Homily for Pentecost Sunday

May 19, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Acts 2:1-118
Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
Galatians 5:16-25
John 15:26-27; 16:12-15

Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles begins with the words: “When the time of Pentecost was fulfilled.”  Pentecost was the second of three major feasts in Israel. The first was Passover or the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” recalling God’s rescue of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and the third was the “Feast of Tents and Booths” on the occasion of the harvesting of grapes and olives. Pentecost, or the “Feast of Weeks,” celebrated the first cutting of the grain harvest, thanking God for his abundant generosity in providing food for his people.

On the Solemn Feast of Pentecost instead of grain God gave Himself to the Apostles in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit descended upon the Apostles huddled behind closed doors in the form of driving wind and tongues of fire and unleashed in them the gift of tongues and the courage and zeal to proclaim the Gospel. This experience brought the disciples together and opened their hearts and minds to understand what Jesus had taught them. The Spirit enkindled in them the desire to share their experience of Jesus’ friendship and unconditional love. As the Apostles publicly proclaimed the message of Jesus, people of many languages understood them and were transformed by their message and zeal. The Holy Spirit has been passed down for two thousand years through the Apostles and their Successors, the bishops.

The Solemnity of Pentecost marks in a certain way the redemption of the sin of God’s people in constructing for themselves the tower of Babel. The human word unaided by Grace does not give us diversity and equity; it gives us confusion and tyranny. The Holy Spirit fosters our identity as unique individuals and unites us as members of the Catholic Church at the same time because the Holy Spirit always selflessly draws our attention to the Word of God, the Word Incarnate – Jesus Christ. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we become welcome in a unique sense of belonging within the relationships of the Persons of the Holy Trinity known as Communion.

The human word by itself cannot accomplish this. In fact, the human word alone unaided by Grace, frequently takes us farther away from peace and distorts the nature of the Church into a political organization buffeted by special interests. The human word unaided by grace imposes a rigid uniformity. One example of this is the contemporary “tyranny of pronouns” being imposed upon institutions of government, education, communication, and even in segments of the Church. This is nothing more than a contemporary Babel. As the theologian Joseph Ratzinger once wrote,  “The origin of the Church is not the decision of men; she is not the product of human willing but a creature of the Spirit of God. His Spirit overcomes the Babylonian world spirit. Man’s will to power, symbolized by Babel, aims at the goal of uniformity, because its interest is domination and subjection; it is precisely in this way that it brings forth hatred and division. God’s Spirit, on the other hand, is love; for this reason, He brings about recognition and creates unity in the acceptance of the otherness of the other: the many languages are mutually comprehensible.”

The events of Pentecost relayed in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles reveal God’s continued undoing of the painful effects of sin through the victory won by Christ over our accuser, the devil. Christ does so by keeping His promise in sending the Advocate who gives an accounting on our behalf in the face of the accuser, the devil, who is a liar and a thief. Whereas human beings at Babel sought to speak and to live according to their own word rather than receive, be blessed by, and proclaim the word that God had already spoken to them. Babel results in acrimony and anguish, mistrust, and misery among human beings. In contrast, the Apostles at Pentecost received the Holy Spirit and His seven specific gifts, the power of Grace, the theological and infused moral virtues, and the consolation of such fruits as joy and peace.

The Holy Spirit unites us with Christ in the Communion of the Church, enlightens us in the Truth of Christ’s Gospel, and hopefully empowers each member of the Church to share his or her gifts uniquely yet in harmony with each other. The diversity of the challenges that confront the Church requires certain members with select gifts to address a certain challenge and then another group with different select gifts to lead the way in addressing other types of challenges while all lend support with their own unique gifts to enable each and all to accomplish as one Body, the Body of Christ, the eternal mission entrusted to us by Christ, not to be served but to serve and to seek and to save what was lost. As One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church we pray, “Lord, send out your Spirit to renew the face of the earth!”