Great successes do not come without great failures along the way. In Athens Paul fell into the trap of imitating worldly wisdom, trying to impress his audience with knowledge. The Greeks were used to orators going on about many things, so they gave this stranger a hearing too, but only to laugh at him in the end. A very humbled and sobered Paul traveled on to Corinth determined to learn from this experience. The result was that the failure of Athens was followed by the triumph of Corinth where Paul preached the simple truth about Christ.

Paul's audience in Athens probably did not hear the wonderful message that God is the very air we breathe - 'in him we live and move and have our being'. We who have grown up on the folly of the cross should check whether we breathe that pure air of God's presence in prayer each day.

The very short gospel today gives us a glimpse of the community of love that we call the Trinity. The outpouring of the Spirit is the mutual gift of both Father and Son to a Church infinitely loved, and called to share that triune love as much as it dares. The Church herself becomes in reality a community of love and self-giving, not counting the cost.