Pentecost

When the time of Pentecost was fulfilled!

When the time of Pentecost was fulfilled……Acts 2:1-11.  Read that verse and meditate on it.  Do a lectio divina – see how it speaks to you.

This is how that verse spoke to me on Pentecost Sunday this year – it spoke volumes about the universal language of love.  We all spend most of our lives in “search of” our purpose in life.   Of course, we all have different gifts and talents and recognizing them sometimes leads us to understand the answer to our question of purpose.  However,  my thought is the first, common and simplest answer to the question of purpose is to love.  Love God, love our neighbor, love life.

In Acts 2:1-11, we hear about the Holy Spirit coming down upon the disciples and their speaking in tongues.  Despite the many different languages represented in the crowd, everyone was able to understand what was being spoken.  We wonder how that could be possible.  We put way too much emphasis on the spoken word when the reality is that the light that shines from a heart filled with the love of Christ is itself a universal language, a language understood by all.

In the Gospel of  John 3:16, we are told “no greater love than this has man than to lay down his life for his friends.”  Furthermore, in John 20:19-23 we hear Jesus telling his disciples “as my father has sent me, so I send you.”  So we know that Jesus came to show us great love.  We also know that God loved us so much that He sent His ONLY son for the salvation of the world.  As the father has sent him, so he sends us – TO LOVE.   First, we are called to love God – to love Him through worship, praise and thanksgiving.  We are called to love Him by keeping His commandments. Second we are called to love our neighbor as Christ loved us; to put others first just as Christ did; to sacrifice at times for the benefit of others.  Third, we are called to love life.  How?  In two ways:  first, by accepting our circumstances with trust in the Lord knowing that all things work for good for those who love Him and second, by appreciating and caring for all of God’s creation.  We must respect and acknowledge the dignity of every life – human or otherwise.

So………what is your purpose in life?  To use the gifts God has given you to foster love in the world; to communicate with all the world through the language of love!  God bless you!