"There appeared to them tongues as of fire . . ."
Sunday readings: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/051516-pentecost-day.cfm
Acts 2: 1-11
1 Cor 12: 3-7, 12-13
Jn 20: 19 - 23
I remember
well as part of Masters work towards a degree in Pastoral Counseling when we
spoke of the counseling situation. Part
of the conversation was about telling the truth to ones counselor and how
difficult that may be at times. We may
feel the same in the sacrament of reconciliation if the issue is to confess
something that is shameful or embarrassing.
The saying
goes: “We lie because we fear the truth may
hurt us.” Think for example about small children who get in to trouble with
their parents. “Ok, who started this?”
asks the parent. “I didn’t, he/she
started it!” Meanwhile, the parent well
knows that their son or daughter is the culprit. Why did the guilty child outright lie to
their parents? Because they knew if they
tell the truth they would get in to trouble.
As adults
we find our lives far more complicated but I think the same principle does
apply. Marriages get in to trouble because one of the spouses attempts to hide
something from the other. They may
create the illusion that all is fine but eventually the truth is revealed in a
way that could be very painful or maybe helpful depending on the issue.
If I tell
the truth in a court of law, as I am obliged to do, it may bring certain
punishment on the accused or me but in the end it opens the door to
reconciliation as it does in the sacrament of penance. There, the truth will not hurt me but will
heal me.
On this
beautiful Feast of Pentecost, that of the Holy Spirit, we celebrate that moment
of truth that was revealed to the Apostles in the upper room: How Jesus will
remain present to them and to the Church until he comes again. In our readings this day we hear of bold
preaching; about a risen Christ who appears truly alive again and breathes on
the startled disciples to grant them his Spirit. We hear of wind and fire and diverse ancient
languages spoken miraculously by simple uneducated men who were temporarily in
a holding pattern about their next move. The confusion of Babel is now healed
by the Spirit of truth poured out to them. That Spirit will energize and
protect the truth which Jesus taught for all time to come. It will not harm but
only bring life.
Jesus, no
longer contained on this earth, sends his Spirit that moves beyond differences like
a blowing wind which cannot be confined.
In the continuation of our first reading from Acts 2 we hear of 3,000
people converted and baptized that Pentecost morning due to the Apostles now
courageous witness and preaching. So,
this Sunday we are confronted with power and tremendous possibility as the
Spirit reveals God’s plan to heal our apathy and isolation.
I think
some key phrases from our readings are powerful yet we could easily miss their
implications. From Acts 2: 1-11: “they were all in one place together . . .
There were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in
Jerusalem. At this sound, (the blowing
wind of the Spirit), they gathered in a large crowd . . . we hear them speaking
in our own tongues of the almighty acts of God.”
From 1
Corinthians 12, our second reading, we read: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
different forms of service but the same Lord . . . the same God . . . as a body
is one through it has many parts . . . are one body.”
What is
the point of these verses? - Unity in
diversity. From a broken and fractured
and alienated world, the power of the Spirit brings together as one: all in one
place . . . gathered in a large crowd . . . we hear in our own tongues . . .
different gifts but same Spirit . .. one Lord, one God, many parts but one
body.
Rather
than seeing differences as a point of separation, the Spirit of God sees them
as a reason for union. This truth
reveals to us that in spite of differences we are all loved by the same God; we
are all his children each made in his image and likeness as the Book of Genesis
reminds us. We all have a meaning and purpose to contribute to the whole.
The beauty
of creation and of human life is expressed in a kind of kaleidoscopic way like
bits of colored glass that by themselves have no useful purpose but put together
in a pattern they become parts of the whole.
It is the Spirit of truth which we all were born into through baptism
and confirmation that makes us one; each in its own giftedness.
As the
risen Lord appears to his disciples in our Gospel passage, in a place where
they were hiding in fear behind locked doors, he offers them “Shalom,”
Peace. The sign of the Spirit in our
diversity should be peace offered from Christ to one another. It is the truth of knowing that our sins can
be forgiven, that we are called to a new way of living, one centered in love,
and don’t have to remain in separation or darkness without hope. Even in the midst of whatever troubles life
may bring us, we can find peace and hope to rise above that darkness. The Spirit promises this to us and he is
truth itself.
When we
gather for word and sacrament we do so not as individual isolated families or couples
or singles. We gather in one place to
welcome the risen Christ among us who feeds us with himself as we continue this
journey of life in service to him and one another.
So, we
have a choice; a kind of proposition that God has made to this humanity: to embrace the power of unity and peace or to
remain in division and our own arrogance of self-superiority. There is much that could divide us from
politics to culture to economics and education.
But today’s Fest is a reminder that God has created a family of the
Spirit and a place to enter with Christ himself as shepherd. The Spirit guards
the truth among us so we have a direction to follow in confidence
O God, who bestow heavenly gifts upon your Church,
safeguard, we pray, the grace you have given,
that the figt of the Holy Spirit poured out upon her
may retain all its force
and that this spiritual food
may gain her abundance of eternal redemption
Through Christ our Lord.
(Prayer after Communion)
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