Auden: the miracle of Pentecost

Sunday, May 27, 2012
    Pentecost
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
    —Acts 2:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is extraordinary that sects of religious enthusiasts, from the Montanists down to the Catholic Apostolics, should have imagined that to make verbal noises which nobody else could understand was evidence of Divine Inspiration, a repetition of the miracle of Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost was exactly the opposite, the miracle of instantaneous translation—everybody could understand when everybody else was saying.
    ... W. H. Auden (1907-1973), A Certain World, London: Faber and Faber, 1971, p. 170 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, with You there are no barriers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
BDTC    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt