Pentecost Homily

Last evening and today I celebrated four Masses in South Dakota prairie towns--Faith, Red Owl, and Mud Butte.  These places are served by a Polish priest who is part of the Rapid City Diocese and who went back home to visit his family.  He has quite a trek every weekend.  He lives in Faith and on Saturdays he drives over 60 miles to Red Owl for 4 PM Mass and then on Sundays he drives 40 miles to Mud Butte for 10 AM Mass.  Here's the homily I preached:

I want to begin with a question, but you're going to have to listen closely to it.  Do you have any "thems."  You know, as in "us" and "them." 

In the late 1960's when I was in high school, I was given a little reflection book by Malcolm Boyd entitled "Are You Running With Me Jesus?"  One reflection went like this:  "The definition of charity: No Them."

Our first reading (Acts 2: 1-11), the story of Pentecost, shows how diverse "Jews and converts to Judaism" from all over heard about "the mighty acts of God" in their own language as the apostles, uneducated Galileans, preached the good new of Jesus Christ to them.  The Holy Spirit had performed a miracle that brought about unity in the midst of the diversity of many languages.  All were able to hear and understand the Gospel.  All were included.

In the second reading from chapter 12 of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, we hear that all--"whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons"--are chosen to be part of the Body of Christ.  No one is excluded.  The Church has no "them." 

This is God's plan for humanity--a unity amidst diversity.  Humanity is made in the image and likeness of God.  God, as we will reflect upon more in next week's feast of the Most Holy Trinity, is a mystery of  One and Three.  God is Three Persons and One God.  There is diversity in the Divine Nature and unity.  Thus humanity, made in this image, is meant to be diverse but one.  We are not created to be the same or to be isolated individuals. We are made to be a communion of persons.  In God there is no "them," only "us." 

This unity amidst diversity is the work of the Holy Spirit, the bond of Love between the Father and the Son.  The Spirit unites us to God and to one another, making us one.  No "them."

In the Gospel (John 20: 19-23) Jesus said that the Father sent him. He was sent to reconcile humanity to God and with one another. 

The word "reconcile" comes from a Latin word which means "to make friends again."  Where sin separates us from God and one another, causing a break in our friendship, Jesus came to restore friendship.  Friends do not see each other as "them." 

As members of the Body of Christ we are now sent by him and empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue his work.  The apostles and those ordained after them continue this work through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  However, all the baptized are sent to bring about reconciliation.  We do that by forgiving one another, by works of mercy, and by our penance.  The idea of penitential prayers and acts is to balance out the wrong in the world with good, to repair the damage of sin. 

But what about the last line of the gospel: "whose sins you retain are retained?"  What sins are retained? 

It takes two to reconcile.  People may hurt you and you go to them to tell them that you forgive them.  But if they look at you and say, "I didn't do that; I didn't say that" or if they minimize the hurt by saying "Hey, that was nothing; get over it," then reconciliation has not taken place.  The hurt, the sin, has been retained.  You were ready to forgive but they were not ready to receive your forgiveness.

There may be instances where reconciliation doesn't happen because people do not admit their sin or excuse it.  They are not able to receive mercy.  Neither God nor we can force them to accept it without their realizing they need it and want it. 

Our responsibility is not to impose reconciliation on others.  It cannot be forced.  However, we must always  be ready to forgive, to make sure there is no obstacle in our hearts to reconciliation--no resentment, no bitterness.  In other words, we must never see others as "them."  We must pray for their conversion so that they will see their need for mercy and receive it.  God wants everyone to be reconciled--to be friends of God and one another. 

In the end, in heaven there will be no "them."  There will only be "us"--humanity reconciled in the Body of Christ. 

Union with God and One Another

I am at St. Nicholas church in Valentine, Nebraska this weekend.  All of Nebraska celebrated last Thursday as a holyday of obligation, the feast of the Ascension.  So today we are celebrating the 7th Sunday of Easter.  Here's my homily:

Imagine: at the Last Supper Jesus thought of you and prayed for you.  That's what today's Gospel (John 17: 20-26) tells us.  It says: "Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: 'Holy Father, I pray not only for them [the apostles], but also for those who will believe in me through their word...'"
And what was Jesus' prayer for us?  "That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.  And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me."

