One Pentecost morning in Lightning Ridge, in the far north west of New South Wales, the reader began the first reading, the same as we have just heard. After stumbling over some of the place names he looked up and said: “Well there were a lot of people from a helluva lot of places and they could all understand each other.”
Maybe that is the right place to start discovering what this feast means. Jesus the Christ rose from the dead, after appearing to many people, ascends into heaven, vowing not to leave us alone. The apostles looked to the sky because he was leaving them, yet saying that he was not going anywhere.
Just after this, the apostles, scared and outnumbered, gathered in the Upper Room, the only place they felt safe. Tradition says that Mary was there with them. This was the place where Jesus had held them together on the night of the Last Supper. It was there that the Holy Holy Spirit came among them and strengthened them. It was there that the Church began, because the Holy Spirit formed the Church. If the Holy Spirit is not our initiator and sustainer, we are a rag tag group of like-minded people, maybe like a sporting or interest club. We know that we are far more than that, and it is the Holy Spirit that allows this to occur and sustains the church. The Holy Spirit guides us individually, and far mote powerfully, as a Church united with the Holy Father and the Bishops. Jesus did not promise the Holy Spirit primarily to individuals, but to the gathered assembly of the church. It is through the Church that Christ leads onwards and hold us together. That is why today is rightly known as the birthday of the church.
This Holy Spirit works in and through us in many ways, as St Pauls enumerates for us. We all have a particular part to play but it is part of the whole, not our own show. We are interdependent.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are wide and varied, but the greatest of them are the quietest, and the strongest is that of peace. In the gospel we experience Jesus, who appeared among the disciples to share with them the gifts a peace and forgiveness, the most precious gifts. These are gifts we can live share, and they can only come through the work of the Holy Spirit.
In my ministry as a priest, I am privileged to be with people in many facets of their lives. Recently I have been with people as they have allowed the peace and healing of Christ into their lives, and it is an extraordinary experience. Being accepting, hopeful and happy when ones prognosis is dire, when alongside the sick person there are family and friends are despairing, blaming God or just angry, is a great and wonderful gift. It is a quiet gift, but contains the strength to transform society. This gift of peace and forgiveness shines out from within a person who has it and is visible those around.
This Pentecost, remember our dignity as a people chosen and called by Christ to be people who live and grow together, gradually spreading joy, peace, forgiveness and hope to a broken world. These can only be sustained through the Holy Spirit, and we are taught that the Holy Spirit never ceases working through the Church. It begins with us here today, and truly has the power to transform the earth.
Homily, Pentecost Sunday, 12th June 2011 OLQP Broome
No comments:
Post a Comment