Long, long ago there was nothing except God. God wasn’t lonely because he was within himself three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His nature was such perfect love that he was love itself. God did not need an object for his love, for he was not only the One who loved, but also the One who was loved.
He was pure Spirit, but he wanted to make something tangible to express his love. He planned it well. It would be grand, with almost infinite facets. He started with one, infinitesimally small point of matter, and when he was ready, he caused that tiny bit of matter to explode, sending points of light into the empty space, and what we call galaxies were formed, composed of countless points of light, or stars.
In one average-size galaxy God placed a star that shot off pieces of itself that would orbit around it called planets. One of those planets would be the place where he would focus his attention, because on that planet he would create beings that were tangible, like the rest of his creation, but unlike the rest of his creation in that they could think and reason, make choices, and have the capacity to love. In other words, they would be as much like himself as he could make them.
God could foresee that this part of his creation would be the most challenging. These beings would have great difficulty dealing with the two sides of their natures, the one side being like the rest of creation—tangible, bound to the earth, concerned with survival; the other side able to see meaning, to perceive the difference between good and evil, and with the ability to know, if only dimly, their Creator. He knew that they would make wrong choices, make mistakes, and that in doing so his love would be distorted, perverted even, and that that would cause him deep anguish.
Nevertheless, God went ahead with his plan, for he wanted these creatures to know him, and ultimately to love him, and to serve him. He knew it would take time, but time he certainly had. The plan he chose was to work through one man and woman, Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants. He would reveal himself little by little as needed, sending various individuals to this people, the Hebrews, to help guide them to a way of life that reflected their Creator.
The various revelations of the prophets weren’t enough, however. The Hebrews, or Israelites, kept making wrong choices, choosing the evil over the good. He knew that eventually the only way he could bring his chosen people back to him and his way was if he himself would become a human being. So, in the person of his Son, he took flesh through a woman named Mary, and became a human being.
He lived among us, taught us the truths of the eternal Trinity, showed us his power through many miracles, and suffered torture and death because of the great perversion of his love. He had made this people, and so he would take the sin of this people on himself and die as a sacrifice for that sin.
Yet, that sin would not be the last word. God would raise Jesus from the dead, showing that God’s love, though seeming weak, was more powerful than anything human beings could do. This was the ultimate revelation of the immortal, invisible Creator to this portion of his creation that was his “pet project.” In his resurrected body he appeared to his disciples and to many others, but eventually it was time for this part of his revelation to end. He must return to the heavens, to the place where God dwells.
But after this ultimate revelation things must not remain the same. There must be something that will keep the ultimate revelation of God in the experience of his people for all time to come and that will keep them moving in the right direction. He would send his Spirit to them, that same Spirit who inspired the prophets, that same Spirit who conceived Jesus in the womb of Mary, that same Spirit who descended on Jesus as a dove at his baptism, that same Spirit who is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who is God himself. This time the Spirit would stay with his people to guide them, to comfort them, and to give them strength. It is all part of his plan, from the very beginning, to create beings who would be as much like him as possible, with the ability to choose good over evil, to reflect in their lives the same love that brought this universe into being.
The Feast of Pentecost is the commemoration of that momentous event of the coming of the Holy Spirit, given first to the Apostles on that first Pentecost. From then on the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to everyone at his or her baptism. We—you and I—are a part of that people today, continuing on as part of God’s plan for the redemption of the world. You and I have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to aid us in becoming what God created all people to be, reflections of his very nature.
And yet, obviously, we are still a work in progress. We fall short in reflecting God’s love. We fail miserably at times to reflect the hope that is in us. Still, God’s Spirit is with us, sometimes to convict us, always with the goal of bringing us back to him.
Five persons are going to be baptized today. These five persons will be made Christians by God through their baptisms, brought into the fellowship of Christ’s Body, the Church. They will be made participants in the death and resurrection of Christ, be given the forgiveness of sins, and given the gift of the Holy Spirit. What an important time it is for them, for through their baptism they enter into this divine mystery in cooperation with the Creator of the universe.