved with oxygen, at least for a while.
During his 30 minutes at high altitude – with little oxygen – the priest began to understand how such people must suffer and how terrible death from such conditions must be. His compassion for suffers from such conditions grew. We know when our oxygen supply is cut off because of immediate physical consequences – but can we always read the symptoms of what it means to be cut off from the Church or God?
An internet story is told of a man who at one time in his life was very active in his church. For no reason his attendance waned and, eventually, he just quit attending altogether. When his pastor realized that this parishioner had been absent for far too long, he made a house call. It was a cold winter’s night when the pastor knocked on the fellow’s door. Surprised to see him, the man invited his pastor into his home. The two sat before a nice, warm fire. As they sat in silence, the man knew that his pastor would eventually begin to talk about his absence from church. But the pastor didn’t speak. After a while he stood, took the fire tongs, lifted a coal from the fire and placed it on the stone hearth. The coal glowed red with intense heat, but slowly the red light faded as the coal cooled and turned black. The pastor picked up the coal with his bare hands and put it back into the fire. It did not take but a few moments and the coal once again caught fire and glowed with heat. The parishioner, with moistened eyes, said, “I get it pastor. I’ll be back at church on Sunday.
Pentecost gives us these two things: breath & fire. Luke tells us that Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The word for “spirit” is spiration – breathing out. (Respiration means to breath in & out) For years the Church refereed to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost. In English, spirit and ghost can mean the same thing, but the spirit that we call the Holy Spirit is not that kind of spirit. This is why, in the 1960’s the Church had us begin saying Holy Spirit instead of Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit takes its name from spiration, breathing out.
We might say that the Holy Spirit is the very breath of God. Breathing on someone else as part of a blessing was common for the Mediterranean Middle East. Because the breath came from inside of a person, to breath on someone was thought to pass on something of what is inside of one person to another. For those of Jesus’ day, they believed that part of the essence of the person was being passed on. To create life, God breathed into the nostrils of the man. This breath of God gives us life. The Divine is within us. This is made especially clear on
Pentecost. God is in us! No wonder we can have peace. “There appeared to them tongues as of fire.” Again, this is a gift, but a gift of knowledge. The symbol of the Law, the Torah, was a tongue of fire. This vision God gave the disciples – taught that their peace and life can best be lived under the tongue of fire. Pentecost is important. It reminds us to think about breathing. With one breath the Holy Spirit entered our lives in the fire of unity, the
Church. In it, our fire remains kindled and we can breathe easy. May you feel the Spirit’s breath today and everyday….