Today marks the end of the Easter season as we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost. Pentecost is not a separate feast of Easter but rather the last phase of one broad liturgical sweep - suffering, death, resurrection, ascension and the giving of the Spirit.

Easter, therefore, is one mystery comprising different moments. While the Ascension and Pentecost come six and seven weeks after Easter Sunday respectively, the unity of the paschal mystery must be borne in mind.

Pentecost celebrates that day when the Holy Spirit was given to the Church. This important teaching is somewhat lost now. In today's first reading and the gospel we see the Spirit is given to the community of disciples: " When Pentecost day came around, the apostles had all met in one room . " (Act 2:1) and, " After saying this he breathed on them and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit' " (Jn 20:22 ).

While John's gospel also emphasises the importance of the Spirit in the life of the individual (e.g. Jesus' dialogue with the Samaritan woman), when it comes to Pentecost the focus is on the community. The Spirit is given to the community - hierarchy and laity - to guide it in the way of truth.

This communal emphasis on the role of the Spirit is unfortunately being replaced by a disproportionately individualistic one.

Today it is fashionable to speak of "Jesus and me" and spiritualities of this kind abound. Under the influence of New Age, people refuse to be identified with organised religion; instead of saying they are "religious" they claim to be "spiritual".

They want Jesus but not his Church; they affirm the Spirit but only in regard to personal self-fulfillment. They fail to realise it is a community - the Church - that preserved the very teachings of Jesus they appeal to or find attractive.

DISTORTED SPIRITUALITIES

This misunderstanding can only lead to the flourishing of distorted spiritualities that neglect the social dimension of religion. We hear it in the expression: "I don't need to go to church; I can pray at home."

However, Church communities are important because they socialise people in the practice of the faith, which does not only have an individualist aspect but a communal one as well.

In Church we are taught to be kind to strangers, helpful to the elderly, how to work together especially when there are personality clashes, to fight for justice and to recognise how much we depend on each other's prayers. And, in this month of May we are schooled in the importance of Mary in the life of the Church.

If we neglect this social dimension of the Spirit we will be guilty of practising compartmentalised religion: we will give to needy individuals but be unbothered by the 30% of our population who live below the poverty line; we will give donations to churches but be unmoved by the rights of workers; we will treasure personal peace but fail to recognise the evil of war.

However, to call oneself Christian is to be immersed in a community founded by Jesus that proclaims faith in a God who not only loves me, but who loves whole populations with an equally abiding and unconditional love.

Throughout the Synod and after, Archbishop Edward Gilbert has been preaching about a renewal of faith. May the Spirit given to us at that first Pentecost renew us as a community and help us to witness to Christ in the world.