John 20:19-23, Pentecost Sunday

It is common practice in our Jesuit communities to sign out whenever we are out of the house for more than a day. When I was in Cagayan de Oro, Fr Terry Barcelon SJ of happy memory and I used to tease each other about who was out of the house more often. He would tell me that I was OMI. Out more than in.

Given things are falling apart these days, we might be tempted to believe that God is OMI, out more than in, absent more than present.

We tend to think of God as outside us, so that we can only be inside God, as we are in a house, surrounded by walls. God is all that, yes; God is transcendent.

However, today Pentecost is the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God within us.

“God inside us” brings to mind the phrase, intimior intimo meo. It is adapted from St Augustine to describe God’s indwelling presence in our lives. Intimior intimo meo, that is, closer to me than I am to myself. God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

I offer two points for our reflection on the gift of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the gift of God inside us. The first has to do with fire: God inside us keeps us warm. The second is drawn from the restless wind: God inside us keeps us moving.

First, warmth. God inside us is what keeps us warm, as fire draws us in together from the cold. It is not just food or air or water that keeps us warm. There is fire that comes from money or fame or power, but that fire will only burn us out. God inside us enables us to warm up to him, to each other, and to all of creation.

God inside us gives each one of us the warmth of our dignity and value. Each of us is a child warmed by the love of God. In God’s eyes, we bear his likeness; in God’s heart, we are siblings to each other. It must therefore be heartbreaking for God to see us at war with each other.

War not only extinguishes human life, it also rends the heart of God. Populist campaigns to exterminate so-called lowlifes in the name of so-called law and order only bring coldness, not warmth to our world. We are not made to deal death to each other. Every human life is filled with God’s life, not partially but to the brim. All creation is infused with the life-giving warmth of the Holy Spirit’s fire.

The second point, movement. God inside us keeps us moving, as wind stirs the water and creates waves. Given the many good things that are unraveling in our world today, it is tempting to believe that only wealth or brute force or fear can make the world go round. God inside us is love that awakens us from this dangerous slide to cynicism and indifference.

Who among us has not been immobilized by despair when we see what our leaders are making of this country as they worry more about their future than our people? The global conflicts of today have set in motion powerful forces that are about to bring untold suffering to our poor. If our so-called leaders are moving at all, quite a number are playing musical chairs.

God inside us is the wellspring of our holy desires. God within us is the kindling source of our holy rage for compassion and mercy, for truth and justice, for freedom and peace. The Holy Spirit is God inside us, empowering us to act and resist the dark forces afoot in our world today.

Pentecost marks the day God enters human lives that have been locked in fear and despair. Today we celebrate the Holy Spirit being given to the early church at a time when it was being hunted to extinction. As it was then, so is God given to us now in these troubling times when the world is on edge and people are locked in on themselves.

The next time you think you are alone or that God is nowhere to be found, look in, not out. Receive communion even, if only to remember and relish the intimate nearness of God. Feel your heartbeat. It is not yours alone. Seek the warmth, sense the movement within. Look in and look again. God is IMO, in more than out.

Then whisper to God in you these three words that can be your prayer and refrain: intimior intimo meo. Closer to me than I am to myself, God is.

*image from the Internet