Homily for Pentecost
It is sad and frightening to see such violence, such division; here in our biggest little city. Here so close to home. It creates anger because we expect our own to act better.
God; to be Christian means to believe in One God and Three Persons. God is Trinity; God is Unity; God is diversity. These are inherent of God, therefore inherent of humanity. The Holy Spirit, part of the Divine community of God, actively binds the community as one. Love acts as the binding force. Love meaning to see the goodness of the other and desire to bring forth that Goodness. The Father, so complete in Love, sees and knows the Goodness of the Son and gives of himself completely to the Son. The Son, so complete in Love, sees, knows and accepts the Love of the Father totally, and in response gives of himself completely to the Father. This exchange of Love, ongoing, dynamic, energetic is the Holy Spirit.
God created us to accept the same Holy Spirit and to be a part of this ongoing, dynamic, energetic, diverse community of the Trinity. ALL people are created for this.
The community of Catholics remains incredibly diverse (despite sinful attempts to diminish this). We celebrate such a richness of cultures, traditions, spiritualities, languages. Even here in our diocese, beyond the Latin rite which is most of you, we have Ruthenian Rites, Syro Malabar, Syro Malankar, Ukranians. We worship in English, Tagalog, Spanish, Korean and Tongan; probably even more. We have some many other ethnicities from which we can express our Thanks to God.
Our readings give us two intrinsic aspects of the Power of the Spirit. Luke, through the Acts of the Apostles, writes of how the Spirit formed the Disciples to be able to speak to all people. The Spirit drives the disciples to the people, all people This was the energetic pentecostal experience many of us think of.
John’s gospel on the other hand describes a more quiet, inward focus. The Spirit comes to heal. Jesus breathes onto them the Spirit to bring about wholeness within. The Spirit comes to help them be complete in love.
For peace to spread, we need to be open to peace within ourselves.
The Spirit helps us too be complete in love, to complete as humans. Healed by this divine love, we can create community, we can respect diversity. We can see beyond the “me”. We can and will see the good in ALL persons.
When we refuse to believe in the goodness of others. We utterly reject God.
Racism, and all the -isms that plague our world, are wholesale rejections of God’s love, God’s spirit, God's will. We reject Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
We as country, which claims to be “under God”, we have a wound that needs to be healed. Racism wounds us deeply. We have too many people who choose to not believe in the good of others; fearful of others. This has lead to murder and so many forms of suffering. We created hell here on earth; when we are to create heaven. This poison exists all over too, unfortunately.
Violence and death mark our streets even as over 100,000 persons have died from the coronavirus. A disproportionate number of human persons, these mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, from our black and impoverished communities.
Racism exists in blatant and subtle ways. As long as it exists, it is a rejection of God, of God’s love for all people. It is a sin. I daresay a mortal sin.
Yet, a sin for a sin never resolves anything. Violence for violence leads to more violence. Jesus utterly rejects violence. He reprimands the disciples who wish to call fire from heaven on villages that refuse them. He chides Peter who attacks the servant in the garden. He stands before Pilate and dispels the need of force.
What can we do?
All of us must open ourselves to the Spirit, beg the Spirit to come within, heal those wounds. We beg the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the needs of our brothers and sisters, open our eyes to good of our brothers and sisters; and then GO and act on that love. Our only response to love is to go and love.
Sr. Helen Prejean, famous for her ministry to those on Death Row, in her memoir, “River of Fire” wrote how she, who was raised in New Orleans was blind to the racism of her community. It took decades for her eyes to be opened to see it; how she contributed to it. What helped her, beyond the Spirit, was working within the African American community itself. She saw human persons loved by God; diminished by the fear, hate and greed of a white community.
All of us stand in need of healing. All of us hide in fear in some parts of our inner rooms. Jesus comes, desiring to breathe into us the Spirit.
Then we must go in response to the Spirit to name the darkness within us and our society, and then work to heal all.
We must respond as Jesus did and speak up for the dignity of all Persons for all persons universally have a right to have a life.
We must respond as Jesus did and lift up those are impaired through injustice, and give them justice so that can walk freely.
Will we accept?
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come
from thy bright heav'nly throne;
come, take possession of our souls,
and make them all thine own.
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