We
will begin our reflection this evening from the first
reading of this evening’s mass: the Babel story
in Genesis 11. In this story, 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. The language factor
of this story points to another language story
in the New Testament. On Pentecost day, Acts 2
there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and
the disciples of Jesus spoke in different tongues
but this time they were understood. 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, and so commit ourselves to waiting
daily on God in prayer, God will not be found wanting.
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. 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). Pentecost, brings all peoples together
and reunifies them under one universal family.
This universal family embracing all races and nationalities
is called church. "Catholic" means "universal".
On Pentecost we celebrate the birthday of the Church.
Today is, therefore, an opportunity to rededicate
ourselves to be active and faithful members of
this family of God we call Church. It was Fulton
J. Sheen who once said about the church that even
though we are God's chosen people, we often behave
more like God's frozen people. God's frozen people
indeed: frozen in our prayer life, frozen in the
way we relate with one another, frozen in the way
we celebrate our faith. We don't seem to be happy
to be in God's house; we are always in a hurry
to get it over and done with as soon as possible.
Today is a great day to ask the Holy Spirit to
rekindle in us the spirit of new life and enthusiasm,
the fire of God's love.
Our Holy Father Benedict XVI, said two years ago,
that the world in which we live is the work of
the Creator Spirit. Also, that Pentecost is not
only the origin of the Church and thus in a special
way her feast; Pentecost is also a feast of creation.
The world does not exist by itself; it is brought
into being by the creative Spirit of God, by the
creative Word of God. For this reason Pentecost
also mirrors God's wisdom. In its breadth and in
the omni-comprehensive logic of its laws, God's
wisdom permits us to glimpse something of his Creator
Spirit. It elicits reverential awe.
I think that the vast majority of human beings
spontaneously have the same concept of life as
the Prodigal Son of the Gospel. He had his share
of the patrimony given to him and then felt free;
in the end, what he wanted was to live no longer
burdened by the duties of home, but just to live.
He wanted everything that life can offer. He wanted
to enjoy it to the full - living, only living,
immersed in life's abundance, missing none of all
the valuable things it can offer. In the end he
found himself caring for pigs and even envying
those animals - his life had become so empty and
so useless. And his freedom was also proving useless.
When all that people want from life is to take
possession of it, it becomes ever emptier and poorer;
it is easy to end up seeking refuge in drugs, in
the great deception. And doubts surface as to whether,
in the end, life is truly a good.
No, we do not find life in this way. Jesus' words
about life in abundance are found in the Good Shepherd.
Where the true source of life no longer flows,
where people only appropriate life instead of giving
it, wherever people are ready to dispose of unborn
life because it seems to take up room in their
own lives, it is there that the life of others
is most at risk. If we want to protect life, then
we must above all rediscover the source of life;
then life itself must re-emerge in its full beauty
and sublimeness; then we must let ourselves be
enlivened by the Holy Spirit, the creative source
of life. The Prodigal Son's departure is linked
precisely with the themes of life and freedom.
He wanted life and therefore desired to be totally
liberated. Being free, in this perspective, means
being able to do whatever I like, not being bound
to accept any criterion other than and over and
above myself. It means following my own desires
and my own will alone. Those who live like this
very soon clash with others who want to live the
same way. The inevitable consequence of this selfish
concept of freedom is violence and the mutual destruction
of freedom and life.
As Christians, we want the true, great freedom,
the freedom of heirs, the freedom of children of
God. In this world, so full of fictitious forms
of freedom that destroy the environment and the
human being, let us learn true freedom by the power
of the Holy Spirit; to build the school of freedom;
to show others by our lives that we are free and
how beautiful it is to be truly free with the true
freedom of God's children. The Holy Spirit, in
giving life and freedom, also gives unity. These
are three gifts that are inseparable from one another.
What about the unity that the Spirit brings? To
understand it, we might find a sentence useful
which at first seems rather to distance us from
it. Jesus said to Nicodemus, who came to him with
his questions by night: "The wind blows where
it wills" (Jn 3: 8). But the Spirit's will
is not arbitrary. It is the will of truth and goodness.
Therefore, he does not blow from anywhere, now
from one place and then from another; his breath
is not wasted but brings us together because the
truth unites and love unites. The Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit who unites
the Father with the Son in Love, which in the one
God he gives and receives. He unites us so closely
that St Paul once said: "You are all one in
Jesus Christ" (Gal 3: 28). With his breath,
the Holy Spirit impels us towards Christ. The Holy
Spirit acts corporeally; he does not only act subjectively
or "spiritually". The Risen Christ said
to his disciples, who supposed that they were seeing
only a "spirit": "It is I myself;
touch me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and
bones as you see that I have" (cf. Lk 24:
39). The Holy Spirit gives believers a superior
vision of the world, of life, of history, and makes
them custodians of the hope that never disappoints.
Let us pray to God the Father, therefore, through
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the grace of the Holy
Spirit, so that the celebration of the Solemnity
of Pentecost may be like an ardent flame and a
blustering wind for Christian life and for the
mission of the whole Church.
Prayer for an Outpouring
of the Holy Spirit:
Holy Spirit, we ask for an outpouring
of your graces, blessings and gifts, upon those
who do not believe, that they may believe; Upon
those who are doubtful or confused, that they
may understand;
Upon those who are lukewarm or indifferent, that
they may be transformed; Upon those who are constantly
living in the state of sin, that they may be converted;
Upon those who are weak, that they may be strengthened;
Upon those who are holy, that they may persevere.
Amen.