These are Jesus' last words to his apostles, his farewell address, before going to his death. Jesus prayed that they and we might be one with him and one with each other.

That makes sense.  If, as the first book of the Bible Genesis says, we are made in the image and likeness of God, then we are made not to be isolated individuals.  Rather, reflecting the loving communion that is the divine nature, we are made for communion.   We are created for union with God and the communion of saints.

And this communion is essential to evangelization, to spreading the good news of God's love.  Jesus said that the world will believe that Christianity is true when it sees Christians in loving union with one another, a union that is grounded in their union with God.

What makes this union possible?  First of all, the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son.  This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity which we will celebrate in two weeks.  Next week we will celebrate Pentecost, recalling the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary gathered in prayer in the upper room.  The Spirit came with great power in the form of tongues of fire.  It was the fire of love that united those who received that outpouring of the Spirit.  Those who saw the effects of the Spirit were amazed to hear the apostles preaching the good news and to understand them, even though they came from diverse countries and spoke and understood diverse languages.

The Spirit brought them together.  The people understood the preaching because the apostles spoke a universal language, the language of love.

Love usually involves feelings, but it is more than an emotion or sentiment.  It is ultimately an act of the will in which one desires the ultimate good of the other person no matter how one feels about him or her.  We see this in the First Reading (Acts 7: 55-60), the story of St. Stephen's martyrdom.

I don't know how Stephen felt about the people who stoned him to death, but I would suspect he didn't like them.  Yet, he loved them.  How do we know this?  Because he prayed for them, saying "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."  He prayed for their salvation, not their condemnation.  He prayed that they would experience God's mercy and be converted.

This was a powerful prayer for their conversion that was joined to Stephen's sacrificial suffering.  And it had a great effect on one of those present--Saul.  Stephen's prayer was a channel for God's mercy to one day reach into Saul's hear.  It led to a conversion.

Do you remember that conversion?  Saul was on the road to Damascus intending to round up Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains to be imprisoned and tried.  He encountered a blinding vision of the risen and ascended Christ on that road.  And what did Jesus say to him?  "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  He didn't say, "Why are you persecuting my Church?"  Nor did he say, "Why are you persecuting my followers?"  He asked "Why are you persecuting ME?"  He was confirming a teaching that he gave in a parable that we find in Matthew 25: whatever we do or do not do for or to one another, we do or do not do for or to Christ himself.  Jesus was teaching Saul that we and Jesus are one.  He is the Head and we are the Body.  We are in union with Jesus and one another just as the parts of a physical body form a one flesh union.

And that brings us to the second way that we enter into union with God and one another--through the Holy Eucharist, a mystery that we will be celebrating three weeks from today, after we have celebrated Pentecost and the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

See how it all fits together, these three feasts?  We have the mystery of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit to whom Jesus was referring when he said in today's Gospel: "Righteous Father, ... I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."  The Holy Spirit is, as we said, the love between the Father and the Son. The Spirit reveals to us the mystery of God, Three in One, the Holy Trinity in whose image we are made.  And in addition to the Holy Spirit bringing us into union with God and one another, there is the Holy Eucharist which brings about a one flesh union with Jesus, God-made-flesh, and communion in the Body of Christ, the Church.

Now the challenge is to live this oneness with God and God's other children.  This is what Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper.  There are so many divisions among Christians. There is so much conflict in the world.  The answer to Jesus' prayer begins here, with you, with me.  Like Stephen we are called to pray for our enemies, those who have hurt us.  We are called to let go of resentments and pray that there may be healing in our relationships.  And we are to pray for those people in other parts of the world who hate us and want to see our destruction. We pray for their conversion, that they may come to know the love of God, receive that love, and be brought into union with God and us.  We pray for their ultimate salvation..

This was so important to Jesus that in his final words to his apostles, before going to his suffering and death, he made this his prayer.  It is so important to him that from time to time he sends his own Mother to beg us to pray for the conversion of sinners.  Only when the prayer of Jesus is realized in us, in the Church, and in the world will there be peace.

