Dear Friends,
Happy Birthday Church!!!! Each year at Pentecost we celebrate the birth of the Church. At Christmas it is the birth of Jesus, at Pentecost the Church’s birth. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples makes the Church possible. The story we hear in the reading today talks about a transformation that took place; a change from a group of men and women hiding in the shadows, afraid that what happened to Jesus would happen to them, to a group of men and women on fire with Good News for the world to hear. Christmas invites us to meditate on the quiet solitude of the crib and Easter encourages us to stand and wonder at the entrance of the empty tomb. Pentecost awakens us to the startling communal dimension of our faith. We are not alone as Christians, but we are a part of larger community of faith. We believe that the incarnate and risen Jesus continues to work with this immense, sinful, gifted community to heal a wounded world.
It was fire that the Spirit bequeathed to our ancient brothers and sisters. They spoke of something that made a difference in their lives, something or someone they loved. They spoke of a truth greater than all other truths. St. Paul tells us that the something they experienced was enough to make them feel like one body, unified in a common good and goal. They cherished differences, but only because the different gifts of the Spirit revealed the one splendor of the gift they shared.
The Church is nearing her 2000th birthday! These many years later we need to ask, are we still proclaiming the Good News? Are we still on fire with the divine? I frequently ask students if they think their faith is worth sharing. The answer I hope for is this: If you love someone or something enough, you want to share it. Remember the first time you fell in love? If you are in love, you can’t wait to tell someone else. If you love what it means to be a Christian, a Catholic, then it makes all the difference in the world that you give this gift to the ones you love.
Often times, we Catholics fail to tell others about our faith, our love of Jesus. Maybe we see our love of God as a secret love, like having an affair. Maybe we are afraid of what others will think of our love. Maybe they will make fun of our love and call us crazy. So we keep quiet. We become like the fearful apostles in the upper room. What can we do to change this?
Perhaps we need to gather in the upper room again, and pray that God will fill our hearts with the same fire that came down on the apostles at Pentecost, transforming us once again. Let me end with a Pentecost homily from Pope Leo written in the middle of the 5th century:
“O how swift is the word of wisdom, and where God is master how quickly the lesson is learnt! One needs no interpretation in order to understand, no practice in order to gain facility, no time in order to study. ‘The Spirit of truth breathes where he will,’ and each nation’s own language has become common property in the mouth of the Church. And so, ever since that day, the clarion call of the gospel has rung out; since the day of Pentecost a rain of charisms, a river of blessings, has watered every desert and dry land, for the Spirit of God has swept over the waters to renew the face of the earth, and a blaze of new light has shone out to dispel our former darkness. In the light of those flaming tongues the word of the Lord has shone out clearly, and a fiery eloquence has been enkindled which is charged with the energy to enlighten, the ability to create understanding, and the power to burn away sin and destroy it.”
Peace,
Fr. Damian