May 23, 2010 SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST
23 MAY 2010, 5:15, 8:00, 10:00
READINGS: Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-11; Romans 8:8-17; John 20:19-23
SAINT MARY PARISH, VIROQUA
Introduction: Pentecost Sunday marks the end of the season of Easter; it also marks a beginning: the beginning of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
1. In Hebrew the word for breath and the word for Spirit are the same. The word is “ruah.” The word is used in the first two chapters of Genesis. “In the beginning the breath of God hovered over the waters…” Then, in chapter two, “God formed man out of the clay of the earth and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” This breath of God was there in the beginning. Then, Adam sinned, and a dark cloud covered the earth and took this breath away. Every human ever born contributed to Adam’s sin and the cloud deepened – like volcanic ash over Europe choking us. Then, once again God breathed his life into us; the Spirit at Pentecost gave us our breath back. The cloud of sin is dissipating!
2. This Spirit – the Holy Spirit – has powerful influence in our lives. Like fuel gives power to space ships and racing cars, the Holy Spirit gives power to the Church. Once an American had a visitor from England. He wanted to show his guest the marvels of our country, so he took him to Niagara Falls. From above they saw its great expanse. Then they went below where the water made a deafening noise. The American explained about the enormous quantity of water and its great force. He had to practically shout into his friends ear as he concluded, “There is the greatest unused power in the world.” The visitor was duly impressed; he had seen nothing like it in his own country. But then, like a good Englishman, he started to think a little deeper. "Yes," he said to his American host, "the power here is great, but there is something much greater. The greatest unused power in the world is the Holy Spirit of the Living God." The man has a point.
It has power to unify. Last week’s Tribune carried a column by Rick Kyte of Viterbo University. He tells of an old Star Trek episode in which everyone on a certain planet has a face that is half black and half white. The planet is engaged in a civil war: Those with black on the right side of their faces against those with white on the right side. The crew of the Enterprise cannot understand why they are fighting! He also tells a true story of a journalist covering the war in Croatia in the 1990’s. “Why are they fighting?” he asked. Their two cultures are virtually identical. He asked a Serbian soldier to explain the differences between the two peoples. The soldier replied, “See this? These are Serbian cigarettes. Over there they smoke Croatian cigarettes.” We can look at the differences in our own cultures; differences which divide us. The Holy Spirit can unite us. That’s one of his roles.
3. The story is told of Napoleon Bonaparte boasting to a Vatican cardinal that he would destroy the Church. The cardinal replied, "Good luck, Your Majesty. We priests have been attempting to do just that in one way or another for centuries." In effect, the bishop was giving credit to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is what keeps the Church alive and well. Napoleon spent his last years swatting mosquitoes exiled to an island in the Atlantic. The Church continues because of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion: The Holy Spirit, the Breath of God, continues in the Church. He resides not in an institution but in people. People like us. One philosopher (Soren K.) says that we are like domesticated geese. We say, “We have wings, we should use them.” But we continue to walk on the ground. The Holy Spirit is within us. We should fly!