Post-Pentecost

When I was growing up before the Second Vatican Council, the Sundays after Pentecost were known as the Third or Fourth or Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. That gave the feast of Pentecost an importance that I fear has been lost as we return now to Ordinary Time, which really means Ordered or Numbered Time.  The time after Pentecost, both the first one centuries ago and our celebration last Sunday, is the time in which the Church carries on the mission of preaching the Gospel and reconciling.  This two-fold mission was made clear in the readings for Pentecost.

The first reading (Acts 2: 1-11) tells the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost Sunday. The power of the Holy Spirit was expressed in two ways--wind and fire.  Jesus compared the Spirit to wind in John 3: 8: "The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."  We get the word "respiration" from the word "spirit" and the Hebrew word for "spirit" is "ruah" or "breath."  The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God.

On the first Sunday after Pentecost we celebrate a feast in honor of the Most Holy Trinity. God the Father, the Creator, reveals the divine nature of love by creating. In doing so we see that God is "for us."  The Second Person of the Trinity is "Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us'" (Matthew 1: 23).  The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is the breath that shows us God is "within us."  We are temples of the Holy Spirit.  God is as close to us, and as essential, as our breath.

Fire gives light and warmth. It also purifies and unites.  Precious metals like gold are placed in a furnace to melt and be purified of dross or impurities.  The Holy Spirit comes to give the light of truth, to warm and heal hearts, and to purify us so that we may be one.

Sin divides and separates.  Early in history (see Genesis 11: 1-9), human beings rejected God's call to fill the earth. In fear, they clung together and tried to attain the glory and power of God on their own.  To fulfill the plan for human beings to fill the earth, God confused their language and scattered them.  But this scattering and confusion of language led to sinful divisions.  Diversity became the source of conflict rather than richness in unity.  The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost began the process of reconciliation and unity.  The tongues or languages remained diverse but there was an amazing and miraculous understanding.

Before the Spirit came at Pentecost, the Son of God had to suffer, die, rise, and ascend.  Jesus prepared the Church to carry on his work when he met the apostles in the upper room, gave them his peace, sent them as the Father had sent him, and empowered them to carry on his work of reconciliation by breathing on them (John 20: 19-23).  He said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."  Forgiveness requires two parties--one who extends forgiveness and the other who receives it. God is always ready to forgive, but people may reject that forgiveness. People may not recognize that they have done anything wrong that requires forgiveness and so they do not ask for it nor receive it.  These are the sins that are "retained."

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation Jesus, through the priest, sends the Holy Spirit upon those who ask for mercy. The Spirit comes to purify and heal.  There is no individual sin.  As St. Paul wrote in the second reading (1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13), there is one body that consists of many parts.  Each of us is a cell within the Body of Christ.  The health of one cell affects the entire Body, just as one cancer cell affects a person's physical health.  Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God who is a Trinity of Persons.  God is not an amalgam of individuals but a communion of Persons. Made in God's image and likeness we are made for communion.  Theologians have said that the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son.  The Spirit is the love that brings the Body of Christ together into one.

One of the invocations in the Litany of the Sacred Heart is "Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity."  The fire that burns in the Heart of Jesus is the Holy Spirit who purifies, heals, and unites all who come to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  In that Heart and through the power of the Holy Spirit, all human beings can truly be one, one with God and one as God's family.

May the coming month of June, dedicated as it traditionally is to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the following Post-Pentecost months until Advent, make us one in the Heart of Jesus.

[The icon in this post is from the hand of Brother Christopher, a Carmelite Hermit. His God-inspired work can be found at the website for the Carmelite Hermitage of the Blessed Virgin Mary.]

The Holy Spirit, the Reconciler

I celebrated Mass this morning for the Sisters of St. Francis at Clare Hall today. Here is my homily:

In today’s gospel (John 20: 19-23), Jesus confronts the fear of the apostles on the evening of his resurrection. They had huddled together behind locked doors, afraid that they would be crucified next. And, no doubt, they were afraid when Jesus suddenly appeared before their eyes. Is he a ghost? Has he returned to condemn them for abandoning him in his hour of need? Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” and showed them his wounds, the signs of his everlasting love. He repeated, “Peace be with you.”

Fear divides people and leads to conflict and war. The Original Sin had its roots in fear. Our ancestral parents were afraid that God had not told them the truth about the trees in their garden. Could they really trust God? Wouldn’t it be better to get control, to have power, so that they would not have to depend on God?

