Monday, May 20, 2013

Feast of Pentecost, Cycle C - May 19, 2013


Feast of Pentecost

Cycle C

May 19, 2013      9:00 and 10:30 AM

Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air

 

God in the Bathroom


One day a teacher was talking to her first grade class about God.

She asked the children, “Where is God?”  Little Christopher quickly put up his hand and said, “I know where God is; he is in our bathroom at home.”

The teacher responded, “In your bathroom, Christopher?”  And the little boy said, “Yes!  Every morning my dad goes to the bathroom door and shouts, ‘Dear God, are you still in there?’”

God Everywhere: The Holy Spirit


Of course, God is not just in the family bathroom.

But there is an insight here because we believe that God is everywhere.  The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is present and at work in all of creation and all of humanity.

This is what today’s celebration of Pentecost tells us.  And this belief has always been very strong in our Catholic tradition.

 

Sacramentality


One of our contemporary writers says it this way: “We Catholics are a sacramental people.”

Being sacramental means that we see God coming to us through creation and we see creation leading us to God.  In other words, we see the Spirit of God everywhere.

Our Catholic tradition strongly affirms this sacramental vision.  And, as part of this, we also believe that the Church as a community of faith is sacramental.

We as God’s believing people are in a sense the sacrament of Jesus on this earth.  This is what Saint Paul means in our second reading when he refers to us as the body of Christ – the living body of Christ on this earth.

Seven Sacraments


And then, there are what we call the seven sacraments.

These are seven specific moments when the Spirit of God enlivens us.  In each of these actions, we call down the presence of the Holy Spirit, usually with some kind of imposition of hands.

For example, in the Eucharist, which these children will receive for the first time this morning, the priest imposes or extends his hands over the bread and wine and asks the Holy Spirit to make these gifts holy – the body and blood of Jesus.  We do much the same action in each of the other sacraments.

These sacraments give us God’s Spirit to strengthen us for specific needs, like an illness, or specific responsibilities, like marriage.  They also awaken us to the truth that everything is sacramental.

All as Sacramental


For example, the sacraments awaken in us a reverence for human life.

They awaken a reverence for the life of every human being, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.  And so, the sacraments move us to care for the unborn child, for those who lack food or medical care, and for the very elderly who grow increasingly dependent and vulnerable.

And they lead us to do this no matter who these people are, where they live, or how different they are from us.  Today’s first reading shows the Spirit enabling the early disciples to bridge differences of language, nationality, race, gender, whatever.

All of this comes from our being a sacramental people.  And the seven sacraments awaken our sense of this.

They awaken us to a sacramental vision and help us to allow the Holy Spirit to be the driving force of our lives.  This is what we celebrate today on the feast of Pentecost.