In a recent article, Dan Hotchkiss writes this: Religion transforms people; no one touches holy ground and stays the same. Religious leaders stir the pot by pointing to the contrast between life as it is and life as it should be, and urging us to close the gap. Religious insights provide the handhold that people need to criticize injustice, rise above self-interest, and take risks to achieve healing in a wounded world. Religion at its best is no friend to the status quo. (from The Art of Governance, The Alban Weekly Issue 247, April 20, 2009) 

This is the message of the life of faith, the meaning of the events of Easter and Pentecost.  As we learn about how much God loves us, as we encounter the Risen Christ, as we allow the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives, we are transformed.  We can never be the same.  As Hotchkiss wrote, “No one touches holy ground and stays the same.”