Fear led to mistrust which led to rebellion. The result was immediate: separation and alienation from God and each other. Division.

Jesus came to take away sin and division. He came to reconcile humanity to God and to one another, to bring unity amidst diversity instead of division. He sent the Holy Spirit to continue this work of reconciliation and peace-making.

As a result, there are many different tongues or languages but one message. There are many parts but one body. There are many different gifts, forms of service, and workings but “the same Spirit,” “the same Lord,” “the same God” (see the second reading, 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7, 12-13).  Notice the Trinitarian formula: Spirit, Lord, God, or Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, God the Father.  The Holy Trinity is the source of unity in diversity because this is God’s very nature—a Communion of Divine Persons.  Three and One, as we will celebrate next Sunday on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

Humanity is made in the image and likeness of God who is diverse and one.  Human beings are not isolated individuals.  Fear and sin isolate and divide.  The Holy Spirit renews the image of God in humanity and brings about the communion of persons, making the many parts into one body. 

Jesus commissions the apostles in the gospel to continue his work of reconciliation and peace-making: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  He empowers the Church to overcome sin that divides, breathing on the apostles and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 

What does this retention of sin mean?  Reconciliation is a two-way street. One who has been hurt badly may extend forgiveness to the offending party, but if the other does not admit the wrong, accept responsibility for it, recognize the need for forgiveness and receive it from the one extending it, then reconciliation has not occurred. The sin is retained.  Forgiveness was extended but not accepted.

We must, like God, be always ready to forgive. And when the forgiveness we extend is not received, we must continue to pray, sacrifice, and make reparation, as Jesus did. We must do all we can to repair the damage that sin has caused, the division.

This is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to carry on Jesus’ work of reconciliation and peace-making.

Wind, Fire, and Water

It's 50 days since our Easter celebration and we end this Season with the Feast of Pentecost. We remember how the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary as they prayed in the upper room.  The apostles were transformed. They went from cowards to bold witnesses.  The readings at Mass today are filled with symbols of the One who transformed them.

First we have wind.  Think for a moment of its qualities.  It is unseen and can be a gentle cooling agent or it can be a powerful force that destroys.  In light of the Gospel from John 20:19-23, the wind or breath of Jesus Himself, destroys sin and brings forgiveness.  Breath gives life. It is close to us and essential, just like the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent at Pentecost and at each of our baptisms.

Secondly we have fire.  Again, think for a moment of its qualities.  It is mysterious. It brings light and warmth and, in the ancient world, protected humans from dangerous beasts. Like wind, it can also destroy. Metals that are placed in it are purified.  Just so, we are purified by the Holy Spirit.

I'd like to add another symbol that we don't find in the readings at Mass today--water, the symbol of baptism, that moment when each of us became a temple or dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.  In the second reading in today's Office of Readings in the Breviary, St. Irenaeus speaks of the unifying nature of water.  He writes: "Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. ... Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul." 

We find this theme of unity amidst diversity in the second reading at Mass from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians.  He writes of many gifts and parts but one body that is made one by the Holy Spirit which joins each member to Christ.  When sin enters into the picture, diversity becomes a source of division and war.  But when the Spirit comes, diversity leads to a rich, harmonious unity.  Like the body.  The Holy Spirit has been called "the Soul of the Church, the Body of Christ," and as the human soul gives life to the physical body, so the Holy Spirit gives life to each member of the Body of Christ and to the entire Body. 

It has also been said that the Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son.  This is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which we will be celebrating next Sunday.  God is one and God is three.  Humans are made in the image and likeness of this Trinitarian Communion of Love.  We are not individuals doing our own thing, like cancer cells in a body, but we are joined to one another through the Spirit, the bond of love in the Trinity.  The human family was created for a harmonious unity that reflects Trinitarian love.  Sin breaks that unity and so Jesus breathes on His Body, the Church, the breath of mercy, the Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of all the faithful so that we may truly be one and reveal the one, true God who is Love itself to the world!

