Acts 2:1-21, Psalm 104:25-35, 37 b, Romans 8:22-27, John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now," the Apostle Paul tells the Romans. But as we look around us, we see the groaning continues. We have not yet brought forth the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Love, in the here and now. We today are called to be the midwives at this sacred birth, preparing the way for new life.

God sends the Holy Spirit into our midst to strengthen and encourage us to walk day by day into the way of Christ Jesus, the way of self-giving love. As we allow ourselves to be transformed into the imago dei that God created us to be, we will find that all the negative, self-centered desires that have so consumed us are, one by one, blown away by the breath of the Spirit. That cleansing makes room in our hearts for Divine Love so overflowing that we somehow find it easier to love our neighbor, even to love the unloveable, to love our enemies. When we take time to look at our lives today, few of us will find that has yet been accomplished in our hearts; we remain self-centered most of the time. Yet every once in awhile, we find ourselves doing something for another out of the goodness of our hearts, with no desire to get anything in return, and we see a glimpse of the Kingdom of Love in our own lives.

Briefly, ever so briefly, perhaps only for a nanosecond, the groaning of creation is paused as the reality of compassion and self-giving love peeks through the veil, and we know deep within that God's Kingdom is coming and that God's will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.