the holy spirit gives us more problems

Let me start this reflection with you on the day we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit by saying, I have reason to believe that we are not interpreting correctly the feast of the Pentecost, the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I gathered two reasons.
First, the Holy Spirit comes not to solve our problems but to create them. Think about it for a moment. The Holy Spirit comes not to solve our problems but to create them. If the Holy Spirit did not come to Peter, James and John everything would have ended up differently for them. Peter would have returned to the simple life of a fisherman, and James and John would have returned to inherit the fishing enterprise of their father Zebedee. But as it is, the Spirit came on Pentecost Day and from then on their lives and even their deaths took a different turn. Because of the Spirit in their lives these fishermen scouted the known world bringing the gospel message, braving the elements, hid from their persecutors; faced court ligations and imprisonment, received insults and false accusations, and finally James died by the sword, John was cooked in boiling oil and Peter was crucified upside down. The Holy Spirit came to them not to solve their problems but gave them even more.
Imagine a life without the Holy Spirit. You received the Holy Spirit in baptism and because of that you became a child of God and a child of the Catholic church. Without that you would not be here today in this church wondering when this priest would finish his sermon so that you can go home, relax and eat breakfast.


When I was studying theology our professor told us that in becoming priests the bishop will put his hands on our heads and call in a special way the gift of the Holy Spirit to come down upon us giving us a special mission in the world. Now I guess after 18 years a priest what he truly meant by special mission were really special problems.
The Holy Spirit in our life rather than solve our problems creates more of them for us. This is the secret and challenge of Christianity. It is not or should not be a feel good religion where I can simply look inside myself and make a life according to my whims and liking. It is not a life where I can simply close my door and feel satisfaction with myself and those close to me. The Spirit challenges us to look outside, to peer outside and find a problem which summons us to life. Mother Teresa looked for a problem, and found in the streets of Calcutta destitution and poverty, and there she lived her life and answered her summons. Vincent de Paul peered outside, found a problem in the formation of the clergy and there directed his life’s endeavors. Marie Eugenie looked out and saw the problem of uneducated and powerless women and there with them she spent her life and call.
Let us be aware of the Spirit in our lives. Look around your, peer around and ask yourself who needs me today, what can I do to bear God’s love in this part of the world? Do some brainstorming as to what problems the Holy Spirit is inviting you today. Remember the Holy Spirit comes not to solve our problems but to create them.
The second reason why I find that we might be misinterpreting the feast of Pentecost is the fact that the Holy Spirit doesn't prevent failures but even invites them.
St. Paul in his letter to the Romans tells us it is the Spirit that makes us groan inwardly. To groan is not produced by happiness or satisfaction nor is it caused by something joyful and glad. Rather it is caused by something painful, something agonizing, something which causes pain, tension and anxiety. In the Spirit we groan - we groan over our mistakes, our failures, our imperfections. We groan over the burdens of our human nature where we find ourselves most often powerless.
Just think of the many regrets we have in life, of things we want corrected if only somebody can invent a machine that can bring us back in time. But in the cross of Jesus we have come to realize that our success will not always look like success, and our victory may often come disguised as defeat. The Holy Spirit invites failures that we might find fulfilment and victory in and through them. In the Spirit we learn to embrace our pains. In the Spirit we learn to accept our mistakes and failures, in the Spirit we learn to live with our imperfections and in the Spirit we long for the perfection of heaven.
Today on this feast of the Pentecost let us do some brainstorming - what problems is the Spirit inviting us into, what failures does the Holy Spirit want us to entertain, what great ventures does He want us to risk?