EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 18

Ju1-Aug 1999

Preparing for the
..........MillenniuM

Bishop Vincent Nichols




















Recently I heard the cynical comment that the only people talking about the millennium are those who are promoting events to mark it; no one else is really interested. Perhaps there is some truth in that. Certainly, the bigger the plans, the more the talk about the importance of the moment. Who doesn't know about the Dome at Greenwich? Or about the fact that entertainers are at least doubling their normal fees for New Years Eve 1999?

No doubt the parties are going to be grand. But what is the real issue? Well, two thousand years on the clock is quite a moment. But two thousand years of what? The only answer is that for the last two thousand years we have been struggling to understand, proclaim and follow the gift of truth given to us by God in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. So the real issue is that we use this moment to see how we have been doing and what we can learn from our own history.

Frankly, the picture is very mixed. A glance around the world, around our own society, shows how far we are from that order of things proclaimed by Jesus. The hungry are not fed; the naked are not clothed; the homeless are not cared for; the sick are left waiting, or neglected; the gift of peace is scorned; forgiveness is hard to find; the name of God is so often taken in vain in deed and word; respect and protection for the weakest, for the unborn, is frequently denied. The list could go on.

Yet the world is also full of people who are heroic in the efforts for the truth and values of the Gospel. Some are well known; many are not. In every street, in every community there are people who quietly get on with the work of the Gospel, reaching out to those in need, teaching the truths of the faith, searching out ways in which to bring people together to work for a better ordering of life, protesting in public over wrongs and injustices.

The history of the last two thousand years is the history of the work of the Holy Spirit. The gift by Christ of the Paraclete was the beginning of the Church; and the life of the Church is sustained every day by that same gift. All the good that is done springs from the hidden promptings of that Holy Spirit. So if we are to prepare to celebrate the true meaning of the Millennium, and if we are to be ready to play our part in the next period of history, then we have to open ourselves anew to the gift of the Holy Spirit. How do we do this?

The gift comes from Christ. So in our minds and hearts we must be close to him. Ponder his Word every day. When we read the Scriptures and hear them proclaimed in Church, God speaks personally to us. Listen to that voice. Follow its promptings. In the Mass and in the Blessed Sacrament, Christ comes to us in his greatest act of self-giving. Go there. Pray the Mass. Let us put ourselves in the presence of the Lord. He will guide and comfort us. He will fill our hearts with his most precious gift.

The invitation to be filled and guided by the Holy Spirit comes to us every day. If we are totally preoccupied with all the tasks we face, or with all the problems that overwhelm us, then there is little chance that the Spirit can find a way in. Sometimes the spirit of self-pity can occupy our hearts. At other times, we might we taken up by a spirit of envy, or indignation, or despair. Only the Holy Spirit of God, given us in Jesus Christ, can truly lead and guide our hearts to truth and peace, and give us the strength to live out that truth.

It is a great privilege to live through the opening of a new Millennium. Not surprisingly, the year 2000 is proclaimed by the Church to be a Holy Year: a year of special invitation from the Lord. It is a year in which we can realise again the honor we are given as disciples of the Lord to work on this new, fresh page of history. We prepare for it by putting ourselves at the disposal of the Lord.

Our prayer every day can be simple, and heartfelt: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love: send forth your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.
Bishop Vincent Nichols

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