Pentecost Sunday
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Let us begin with the prayer by Cardinal Mercier to the Holy Spirit: O Holy Spirit, soul of my Soul, I adore You. Enlighten, guide, strengthen, and console me. Tell me what I ought to do and command me to do it. I promise to be submissive in everything that you ask of me, and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Only show me what is Your Will. Amen.
Today we come to the high point of our Easter celebration, the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, meaning "fifty days" after the Passover -- was the feast day in which the Jewish people celebrated the Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.
As we celebrate the Pentecost day, the birthday of the Church, we think of Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Holy Spirit is the God of Unity. Wherever there is spirit of Unity and Love there is the Presence of Holy Spirit.
I wish to focus today on two readings. One from the first reading of the Vigil Mass from Genesis 11: 1-9 and second passage is from Today’s’ first reading from Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11.
When we study these two readings we see two different experiences. One is the Experience of Tower of Babel and the Experience of Pentecost.
Whenever human beings forget how limited we are and try to take the initiative in our dealings with God, what inevitably follows is disaster. In the story of the Tower of Babel in Gen 11 where human beings decided to build a tower that would reach to heaven. In this way they would have access to God whenever they wanted, in this way they could manipulate God. But in the process of building the human bridge to heaven God came and confused their languages. They began to speak different languages, there was no more communication, no more understanding among them, and they could no longer work together. The result was the proliferation of languages and human misunderstanding. Of course the lesson we are suppose to get from the story of the Tower of Babel is the effect of human pride and arrogance, thinking that we can reach God all on our own effort.
Where there is no Spirit of God there is confusion, misunderstanding and disaster.
In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples of Jesus speaking in other languages? They heard the Apostles speaking in their own language. Yes dear brothers and sisters, where there is Holy Spirit, There is Unity and understanding. When you hear people complain they cannot understand each other pray for them for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Parents say they don’t understand the Children; children cry out they cannot understand the parents and the parents don’t understand them; then it is the right time to kneel down together and pray for a Pentecostal experience and an out pouring of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s have a closer look at these readings:
1. At Babel human beings decided to build a tower to God by their own effort; at Pentecost it is now God who decides to build a bridge to humans by sending the Holy Spirit. Babel was a human initiative, a human effort; Pentecost is a divine initiative, a divine activity through the Holy Spirit.
What God asks of us as believers always seems impossible. And it is indeed impossible if we rely on our own initiatives and will power alone. But if, like the disciples, we realize that godliness is above us, at the opportune time God will send the flame of the Holy Spirit to invigorate us, and change us from lukewarm to zealous, fervent, enthusiastic believers. And our God will make it possible.
2. Babel was a requiem of misunderstanding; Pentecost is a chorus of mutual understanding. The miracle of Pentecost is very different from the miracle of Babel. At Babel, the people came together with one language, understanding themselves. After God's intervention they dispersed no longer understanding each other. At Pentecost, on the other hand, people of different ethnic backgrounds (Persians, Asians, Romans, Egyptians, Libyans, Arabs, etc) came together unable to communicate, but after the miracle of Pentecost, they said, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear them, each of us in our own language?" (Acts 2:7-8).
Now, you may ask, is there such a language that one could speak and everybody would understand in their own mother tongue? The answer is yes. And the name of that language is LOVE. Love is the language that all women and men understand irrespective of ethnic background. Everybody understands when you smile. Love is the language of the children of God, the only language we shall speak in heaven.
Our dear Savior has given us the Holy Spirit and His seven-fold gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). We all know that 7gifts of the Holy Spirit:
Wisdom – gives us a relish for the things of God; directs us to love Him above all things.
Understanding – enables us to know more clearly the great mysteries of our faith.
Counsel – alerts us to the deceits of the devil and dangers to our salvation. Fortitude – strengthens us to do the will of God; even to die before sin. Knowledge – equips us to know the will of God in all things. Godliness (piety) – inspires us to love religion and its practices; stirs us to obey out of love.
Fear of the Lord – fills us with a dread of sin.
These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the apostles as much as to us. Paul says those who have the Spirit have these twelve fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23) and goodness, modesty and chastity. And today my dear brothers and sisters,let Us ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with His gifts and fruits. Amen.