Living Abundantly

The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

In our first reading today, Peter is standing in a Jerusalem doorway speaking to a crowd of faithful Jews on Pentecost. They had come on pilgrimage from all over the Mediterranean to celebrate Passover. In the upper room, Peter and the other apostles had just been zapped by the Holy Spirit. It’s amazing; we’re told a few lines earlier that he’s speaking his own language—Aramaic—but everyone is hearing him in their own native tongue. I try to picture myself in that scene. The atmosphere had to have been absolutely electric.

Peter spoke of the gift of the Spirit and explained that they could have that same passion, that same fire of God, in their own life. The way to catch it, he said, was to repent of their sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus. Then, Peter continued, “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”!

What’s most exciting is that Peter made clear that this promise was made to everyone—including “your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” That includes all of us here, even though we’re separated from that scene by 2,000 years and 6,300 miles.

I guess a good question is why should we want this gift of the Holy Spirit? Ultimately, of course, to let us spend our eternity with God in heaven. But here and now, as Peter puts it, so we can save ourselves “from this corrupt generation.”

Corrupt generation. What did Peter mean?

The Greek word the Scriptures used for “corrupt” was skolios. It means crooked—just like in scoliosis, the disease that makes someone’s spine crooked. Peter was saying that we must avoid the people and structures and attitudes and other things that are crooked—everything that diverts us from God and goodness—if we want to be on Christ’s path.

Not too long ago, I was surfing through the channels on TV and I was startled to come across a program that showed a man wearing a white mask that covered his whole face. He was being interviewed. He was laughing and talking about his life as a chronic liar. Can you imagine? He described how he enjoyed making up stories about anything and everything, just because he could get away with it. He happily conned his family, his bosses, his friends, even his best friends, with his wild tales. He said that before he got up in the morning, he would think about what kind of crazy stuff he could invent and get away with. Lying was his entertainment.

Of course, he said that he got caught in his lies lots of times. He lost at least one “best friend” because of his pathological lying, but he seemed to view it as an occupational hazard. He preferred the adrenaline rush of the close call over friendship.

That’s a pretty extreme case, of course, but to some extent, isn’t that how so many people live? When it’s convenient or it suits their purposes, they’re cruel to each other, they’re deceitful, oppressive, uncaring, negligent… you name it. They’re corrupt, to use Peter’s word. Not that it was any different in Jesus’ day! Look at the Pharisees. They were masters at this. They would follow the letter of the law to such an extent that they’d count the leaves on their herb plants and give exactly one out of ten of them to the Temple… but then turn around and have no qualms about taking serious advantage of another human being. That’s corruption.

And in our modern times, corruption is no longer restricted to coming solely from individuals. It is also found in the structures and organizations of society. Often this can be worse, because people can then hide their true identity behind a corporate mask and be corrupt in new and sneakier ways. Go and try to have a lovely conversation with a credit card company you owe money to… or ask for a break at the gas station if you can’t afford to pay $3.25 a gallon… or maybe see if you can persuade the hospital to take less money for the operation you need. Yeah, sure…

You see, the opposite of this heartless, stingy, corrupt life is the life that Jesus speaks of in the gospel: he tells us he came so we “might have life and have it more abundantly.”

It’s interesting to remember that Jesus was Jewish. One of the tenets of Judaism is that it is a sin to be offered the opportunity to enjoy life and not to do so. How different from the Puritans who felt that if something was pleasurable, it had to be a sin! And how different from the Temple leaders who deprived their flock of life’s joys by heaping burdens on their back or throwing obstacles in their path. You can understand that they corrupted God’s truth! Jesus, and then Peter, told us that the gift of the Holy Spirit can help us to reclaim what is rightfully ours.

Does living life abundantly mean that I can do whatever I please and give in to every whim? No, of course not; that’s just self-indulgence. Abundant living is living life to the fullest. St. Augustine put it this way: “Love God, and do what you please.” He could say this because if we love God, what we will want to do will be God’s will for us as we best see it and as our conscience best guides us. We will live increasingly for others and for the world.

To live abundantly is joyful and creative. The gift of the Holy Spirit does not program us like robots so we’ll be good little girls and boys. We are human. We are complex. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” as the psalm says. We are by no means perfect… but we are by no means thoroughly evil. As we try to make our way along the path to abundant life, we are a work in progress… and that’s why Jesus does not condemn us. Instead, he lifts us up… he shows us a better way… he encourages us to be more and love more.

It is our duty and also our joyful privilege, then, to seek to live life more abundantly. Pray without ceasing for the outpouring of the Spirit in your life. Love more and be more.