A Pentecost Affirmation

At Pentecost, the disciples were “filled with The Holy Spirit.” 

They underwent a radical transformation. Something happened which transformed them 

from a group of weak and spiritless men into a community of believers who set out to change

the world. This was a mystical experience. It was a breakthrough beyond time and change, 

beyond the agony of suffering and death which they had experienced through the crucifixion, 

into a world of absolute reality, which was summed up for the Hebrew in the name of God. 

They experienced God; they “realized Brahman,” as the Hindu would say, they “Knew the Self, 

the Spirit, the eternal Truth, dwelling in the heart.

Fr. Bede Griffiths

Cited in Christian Mystics

Matthew Fox gives us his understanding of what Griffith’s words can hold for us in these words:

“Bede Griffiths calls Pentecost a transformational happening. That something that transformed the disciples from being weak to being courageous was in fact”a mystical experience.” This underscores how important and how practical mystical experiences are. A mystical experience of God,”a breakthrough beyond time and change” inspires change in the world that matters.

Do mystical experiences  still occur today? Have you ever felt radically transformed, so that you moved beyond your fear and were emboldened by a timeless change?”

As someone who has placed himself in the lesser known, more skeptically accepted theological niche of pneumatology- The Study of The Holy Spirit-Pentecost, for me, is the most neglected, and least understood of the major Christian Holy Days. 

At its best, it is passively and meekly celebrated by bishops and by many of the mainline denominations, if it is regarded at all! Maybe that is so because few, if any, of our contemporary churches are dedicated to transformation! Few, if any, teach about the alchemy needed for greater personal and societal changes, and few clergy are instructed mystical or metaphysical practices and then are strongly encouraged to have a prayer/meditation.energetic practice of their own!

Clergy, as a spiritual and transformational role models, that they can demonstrate or share with church members, is tragically a very rare experience.

While I spent a lot of time and energy trying to explain the value and meaning of Pentecost, in a few chapters of my book, Spirit, Time, and the Future, I know I would have benefited from reading Bede Griffiths in a closer, yet expanded way.

What I will say, in the context of this reflection time, is that mere intellectual knowledge of church history and theology will not suffice to give a full and deep understanding of Pentecost. It is a timeless event/experience that reveals the intimate capacity each person has of an inner transformative experience guided by the active, energetic, mystical grace of God.