Well, Church fans, for some reason Facebook has changed their protocols and I can no longer download videos or upload them to YouTube. I’ll see what I can do, but in the meantime, here is the text. The homily can be viewed as part of the Mass in the following video link.
Sorry to make your scroll through. Leave it to the good folks at Facebook to screw up a good thing.
Happy Pentecost! This weekend we also celebrate the closing of the Archdiocesan phase of the Synod. It is fitting that we do so.
Looking over the scriptures given to us this weekend, it’s striking how the Spirit is made manifest. First, by a sound like a driving wind, then tongues of flame, then the proclamation of the Gospel in all the known languages of the day.
You know, the whole speaking in different tongues thing reminds me of a story.
A man walks into a diner with his dog and asks for a sandwich for himself and three strips of bacon for his dog. The manager says, “Hey, we don’t allow pets in here.”
The man says, “No you don’t understand, this is a talking dog?”
“Really,” the manager says, “Show me.”
So the man says, “Hey, Rex, what’s on top of a house?”
The dog wags his tail and replies, “Roof!”
The manager is not impressed and again threatens to throw them out.
“No, no,” he can do more says the man, “Hey, Rex, what is sandpaper like?”
The dogs says, “Ruff!”
The manager starts to push them towards the door.
“No wait!” the man says, “Rex, who is the best baseball player of all time?”
The dog belts out, “Ruth!”
The manager throws them out.
As they are sitting dejected, the dog looks up quizzically at the man and says, “DiMaggio?”
I.
No surprise about the noise like a driving wind. As I’ve mentioned before, the Hebrew word for spirit, ruách (רוח), is the same word for breath and wind. This is the same word that was used to describe God breathing life into the first humans in the Book of Genesis. In a similar way, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Father breathed life into the Church at Pentecost. This is why Pentecost is often referred to as “the Birthday of the Church.” The same is true for each of us at our baptism. God breathes new life into us through the same Spirit that was given to the apostles and the Blessed Mother in the Upper Room.
The challenge for us is to be life giving for those around us. Our homes, our neighborhoods, our town, our state, our country, the world should be very different because we Christians are present.
As the Spirit breathes life into us, so let us breathe life into world around us.
Be that family that prays without apology
Say grace in restaurants.
Be that home in the neighborhood where everyone is welcome and at ease. Where everybody else’s kids want to hang out.
Go to the Northeast Community Council meetings. Even better, sit on the community council itself and change the tone of the conversation by your very presence.
(Their next meeting is June 16, BTW)
Our job as a parish is to become so much a part of our local community that they cannot imagine life without us.
So go! Be a life-giving force in the world…or at least that little part or the world in which God has placed you.
II.
The tongues of flame are intriguing. This can symbolize many things. Certainly, it can refer to the enlightenment bestowed on the apostles and Mary, as they receive all the gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.) But fire also reminds of the power of the love of God alive in the heart of the believer. The disciples on the road to Emmaus exclaimed, “Were not our hearts on fire within us…” as they conversed with Lord. (Acts 24:32) The Holy Spirit is not timid. Rather it bestows on us Christians the power to live the life to which we have been called.
The challenge for the Christian is to be open to receiving these gifts and perhaps more importantly to recognize them in others.
True leadership, true discipleship means recognizing one’s own gifts and offering them for the good of the community, but it also means recognizing those gifts in others and calling them forth.
Being small helps no one. Part of being a family of faith is to celebrate the gifts in others, encouraging others to develop them and offer them to the service of Christ and his Church.
I will say this now without apology. In the years that I served as Vocations Director for the Archdiocese, I learned that there is no shortage of vocations to the priesthood or any other vocation in the local Church.
However, what I did find was decided lack of trust in the Lord.
I’ve said it before, every member of the parish family has a critical role and a sacred obligation to call forth those whom the Spirit dedicates.
If you see someone who you discern has the gifts needed, you take that person aside and tell them,
“Hey, I see in you the gifts that would make a good
Priest, a good deacon, a good Director of Catechetical Ministries, a good catechist, a good lector, a good choir member…
Would you please consider it and I’m going to be praying for you.”
III.
Finally, nowhere is this more evident than in the proclamation of the Gospel in every known language at the time. I always sympathize with the lector this weekend as he or she is confronted with the litany of the languages of the known world. Not unlike our own time, the world in which the Church was born was a divided and confusing place. The multiplicity of languages was a part of that. This reminds of us of the confusion caused by humanity’s pride at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9). But with the gift of the Spirit, what was once confused is now clear. The Church and the Gospel message are truly universal in scope. Indeed, today the Church exists in every language and culture and the Good News is proclaimed in every corner of the world.
The challenge for us is to boldly proclaim that same Gospel message clearly so that it may as easily understood in this time and in this place.
To do so, your need to learn basics of our faith certainly, but more importantly, you need to be able to express to people why and how it makes a difference in your life.
There is a great temptation when someone asks about the Church, or challenges us about the Church her teachings, to try to defend the entire Church universal and all her doctrines.
That’s fine, if you can do so. But the best answer you can give them is to tell them about why YOU are Catholic and what your faith means to YOU.
It’s easy to criticize and dismiss a faceless, monolithic institution. Even we Catholics have a tendency to institutionalize our own Church. Often we find ourselves saying, “The Church should do this…or…The parish should do that.
But the Church is not institutional. It is personal. The Church has a face. Not surprisingly, it looks a like your face and mine.
Let me close with this one story.
A long time ago, in a parish far, far away, I was approached by a very faithful, well-meaning parishioner.
“Hey, Father,” he said, “There is this elderly woman named Mary who lives in the house next door to us. She’s getting on in years and she’s developed that macular degeneration. So she can’t drive any more. As a result, it’s tough for her to get to Mass. And I know she’s not the only one is a situation like this. I have an idea…
…do you see where this is going…
“The parish should buy a van so that we can pick up people like her and others.”
I looked him right in the eye and I said to him, “She lives right next door to you?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Why don’t you give her a ride?”
He looked at me dumbfounded for about three seconds. Then a light came on and said, “You know, the idea and never crossed my mind. Yeah! I’m going to do exactly that!”
And he did! And right up until they day she died, they would pick up Mary every Sunday morning and come to Mass together. The added bonus was that their daughter grew up with an extra grandmother who was as wise as she was generous.
THAT is what I’m talking about.
Pentecost is at once a commemoration and a challenge. We rejoice in the gift of the Spirit in the Upper Room. Now it is our task to continue the saving mission of Christ in our part of the world. This is our call. This is our sacred vocation.