Pentecost
Deer are a wonderful candidate for domestication. They would provide humanity with an animal that would be able to forage in forested regions unlike sheep, goats, or cattle. Deer are delicious, fertile, mature reasonably quickly and are not terribly fussy eaters. A domesticated deer would provide humanity with a way to have forests become more agriculturally fruitful. In fact the Greeks and the Romans tried to domesticate fallow deer, but were unsuccessful.
The primary reason the deer remains undomesticated is that it is extremely skittish. It is afraid of every sound and every movement. It is even afraid of other deer that are not part of its own close family. When approached they run away and when they realize that they are in an enclosed space they will try to escape. In fact, deer will exert such extreme efforts when trying to escape that will even damage their own muscles just from the sheer intensity of their exertion. Deer can actually end up literally being crippled by their own fear.
At the start of today’s Gospel we find the disciples locked inside crippled “for fear of the Jews.” Yet by the end of the reading from acts we find them astounding Jews from every nation under heaven by their proclamations. The tongues of fire descending from heaven were able to transform their fear into courage. Transforming their craven natures into bold preachers. Their ‘domestication’ process drove out any fear they might have had to proclaim Jesus as Lord or to call God their own father as Jesus Himself had done.
We know that 11 of the 12 apostles died as martyrs and that all of them suffered physically and ostracization for the faith. That courage and fearlessness is something that we venerate and is an aspect of their character that enabled them to live out their vocation. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit today on Pentecost is what enabled them to do that. By obeying Jesus' instructions on the day of the Ascension they had signaled their willingness to receive the Holy Spirit and everything that followed afterwards.
A common challenge for us as humans is dealing with that fear and its cousin anxiety which stems from our thoughts about others and what they might do to harm us and the many ways they might be able to accomplish that harm. While it is certainly prudent to have such considerations in mind, such fears and worries cannot lead us into a state of paralysis. We can’t become like deer in the headlights with the soul so overstimulated that it becomes incapable of any activity. The disciples in that room were in such a state of inaction by fear. The grace poured out upon them on this day of Pentecost enabled them to overcome their fear. They were able to overcome that fear because when they accepted that grace on that day they were finally able to see that all those physical trials and social scorn they feared were actually just ways they would become more like Christ. That same Christ whom they had just seen overcome death itself and ascend into heaven. By looking forward to what they had feared they were able to do those healings, miracles and preaching in the book of Acts recounts. They did none of that stuff before the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Today is a good day to reflect on the fears and worries that rule our lives and turn us into skittish deer instead of the tranquil sheep we are called to be. On this day may we invite the Holy Spirit to come upon us and turn those anxieties into a path for us to be conformed into Christ.