Fr Jack SJ MD: Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-11

Ps 104

1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13

Jn 20:19-23

The word Pentecost derives from Greek meaning fiftieth day. The term is not unique to the Church as today’s solemnity is historically, symbolically, and, as it ended at sunset yesterday, calendrically linked to the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, also known as Shavuot.

Shavuot commemorates God's giving the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai fifty days after the Exodus. It falls fifty days after the first seder of Passover, always falling between May 15^th and June 14^th. In the Catholic liturgical year Pentecost is celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of the Lord, no earlier than May 10^th or later than June 13^th Just as Moses received the wisdom and teaching of the Torah fifty days after the Exodus, the Church received the wisdom and

teaching of the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day after Jesus’ exodus from death. The first reading is dramatic. Wind. Fire. Speaking in tongues. An ideal scene for a Cecil B. DeMille movie. The people were shocked when they heard the unsophisticated Galileans speaking whatever language necessary to tell the city's many visitors the Good News of Jesus.

The speaking in tongues is sometimes referred to as “the reversal of Babel,” the undoing of the event that caused the earth's multiplicity of languages, a symbol of disunity. At Pentecost, that which had been split apart by human pride at Babel

was reunited through Jesus’ obedience to the Father. That which had been shattered by hubris, was reassembled by Jesus, who sent the Holy Spirit as He had promised. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” He listed some of those gifts in his Letter to the Romans. Today we celebrate the giving of those gifts. Each of us receives unique gifts that are not identical with those given to another. Our task is to discover and develop our unique gifts throughout life.

In some parts of U.S. society it is fashionable, indeed it is a form of virtue signaling and wokeness, to deny even the possibility-- to say nothing of the reality--of differences and distinctions, of abilities and inabilities, of truth and u truth. This bizarre thinking has now affected medicine. The price will be high indeed. The risk of not hewing to, teaching, or preaching the narratives du jour

may result in job loss, demands for public mea culpas, or cancellation, the American version of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag. Perhaps the stocks will be resurrected on Cambridge Common to punish those who disagree with gender ideology. Many choose to deny fundamental biological differences

with a delusional intensity. Apparently the mantra “follow the science”

is acceptable only under certain conditions but optional under others.

Denying differences fuels a heightened sense of specialness in which each individual or faction insists that his, her, or the group's specialness must be recognized as the most special of all forms of specialness, even to having a day, week, or month dedicated to trumpeting that specialness.

One of my physiology professors at Penn State shared a parody about the body in which the general outline was an argument among organs and body parts as to which was the most important, which was the supreme controller, which was the MOST critical to the body’s function, its comfort, and its ultimate survival.

It was long, hilarious, and cannot be repeated in sacred space. However, the main point was that there is no most important organ. All of the body's organs and organ systems are equally necessary to life. Each has unique functions

that cannot be replaced or substituted by another. The lungs cannot do the work of the liver, the liver cannot do the work of the heart, and the pancreas definitely cannot cover for the kidneys.

One of the most dangerous lies ever is: "You can be anything you want to be."

No one can become anything he or she wants to be simply by wanting to be that thing, or, in current terminology, by self-identifying as it. All of us have certain immutable limits determined by chromosomal and genetic makeup, anatomy, and physiology neural development and many other factors and inherent talents.

Strengths are balanced by weaknesses. Native abilities are enhanced by inabilities, Potential in some areas is balanced by a complete lack of same in others. The only equality among humans is that all are sinners loved by God.

Comparing the account of Pentecost in Acts and the account of the Holy Spirit’s descent as narrated in John's Gospel may be confusing. "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together." The descent of the Holy Spirit in Acts was clearly fifty days after Jesus' resurrection.

"And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." John's Gospel seems to indicate that the disciples received the Holy Spirit soon after the Resurrection while Jesus was present among them.

How does one reconcile the two accounts? There is no need to do so.

Yesterday's gospel ended with the final verse of John's Gospel, indeed with the final verse of the Book of the Gospels: "There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written."

We cannot and must not isolate discrete moments or episodes from what is one integral event, the event of Jesus' revelation of the Father. As the late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow explained, "He who dies on the cross, is he who rises from the dead, returns to the Father who sent him, and sends his Holy Spirit on all who confess him as Lord and Son of God.” There is no discontinuity.

The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit have been bestowed on us. That is all we need to know. The logistics and pneumatology are unimportant. Our task is to cooperate with those gifts and graces in the manner to which each of us is called. Our mandate is to share the news of Jesus with those whom we meet in whatever language necessary.

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Got a late start at posting. Spent all of last week until mid-morning yesterday in Germantown NY giving a retreat to the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm at their motherhouse. The house is in an exquisite setting on the banks of the Hudson River overlooking the Catskills. Had hoped to do more shooting but the trees were so lush that there wasn't much in the way of a view of the mountains. Below are a few that I did get.