Pentecost Building Unity

Physicists for decades have searched for the great theory of everything. They seek to explain how the material universe is connected, from the very very small of the quantum particle to the greatest size of all, the known universe. It challenges them. They believe in the unity of the universe, but do not know how to express it. They believe since as Fr. George Lemaitre, a Belgian Catholic Priest and Physicist theorized that the Universe began from a single point of extreme energy and density.

We humans crave unity as well, do we not? We crave it in our relationships with those we love. We wish for it among our connections in the community and in the world. We are social animals, even the best introvert among us, desire union with others, or at least an other.

This craving, almost a constant craving, forms our music and art. Think of the longing in our music, this ache of wanting to be connected. And then there is the other part that forms our music and art,,,when unity fails, when the ache becomes unfulfilled.

Physically (Materially) we crave unity because it protects us, supports us, and frankly we need at least one other person to reproduce.  Spiritually, we crave it because of how we have been created and in whose image we have been created.

God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the unity of all unities; the community of divinity, three and yet still so unified we speak of God as singular and multiple.  God created us to be an intimate part of this same unity. And we ache inward until it happens. Our Salvation is unity. And the irony is that the more aware of it that we are, the more we ache. Saints became focused on union with God and found in that union, unity with others.

If not aware of it, still that ache is there; it has little vocabulary, little comprehension of where it comes from and what will satisfy it…and we can see the craziness of people trying to fulfill it.

Jesus the Son reveals to us the Father’s will and desire for this unity; to be brought into the Family of the Trinity. Jesus reveals to the way to open ourselves to this grace, and be ready to receive this grace.  And this grace is the Holy Spirit; given to us by the Father, through the Son.  Grace sent upon us from Baptism, strengthened in Confirmation, manifested in all the Sacraments.

This Spirit induces within us the ache to be in union with God and with others.  The Spirit induces within us the desire to see the good in God, in others and in ourselves and to seek out that goodness.  The Spirit induces within us that desire to seek out others, to heal relationships that are strained, to listen, to forgive, to wait…

The disciples filled with the Spirit were impelled to go out to various cultures and peoples, to speak their own language and reveal God’s will, the nature of God. Not just on this Feast of the Pentecost, but throughout Acts, time after time, Paul, Peter, Philip, et al, it speaks of how the Spirit sent them to a certain place or a certain person to meet with them and help them.

This Same Spirit remains with us.

Yet, we can not sense that Spirit if we are too overcome with our ego and pride; too overcome with our fear and sadness; or we have not been trained.  The fruits of this, is not unity, but dissension and discord, violence and death.   It is racism and white power movements.  It is the acceptance of people in poverty.  It is the exclusion of others based on income.  This can exist within our homes and marriages, in our parish and school, in our diocese, certainly in our church. It will destroy us if we do not open ourselves to Christ, to the Spirit, to God.

I am wrapping up the report to the United States Bishops on our Vatican Synod Listening sessions, which then those Bishops, or more likely their underlings, will combine all the dioceses of the US and forward it to the Vatican. One of the strongest components of the Listening Sessions was the fruits and the desire of community and building community: of the need to be inclusive and welcoming. People experienced God in community and people want our communities to grow, to welcome others.

We crave unity.

God craves us to be unified. So much so that God forgives us, so that we can be open to the Spirit and progress.  So much so that God continually gives us his Son through the Bread and Wine, inviting us over and over and over and over to be open, to come to the family, to work to be unified.  We completed a Month of First Communions, children celebrating their first acceptance of that invitation…and our hope is that each week it is accepted.  We complete the Easter Season today, people accepting the invitation through Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist. Our hope remains for them to come each week.

Our hope too is with the Spirit we learn to recognize that unity, communicate better with one another, listen to one another, learn to control our egos, our fears, our ignorance… 

We build up our community here at Our Lady of the Snows, and we build up our community here in Reno/Sparks. We speak words that edify, forgive, support…

We build unity.