There was once a lion that got lost in the woods. He figured that if he were to follow big footprints, he would finally get back to where he belonged, - to the lions’ den. So,looking down he saw sets of huge footprints and followed them. He reached the end of the path, but it was not the lions’ den. It was the ostrich nest. so he tried again, followed another big footprints until he reached the end, with deep sighs, he said, “at last this is the end,” only to find out that this is the tigers’ territory. So he backed off. He was already confused trying to choose from many big footprints around him, until he heard a voice coming from an eagle, “Look at your own footprints and then follow the same, they will lead you to your own den. So the lion lifted his foot up and looked at the mark he left on the earth. He then proceeded following every footprint similar to the marks he made on the earth. Then he reached the land he knew too well. He was finally home (Anonymous).

This story can help us reflect on what we are celebrating today: PENTECOST SUNDAY.

In the gospel we see the disciples locked up in a room for fear that they might be next to the cross, after Jesus had been crucified and died. they were not only afraid of that. Their fears manifest the deadness of their spirits. They had pinned their hopes and the meaning of their lives on Jesus, and now he was dead, after being crucified. But Jesus comes to them, and to these people who are really fearful, to these who are indeed dead, Jesus breathes the breath of life and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.” They are empowered with life, now they are ready to proclaim the truth.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles also reveals the mighty power of this Spirit to animate and empower our lives. They each were given the power to go and preach the Good News. They were given the power to express themselves.

When we think of the Holy Spirit, we image or imagine that the Spirit is a bird, or a dove, or tongue. But the Holy Spirit is not a bird, a dove or tongue. The Spirit is the breath of God. It gives us life.

In the creation narrative, God formed man and woman from the earth, but his final act in making them was He breathed into their nostrils. Now they are alive. They have life. They have the spirit of God, THE HOLY SPIRIT.

But what is this spirit of God? What/Who is this Holy Spirit of God? Jesus said, “I will send you the Holy Spirit who will lead you to the truth.” The breath of God is the Holy Spirit and this Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.

Our world today is influenced so much by practical dialectic in that we tend to compromise the truth. That truth is situational. That truth depends much on human condition. When we begin to compromise the truth, we do not realize we are compromising who we are, persons created in the image and likeness of God, we also begin to corrupt. When truth is compromised what is there not to be compromised. Even our values are already compromised.

So, we want to be practical and I tell you there is nothing wrong being practical. But if this kind of thinking begins to compromise the truth or to situationalize the truth then we also begin to collapse. We erode from the very core of our humanity. Example. It is practical to have one or two children, the only mouths you can afford to decently feed, if the wife becomes pregnant, then it is no longer practical, it is time to abort. Okay that practical, but is it the truth?  When couples quarrel day and night, it is no longer practical to stay married. It is more practical to divorce, indeed it is. But is it the truth?

When we set our situation, our opinion, our perception, our experience to be the standard of the truth then we corrupt. We are fool. We totally misunderstand truth and life.

Pentecost is not about the Holy Spirit. It is about the coming down of the Holy Spirit to lead us to the Truth in order that we have life and live it abundantly.

The eagle in the story above is the very voice of God we need to listen to because there are so many footprints around us masquerading as truth but in the end will only lead us to corruption. The eagle in the story is the Holy Spirit telling us to look at the true footprints set by Jesus and to set our feet into his path - the path of life. The path of the truth of who we are, men and women created in the image and likeness of God.