Today’s reflection is written by the University Chaplain, Revd Dr Harriet Harris. Jerusalem 2000 years ago was like any busy metropolis today, teaming with people from all nations who did not all speak one another’s languages. As they celebrated Pentecost, a Jewish harvest festival 50 days after the Passover, the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles like a mighty wind and tongues of fire. Part of the symbolism of Pentecost, which is where we now are in the Christian calendar, is that the apostles were able to speak in foreign tongues, and so be understood by the dispersed people of the world. Pentecost therefore reversed what had happened at Babel, when human pride in thinking to build a tower so tall it could reach heaven, was shattered. The Tower of Babel was destroyed, and the people were separated from one another, kept apart by languages they could not understand. If Covid19 is like our Babel, causing us to live in distance from one another, and to review our treatment of the earth and how we have been living our lives, Pentecost, with its language of love, liberation and renewal, can be our new hope: Image This is the feast of Fire, Air and Water, Poured out and breathed and kindled into Earth. The Earth herself awakens to her maker, Translated out of death and into birth. The right words come today in their right order And every word spells freedom and release…… Today the lost are found in his translation, Whose mother-tongue is love, in every nation. From Malcolm Guite, ‘Pentecost’ And a traditional prayer for Pentecost or for calling on the help of the Holy Spirit: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your people and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. This article was published on 2024-06-24
