This morning, I have a slightly different kind of question for you. Or maybe it’s the way you need to answer it that’s different. Right now, I’d invite each of you to turn to someone you don’t know and introduce yourself to that person. Tell whomever you greet, where you were born and, if you weren’t born here, where you lived before coming to Houston. OK. Do it now, and only with one person, not everyone around you. Introduce yourself to a stranger and tell one another where you were born or where you came from.
From the sound of it, I’d guess it may be a little like the confusion heard some two thousand years ago, when Jews from all over the Mediterranean world crowded into Jerusalem to celebrate their Feast of Pentecost. Here at Good Shepherd, we might not have anyone from Cappadocia, or as the passage from the “Acts of the Apostles” has it for today, “from the regions of Libya near Cyrene,” but we do have folks from New England, California, Michigan, Florida, and all points in between. We have others from Asia, Africa and Europe as well as from Islands in the Pacific. I’m sure we have many from Mexico and from Central or South America. This mix of geography and accents we heard, along with the sounds of our greeting one another, leads me to the focus for today’s homily, a focus on communication.
However, when I first reflected on the readings for today, the Feast of A Pentecost, it wasn’t the sound of many voices and languages that prompted me to focus on communication. Instead, it was the absence of sound and the complete lack of communication. We need to begin, not with sound, but with isolation. For me, the point of today’s Pentecost proclamation is this: to realize God comes to us in our isolation, gives us the Holy Spirit, and sends us forth to reconcile others through our gifts, our ministries and our actions. Let’s begin with the isolation of the disciples and that first Easter, rather than fifty days later.
Today’s Gospel reading puts us back in the upper room on the evening of that first Easter. The disciples of Jesus had isolated themselves in the room where they had eaten the Passover Meal with him, where they had last been so happy with him. But now they were in fear and puzzlement. They had seen him crucified three days ago, and yet this very morning, some of them had seen the empty tomb where they had laid him. It’s no wonder they huddled together behind locked doors in fear for their own lives. When suddenly, Jesus was there to bring them his peace. At the sight of the Lord, the disciples rejoiced. Their isolation had been broken.
Now let’s shift to fifty days later, to the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, which they called Shavuot. This feast day commemorated the giving of the ten Commandments to Moses. Just as Passover celebrated Exodus and the Israelite’s freedom from the Egyptians, Pentecost celebrated the coming of Torah, the giving of the Law, the Center of Jewish life. It’s no wonder Jews from all parts of the Mediterranean were gathered in Jerusalem.
In other years, the disciples would have been as joy-filled as all the other Jews gathered to celebrate the giving of Torah to the Jewish nation. But not his year. A short nine days ago, their Lord had left them a second time. Can you image how they felt, gathered once more in that upper room where they had shared the Passover Meal with Jesus, where on the first day of the week, he had appeared to them? He had stayed with them for forty glorious days. But then, a week ago Thursday, Jesus had left them. Once more they were alone, perhaps even more alone than the first time. How alone would you feel, having regained a loved one, and then losing your beloved a second time? Once more, those men and women who had followed their Lord were isolated behind locked doors, afraid, lonely.
Now, let’s leave that scene and travel some two-thousand years forward in time. Here we are at Pentecost 2005, fifty days after Easter. Do you feel isolated, alone? How fearful are we as a nation on this Pentecost?2 What is the nature of our collective isolation when we think about terrorism here and abroad? How lonely and fearful are we about those we love being engaged in a war so far away from us?
Who among us feel isolated, because of job cutbacks or economic events? How many of us are isolated here in Houston, with our family and closest friends living in other parts of the country? We may have access to e-mails and cell phones, even those which show us photos of those we love. Yet, we hunger for their real presence.
Who among us feel isolated because of sickness or ill-health, because of the advance of years and the death of loved ones? We may not be physically walled-off or imprisoned, but how many are there who are emotionally walled off through anger or misunderstanding? There are teenagers and parents who give one another the silent treatment between bouts of shouting and anger. There are friends we no longer speak to, even in the same neighborhood or at work. Where in our world of 2005, are the interactions and communication which can pierce our shell of isolation?
Are these the feelings the disciples had on that Pentecost long ago? When suddenly, they heard the wind and saw the tongues of fire descending. When suddenly their isolation was ripped apart and they went shouting out into the streets to proclaim the mighty acts of God. Today, the question really is: can the Pentecost of yesterday be with us today? Can the wind and fire of that Pentecost break through today’s isolation and move us to action and communication? Perhaps, the answer can be found in the words we heard proclaimed a few minutes ago.