The Breath of God

I was recently asked a question: "What's new about Pentecost?" Today, Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate a great event--the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles who were gathered in prayer, as tradition has it, in "the upper room" in Jerusalem. Mary had already experienced the overshadowing the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. When Jesus appeared to the Apostles on Easter night, as we hear in today's Gospel (John 20: 19-23), "he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Obviously Pentecost was not the first appearance of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit was present from the beginning of creation and throughout the history of Israel.

The first verses of Genesis are: "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters." That's the New American Bible translation. The Jerusalem Bible is a bit different and identifies the wind that "swept over the waters" as the Spirit: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water." It was the Spirit--God's wind, God's breath--that brought order to what was a "formless void": "By the Lord's word the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their hosts" (Psalm 33: 6).

The Spirit of God helped Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and govern them wisely. When the work became too much for one person, God shared his Spirit with seventy elders (see Numbers 11: 16-25), including two whose names were on the list of those chosen to help Moses but who were not present for the ceremony. When Joshua tried to stop them, Moses replied, "Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!" (11: 29). The Spirit even came upon an enemy of Israel--Balaam--who was commissioned to curse them but instead, after "the spirit of God came upon him," blessed them (Numbers 24: 1-13).

This Spirit raised up others leaders for God's Chosen People--the Judges--and empowered them with gifts to lead the people in God's ways. Thus, we have Othniel, about whom is written: "The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel" (Judges 3: 10). The Spirit also "enveloped" Gideon (Judges 6: 34), "came upon Jephthah" (Judges 11: 29), and "stirred" the long-haired Samson (Judges 13: 25).

After the time of the Judges, the Spirit of God came upon the Kings the Israel and the Prophets. The Spirit of God "rushed upon" Saul (1 Samuel 10: 10; 11: 6) and then, after Saul sinned and refused to follow the Spirit's direction, the prophet Samuel anointed David and "the spirit of the Lord rushed upon" him (1 Samuel 16: 13).

Isaiah, in words that Jesus used at the beginning of his teaching ministry, declared: "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me" (61: 1). The Prophet Micah said: "I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, with authority and with might" (3: 8). When Ezekiel was called, it was the Spirit who "entered" him (2: 2) and "lifted" him up (3: 12) and "seized" him so that he went forth "spiritually stirred" (3: 14). The Prophet Joel, echoing the desire of Moses that all would have the prophetic spirit, anticipated an outpouring of God's Spirit with these words: "I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; Even upon the servants and the handmaids, in those days, I will pour out my spirit" (3: 1-2).

From this brief survey it's clear that the Spirit of God was at work in creation and in the lives of people from the beginning. What's so special, then, about Pentecost?

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost in a new way to make people a dwelling place and to transform them into true children of God. Through baptism in "water and Spirit" (John 3: 5), each Christian becomes "the temple of God" in whom "the Spirit of God dwells" (1 Corinthians 3: 16). Through baptism we "received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry Abba, 'Father!' The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8: 15-16).

The word "spirit" comes the Latin "spiritus" which comes from the Latin verb "spirare" meaning "to breathe" or "to blow." The Holy Spirit is God's Breath blown into each Christian giving him or her supernatural life. As our natural breath is essential for our body's life, so the Breath of God is essential for our soul's life, for the life that will continue after our natural breath leaves our body.

A good prayer practice involves praying with your breath. This can be especially helpful during times of anxiety or stress. On a purely natural level, it helps the body to relax by taking deep breaths. So why not make those deep breaths a prayer? As you breathe in, imagine God breathing the Holy Spirit into you. Hold the breath and imagine the Holy Spirit filling you with life and strength and all the spiritual gifts you need at that particular time. Then breathe out, sending the Holy Spirit upon the people or situations that are causing you fear and anxiety, anger and resentment.

After teaching his disciples the prayer we know today as the "Our Father," Jesus spoke to them (and to us) about prayer. He said: "If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?" (Luke 11: 13). In saying this Jesus reminds us that we are beloved children of God our Father and that the best gift we can receive is the Holy Spirit. All other gifts pale in comparison. This is why we join our voices with Christians everywhere praying "Come Holy Spirit!" The Holy Spirit has come but we tend to forget the Gift we've been given. We tend to lose our awareness and appreciation of the Gift of God given to the Church at Pentecost and to each of us at baptism. With our celebration of Pentecost we are reminded that God is as close to us as our breath, and just as essential for life, true life.