Pentecost: Healing/Wholeness in the Spirit

Decades ago, astronomers viewing galaxies noticed something odd. The galaxies were not spinning at the rate according to the calculations. The stars on the outside were going around the center too fast. They could not figure out why. Through the decades others examined this phenomena, and with other calculations made, determined that there is a other type of matter that is present in our universe. It does not interact with our type of matter, nor light; but it has mass and exerts a gravitational pull; which is why galaxies spin faster than they ought to. This is dark matter. And this dark matter actually is more present than our own time of matter. It has changed the understanding of our universe. Fascinating.

There is a philosophy that says consciousness exists at the deepest levels of reality. Consciousness forms or causes the form of matter. It does not necessarily mean a rock is conscious, but that there is something there. Our Universe may be more alive than we realize. Fascinating.

Reality is a perception. What we see, what we experience is our brain working to make sense of the input and to present it to us. It cuts out a lot of input. So there is a greater reality than we can perceive. Fascinating.

The beginning verses of Genesis speaks of God breathing, speaking, sending ruah to create. “Ruah” is an ancient Hebrew word that signifies breath, Spirit, breathing. As we read this, as we sit with this and meditate on it, we begin to see that God’s Spirit, the very breath of God underlies all. Our Reality comes from the very breath, the very life, the very spirit of God. And wholeness existed in all of creation, between creation and God, God and humanity, humanity and creation until Humanity wanted to choose another breath.

“Shalom” in Hebrew means peace and wholeness. The “peace” is not necessarily an absence of violence, an absence of distress; but a sense of being in harmony. Jesus accomplished this peace. He gave of himself with love for us; even to the point of dying of the cross at our hands. His peace was to show us that the Father’s will us this wholeness, this peace; not just from the moment of Jesus’ resurrection, but from the moment of creation. God breathed wholeness into us.

Jesus breathes onto the disciples hidden in fear, sending once again the Spirit upon them for them to breathe it in; to be whole and to make the world whole.

This is John’s great Pentecostal moment. A moment that ignited the mission of the Church. Jesus breathes upon them and tells them that in wholeness that have been forgiven by God and they too must go and forgive others and announce God’s forgiveness.  Jesus renews humanity and gifts us with the capacity to accept the Spirit. The Spirit that pervades and sustains all of reality. The Spirit that exerts itself upon us so that we can be whole, we can be free, we can be loved and love others.

We are given the spirit to make real God’s forgiveness and healing into this world.

The greatest act I think any of us can do; the most courageous act is to extend and to accept forgiveness. It heals, it makes us whole. 21 years as a priest, and I have witnessed the most angry, bitter people; and to be truthful, at times I was caught up in it. Probed a bit, these bitter, angry persons recount hurts and wounds; real for them; and it has become the source of their being and they were/are miserable.

I also have met couples and persons, who experienced loss, betrayal, wounds; and they are at peace because they did that hard work, they opened themselves to grace, to the Spirit; they forgave and they accepted forgiveness.

There was a prof in seminary; he was a new teacher. We seminarians did not like his teaching style. He taught us like we were high schoolers and he only seemed to teach his doctorate thesis. So at the end of the semester, I and a few others were quite honest in our critiques of his class. Three years later he came up to me after mass, he asked to speak with me. I said sure. He told me he forgave me for the words that I had written. I was flabbergasted. First, he actually read the evaluation! Second, for three years he had harbored this anger towards me, and I am thinking “Dang JOE, I am not that important.” Third, I had no clue. I felt kind of sorry for him for holding onto this for three years.

I was stalked right before I entered seminary. This woman obsessed on me because I was going to enter seminary. She was always outside my apartment; she went through my garbage, and she even obtained my birth certificate. She made my life miserable. I went into seminary with this baggage; I found it hard to trust people and their motives. Who would be the next. The following summer I took a week’s retreat and God was so loud. God told me it was okay, do not let this woman keep me from trusting others. I returned to seminary a changed man. Someone even pulled me aside and asked what had changed, I was a different, more joyful.

The reality of God’s love, God’s spirit is ever present. It surrounds us, exerts itself upon us. God desires our healing, our peace, our wholeness. In Christ and through Christ we can experience it and live it. Through Christ we learn to surrender our wounds, our anger, our hurts; we give ourselves over to trust, to faith in God’s promise, in God’s will.

It may knock us down, but often the Spirit simply gently pushes, pulls, inspires us to make the choice to surrender and love; to resist the bitterness, the need to get back at the other; to open us to see differently the other.

We close out the Easter Season with this magnificent Gospel which we heard at the beginning of the Easter Season. We enter into this fascinating season in which we live in the Spirit; we trust in the Spirit, in which we open ourselves more and more to the greater reality of God’s love.

We accept our Eucharist, a sign of the transformative power of the Spirit so as to allow ourselves to be transformed and transform this world.

We ourselves may be wounded. We ourselves may have wounded others, but the true reality is that God will heal; as we open our hearts, minds and bodies to it