We say Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church, but birthdays are not merely one-time events. Birthdays are celebrated every year, so long as one is alive. In between the days of celebration are the days for life, itself. And that is what today’s proclamation of God’s word is about: our life in the Spirit, not what happened two thousand years ago, but what happens every day. The Church lives today, just as it has each day for the past twenty centuries. We live, today, as members of one body. We are linked to one another. We are to share our gifts with one another.
As Saint Paul reminds us, we perform different ministries, different services, and different works, but we are one people, one community, one Body of Christ. We are diverse, yet we are one. We become one through communication. It is only through communication that our isolation can be destroyed. Communication does not mean that the misunderstood teenager becomes a parent. The worker who has lost a job still has problems. Our family and friends still live up north or in foreign lands. But when we allow the Holy Spirit, who is in each of us, to listen through each of us, to speak through each of us, and to act through each of us, we begin to destroy the loneliness, the isolation, and the fear. Where do we begin?
Sometimes, the Holy Spirit seems to come in the noise, the wind and fire of a major rebirth. Yet, we need to remember the time when Jesus gave his disciples his Peace and the Holy Spirit, not in the form of a wind and tongues of flame, but rather in the form of his gentle breath. He breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit. He asked them to forgive one another, to be reconciled to one another, to pray for one another.
Isolation can be broken by a smile and by prayer. Prayer for another. If you know someone is praying for you, how can you continue to feel isolated, to be lonely? A few minutes ago, I said the focus of this reflection would be on how God comes to us in our isolation, in our own locked upper room, how he gives us the Holy Spirit and sends us forth to reconcile with others. I believe he gives us his Holy Spirit in the ways St Paul tells us about, through being members of the body of Christ. As members of this body, we need to help one another overcome our sense of isolation.
When we began today’s reflection, I asked each of you to introduce yourself to a stranger. We heard the sound of the Holy Spirit in our greeting. In a moment I would invite you to smile at that person who is part of the Body of Christ. And then for the remaining minutes of our reflection, I would urge you to pray for that person. Let us pray that the former stranger you met a few minutes ago may know Jesus has said to each one of us: “My peace be with you.” Let us, now, pray for each member of the Body of Christ.
Pentecost Sunday: May 15, 2005 (Cycle A) revised from May 18, 1986 (Cycle C)
Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23
The version for 1986 contained the following introduction at the beginning of the homily:
This morning we’ve heard the word of God proclaimed in a way that’s very different from what we usually hear. Instead of having three separate readings, we’ve heard a single one which has parts of all three readings* in it. And we’ve heard the message in more than one language. Since today’s reading provides a different beginning for today’s reflection, I’d like to continue in a slightly different way.
Right now I’d invite each of you to turn to someone you don’t know and introduce yourself to that person. Tell whomever you greet, where you were born and where you lived before coming to Houston, if you weren’t born here. OK. Do it now: and only with one person, not everyone around you.
* The following is the instruction and combined reading:A series of quotations from the three readings was prepared in English and in four other languages which varied with each Mass, depending upon the native speakers available at the time of the liturgy. Each non-English reader was to use the concept found only in the given quotation. (They were encouraged to use a native language version of the Bible.) Each statement was read in English and then repeated in the other tongues. The languages included: Arabic, Filipino, French, Gaelic, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish. The English version follows:
● “A Reading from the word of God.
● While the disciples were behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood before them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. (John 20:19)
● ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you; for those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.’” (John 20:21b)
● “On the feast of Pentecost, the disciples were again gather in one place. (Acts 2:1)
● Suddenly, there came a noise like a strong driving wind. Everyone heard it. Tongues, as of fire, appeared which parted and came to rest on each of them.” (2:2-3)
● All were filled with the Holy Spirit and made bold proclamations in foreign tongues. (2:4)
● [spoken together in all languages] They proclaimed the marvels God had accomplished.” (2:11)
● “There are different gifts, but the same spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4)
● There are different ministries, but the same Lord. (12:5)
● There are different works, but the same God who accomplishes all of them in everyone. (12:6)
● The Spirit is given to each person for the common good.” (1 Cor 12:7)
● [spoken together in all languages] “This is the Word of the Lord.”