Pentecost Sunday
This Saturday, May 23rd, a day before Pentecost, the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was beatified. Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador at a time when there was widespread economic oppression and gross human right violations. Romero threw his weight behind those who were suffering. He was one of the foremost figures in the revolution. He wrote in his book, The Violence of Love: “For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty, and dignity are a heartfelt suffering. As holy defender of God’s rights and of his images, the church must cry out.” And he did exactly that. As a result, Archbishop Romero was assassinated at the altar as he raised the chalice at consecration. Once, Romero was a peaceful and non-violent revolutionary. Today he is a saint!
Today we celebrate the feast of the Pentecost. I think of the Pentecost as a peaceful revolution. Every celebration of the Pentecost is also an invitation to us to join in the peaceful revolution. Pentecost changed the course of lives of the disciples and the early church. Every celebration of the Pentecost can do the same to us. I am proposing three ways in which we can join in the Pentecostal revolution.
1. Allowing a Revolution within. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” From the beginning creation, whenever the Spirit of God has been given to people, revolutionary changes have taken place. Creation itself is a work of the Spirit. Later at creation, God breathed into the nostrils of the first man and woman, and human life emerged. At the annunciation, Mary received the Holy Spirit and the Word became flesh. Jesus began his revolutionary ministry of love after is baptism at the Jordan. We know what his ministry did to the world. At Pentecost the early Christian Church received Holy Spirit and it changed the course of human history. Before the II Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII opened the windows of St. Peters and prayed for the power of the Holy Spirit to sweep over the Church – and the rest is history. Oscar Romero became a part of this same revolution.
Today, the Holy Spirit comes upon each on us in a new way. Paul tells us in the second reading, that the Spirit comes to our aid and intercedes for us. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to do to us what the Spirit did at that first Pentecost. Let us keep our hearts wide open that there might be a revolution in our own hearts. Come Holy Spirit.
2. A Quiet Revolution. In my homily last week, I mentioned the latest Pew Research Center data that suggested that percentage of adults who describe themselves as Christians has dropped from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. This is very worrisome data. What can we do? My suggestion is that we create our own quiet revolution. Le me give you an example. Our parish theme this year is “Discipleship: Encountering Christ Everyday.” During this year, we invited parishioners to share how they have encountered Christ in their daily lives. Here is one of the responses we received: “At the parish retreat, we all received bracelets bearing the Cross of Jerusalem. I made it a goal of mine to wear it everyday until the next retreat as a way for me to always be mindful to be a disciple and to keep my eyes, ears, and heart open for encounters with Christ. It was a good way for me to remember that being a disciple is a choice - to either wear it or set it aside. I found it [the bracelet] to be a positive challenge to me to continue to choose to be a disciple whenever I felt the urge to take it off. Another positive aspect was that it allowed me to wear my faith on my “sleeve” if you will, as people would see the bracelet peek out of my shirt sleeve or in plain sight next to my watch as I run, and opened a conversation between us about faith. As I was helping a woman load a heavy A/C unit into her shopping cart at a Walmart recently, the thread holding the medallion of the Cross of Jerusalem broke. Instead of being upset, the situation made me think of how Christ sacrificed himself to help us. Christ broke himself to make our broken selves whole, and he continually breaks himself in the Eucharist for us. My bracelet could have broke off at any other time in any other circumstance, but I’m glad it was with helping someone whose name I may never know; and it's my hope they will offer an act of kindness to another. For now the medallion rests on the item I most have on me: my keys. While not literally on me, it'll remain to serve as a reminder to me to continually be a follower of Christ.”
This story is one example of what I refer to as a “quiet revolution.” Pentecost is an invitation to continue the revolution of the Holy Spirit in simple quiet ways. It is possible to make Christ attractive to others in humble ways. We can reverse the worrisome data by emulating the story of this one parishioner.
3. A Wider Revolution. In the gospel reading, Jesus offers his disciples peace as he breathes on them the Holy Spirit. We could do with some peace these days. Just in our nation, we have seen a fair amount or racial and economic disharmony in recent times. It is truly disillusioning to realize that in in this time and age the color of our skin matters. Our multi-cultural mass today is a revolutionary witness to the unity that was exhibited at that first Pentecost. Boundaries were broken, people understood each other even though they spoke different languages, confusion was replaced by unity, and the good news of Jesus Christ was proclaimed without fear. Today, at this mass we are bearing witness to the unity that can exist between various peoples. In our strife ridden world, it is possible to look deeper than the color of our skin, deeper than the various languages we speak, to shed prejudices, to gather in a non-judgmental place, to worship the same God in diverse ways, to treasure diversity and to love one another.
The invitation today, is to take the beauty of this celebration to the outside world. It seems to me that nothing short of a Pentecost-like can overcome the disharmony in our society. May you and I speak the language that brought all peoples to understanding, unity and peace.
Fr. Satish Joseph