Tongues of Fire

 

Thoughts on the Feast of Pentecost 2026

Acts 2.1-21; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12.3b-13; John 7.37-39

Pentcost of El Greco (c. 1600)

We are treated today to one of the most dramatic events in salvation history: the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Before his ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, Jesus promised his disciples that he would not leave them as orphans. He told them to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came,  and his description is graphic: in John 14 Jesus tells his disciples that for the time being the Spirit is with them, but there will come a time when the Spirit will be in them.

In the same chapter Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth, and says that it’s the Spirit that really teaches us all the things we need to know about both the Father and the Son. And so in our 2nd reading from a letter of St Paul to the Christians at Corinth, Paul says that, No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit that brings people to the realisation of Jesus’ lordship, and the Spirit who reveals his divinity to us. Without the action of the Holy Spirit Jesus remains a man for us; a good and wise man but nothing more. It’s a good reminder that rational thinking and academic theology only gets us so far. 

Jesus also calls the Spirit the Advocate, sometimes called the Paraclete, which comes from the original Greek word paraklētos, often translated as advocate, helper, or counsellor. It literally means "one called alongside to help". 

Another name Jesus gives to the Spirit is the Comforter, and anyone who has ever had a sense of the comfort and the consolation that comes when the Spirit makes his presence felt in our hearts, will know exactly why Jesus gave him that name.

From our point of view, and in our daily Christian lives, the Holy Spirit is what we have. He is our point of contact with the Holy Trinity. He is the one who enlightens; who sanctifies, heals; illuminates; delivers; educates; and inspires. And that list is probably way too short.

Today is the day to focus on God the Holy Spirit. The great feast of Pentecost is all about him, and the promise of his long awaited arrival. St Peter in our first reading reaches back into Jewish history to explain to the bewildered crowd what it is that’s really going on. These fairly unremarkable men (along with Jesus’ mother and some other women) are suddenly gifted with languages they’ve never spoken and before and they are filled with the courage to preach the Gospel and speak about God’s deeds of power (Verse 11). 

Peter refers back to the Prophet Joel, who centuries before the day we are talking about declared that there would come a time (he said that it would be ‘in the last days’) when God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh.

Ok, lesson over. I think I have painted a picture for you. There’s been a bit of theology, and a bit of Greek, a bit of prophecy and a bit of history. You should have a sense of who the Spirit is, and what he does, even though he always remains pretty mysterious. He has been called the "neglected" or "forgotten" person of the Trinity. While God the Father is revered as the Creator, and Jesus the Son is celebrated as the Saviour, the Holy Spirit is often misunderstood, reduced to an abstract force, or overlooked in daily prayer. 

Well we are not going to neglect him today.

So I’d like to round up by suggesting we focus on another title for the Holy Spirit; another way of understanding who he is, and who he can be in our lives, if we open our hearts to him.

In our Gospel today we meet Jesus before his Crucifixion. He’s in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles and on the last day of the feast he cries out: ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ (John 7:37-38). 

It’s an extraordinary thing to say isn’t it? And John goes on to explain who  Jesus was talking about when he promised us the Living Water: Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified (Verse 39).

It’s also in our 2nd reading because St Paul describes those he is writing to as those who drink of the one Spirit.

So here’s my favourite description of the Holy Spirit: He’s the Thirst-Quencher. 

The Spirit is the Living Water, he’s the Water of Life and that metaphor represents his power to cleanse, to refresh, and to give eternal life. The Living Water of the Spirit is the only thing that truly quenches the human thirst. Not just ordinary thirst, but the deep spiritual thirst of the human heart for the Goodness and Truthfulness and Beauty that is God.

Most of us have had a good go at quenching our thirst for the love of God by cultivating other loves. Instead of drinking from the well of the Water of Life most of us have drunk deeply from lesser wells. I am speaking for myself here but I hope some of it will resonate with you. Any time we place our hope in something that isn’t God and expect it to quench our thirst we end up parched in the long run.

I wonder if you are aware that in contemporary internet slang, to describe someone as ‘thirsty’ is to say that they are desperate for attention, especially for the romantic and erotic kind. It’s pretty common to see the word used in that way on social media; here are some examples just to paint the picture for you:  He is always putting heart emojis on her photos - he's so thirsty;  She texted him five times in a row without a reply - she's looking a bit thirsty; He volunteered to work the weekend just to get the boss's praise—he’s thirsty; Did you see Jack’s latest gym mirror selfie? He is being well thirsty for some likes.

It’s a pretty recent use of the word but ‘thirsty’ has always been used to describe the human longing to have our desires quenched. In the 80s ‘thirsty’ was used of drug addicts to describe the craving for what was then called a ‘fix’.

Going back further in time it’s perhaps a little known fact that the great Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, was extremely influential in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous because he once treated a ‘thirsty’ American investment banker and senator called Rowland Hazard for his alcoholism. Jung effectively told Hazard that there was only one substitute for an addiction to spirits and that was the Holy Spirit. 

This is what Jung wrote later in a letter when he was describing his ‘thirsty’ patient: His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness…the union with God.

I know from experience how comforting alcohol can be, especially when things are difficult and we are wrestling with inner pain, confusion and turmoil. I have had periods when I have ended up relying on it to ‘take the edge off things’ when they got too much for me. 

But I also know from experience that in the long run it’s a poor substitute for the comfort and thirst quenching consolation of the Holy Spirit. Wine and beer and whisky can be a useful tool for a while, but they can never satisfy the deep thirst they are being employed to quench. Only God can do that.

In John’s Gospel Jesus says these unforgettable words to the Samaritan Woman at the Well of Jacob: those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again (John 4:14). The woman in question was the epitome of someone ‘thirsty’ in our contemporary sense – remember that she had had 5 husbands and was on to her 6th man? 

You know, we are all ‘thirsty’ to some degree or other. That’s a given I think. Some of us thirst for romantic love, others for fame and fortune, others for knowledge and power. Yet others thirst for adventure and the thrill of living on the edge, and some thirst for the oblivion offered by the use of drugs and alcohol. Whatever outward form our thirst takes, I think what lies beneath all those thirsts is a thirst for the Absolute.

We might even say that God has designed us like that because that thirst, rightly understood, is a powerful impetus to seek him. As St Augustine said: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

We are all searching for something because we all have a deep sense that there’s something missing. We all go looking for that something in all the wrong places and today is a reminder to look for it in the right place. 

Today is an invitation to come to God’s well and to drink deeply from the Living Water that is the Holy Spirit. How? By praying: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your love.

God bless you all.