Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104
1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13
Jn 20:19-23
The word Pentecost which derives from Greek meaning fiftieth day is not unique to the Church. Pentecost, is linked to the Jewish feast of Shavuot that commemorates Moses receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai fifty days after the Exodus. Shavuot, which is also known as Pentecost, falls fifty days after the first seder of Passover, always between May 15th and June 14th. Due to irregularities in the Jewish calendar this year Passover and Shavuot
are unusually late this year. Catholics celebrate Pentecost on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of the Lord. It always falls between May 10th and June 13th.
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. It is an ideal scene for Cecil B. DeMille. The people were shocked when they heard the unsophisticated Galileans speaking multiple languages as they shared the Good News of Jesus.
The speaking in tongues is sometimes known as “the reversal of Babel,” At Pentecost, that which had been split apart by human pride at Babel was rejoined 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 those gifts in the Letter to the Romans.
Today we celebrate the giving of those gifts. Each of us receives unique ones and combinations. The gifts are not identical to 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, as a bizarre form of virtue signaling and wokeness, to deny even the possibility, to say nothing of the reality,
of differences and distinctions, of different abilities and accompanying inabilities.
This sort of thinking professes that there is no difference between truth and untruth. This bizarre thinking has now affected medicine. There are only two sexes and they are not changeable or interchangeable no matter the extent of surgery or amount of hormones pumped into a body.
The price is high for those who profess the truth. The risk of not believing, teaching, or preaching the narratives du jour may result in job loss, demands for public mea culpas, or cancellation, which is the American version of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag.
A current example is the hysteria, screaming, and accusations surrounding the commencement speech given by Harrison Butker kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs. He called sin a sin in regard to abortion, euthanasia, and a number of sexual irregularities. There are demands that he be fired from his job with the team immediately.
Meanwhile Butker’s teammate Travis Kelce, Taylor Swifts boy-toy du jour, is praised for chugging a can of beer at a podium and encouraging the students to follow suit during his commencement speech. Denying differences fuels an unreal sense of specialness causing each individual or faction to insist 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, no matter how perverse or disordered.
One of the most dangerous lies ever told 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 identifying as it. We all have limits determined by genetic makeup, anatomy, physiology, neural development, inherent talents, and inherent lack of talents. Strengths are balanced by weaknesses. Native abilities are balanced by disabilities, Potential in some areas is balanced by a complete lack of same in others. The only equality among humans is that we are sinners.
Comparing the accounts of Pentecost in Acts and John's Gospel may be confusing. The descent of the Holy Spirit in Acts was clearly fifty days after Jesus' resurrection and ten days after the Ascension. John seems to indicate the Holy Spirit descended soon after the Resurrection while Jesus was present among the apostles. “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
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 which instructs,
"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, episodes, or descriptions
from what is one single event, the event of Jesus' revelation of the Father. There is no discontinuity from the Nativity to Pentecost no matter how it is narrated in the gospels. The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit have been given us. That is all we need to know. The logistics and theology are not important. 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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Gave a five-day retreat to a group of 12 priests in Cohassett during the week. Got home yesterday afternoon and crashed. Just got around to writing the homily for tomorrow. The retreat was a good one with mostly good though cool weather. Did not have quite as much time as I would have liked to spend with the camera.
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| Don't know who owns the house but I would love an invite to shoot from there. Puts me in mind of The Great Gatsby |
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| Boater heading out toward the Atlantic |
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| The same boater a few minutes later. |
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| The John Quincy Adams estate across the bay in Scituate. The pronunciation is Sit choo ut. I badly mispronounced it the first time I tried. Cannot repeat the response of those who heard it. |
Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
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