Feast of Pentecost – C
June 5, 2022 12 Noon
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air
Fifty Years
Fifty years ago this past May 20th, Cardinal Shehan, who was then the Archbishop of Baltimore, ordained me to the priesthood.
Those of you who have celebrated 50th wedding anniversaries, or those of you who have returned to your high school or college to celebrate your 50th year of graduation – you understand how significant these moments can be. I hope all of us can sense this in some way.
Given my anniversary, I have looked at today’s celebration of Pentecost with this question. How do I see God speaking to me as a priest here on Pentecost?
I am hoping that what I am seeing will also relate to your life and faith experience. To express what I think God is saying, I am recalling an old painting that I like very much.
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
This painting is a fifteenth century Russian icon called The Descent of the Holy Spirit.
The original of this icon is in a cathedral in Russia. I wish I had a print copy for all of you, but I don’t and instead, I will try to describe it as best I can.
This painting – The Descent of the Holy Spirit – depicts the event of Pentecost as completely quiet and calm. It is a very different picture from the strong wind, the fiery tongues, and the fearful disciples that we hear about in today’s readings.
This icon portrays Mary and the apostles sitting in a semi-circle in complete serenity. Their eyes and hands convey an openness to receiving the Holy Spirit.
So, the icon is conveying that the coming of the Spirit is more of an inner event and not so much of an outer event. The idea is that through the sending of the Spirit, God becomes God-within-us, God-within-us.
Also, the figures in the icon are not looking at or talking with one another. Instead, they are all listening intently to the God-within-them.
And each of the persons – Mary and the twelve apostles – each of them is portrayed differently. They have different complexions, different hair styles, different ways of sitting, and even clothes that are different in style and color.
And yet, despite all of these differences, the icon portrays complete harmony. The message is that God-within-us makes many individuals into a single, unified, though diverse community.
The Holy Spirit and Oneness
That is the great lesson from this fifteenth century Russian icon – The Descent of the Holy Spirit.
The presence of God-within is the common ground among us. And because of that, it makes us one.
And so, what we need to do is awaken our awareness of the Spirit’s presence. This awareness leads us to realize God’s presence as our common grounding with all people – with all people.
Communion and Community
The well-known Trappist monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton has a brief but excellent insight on this point.
Thomas Merton writes this and I quote: “The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless.
“It is beyond words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity – we discover an older unity.
“My dear Brothers and Sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not.
“And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
Don’t Make Differences into Obstacles
Merton’s thoughts are simple and yet quite profound.
Unlike the apostles in the icon, we sometimes make the differences between us into obstacles to communion or community. I am thinking of obvious differences like:
Ø Black, white, brown, and yellow skin,
Ø Male and female genders,
Ø Christians and Jews and Muslims,
Ø Catholics and those who are not,
Ø American citizens and immigrants who want to be citizens,
Ø Political liberals and conservatives,
Ø Catholic progressives and traditionalists.
And I am sure we could list more differences between others and ourselves.
We so often allow these differences to obscure the communion and community that is already here. As Thomas Merton writes, “We are already one.
“What we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
Conclusion
I see this as one of and maybe the number one message to me as a priest at this time.
My role as a priest is to point out and lift up the oneness we all have with one another. And by the word “we” I mean we and all human beings – because we are all sons and daughters of God from the first moment of creation.
I see my role as promoting this oneness and doing whatever possible to remove the obstacles to it. I believe that this needs to be a primary, front-burner work of a priest and of the Church in this twenty-first century.
Seeing and accepting this mission from God can, I am convinced, be a way for our Church to come to a new flourishing. It will also be a way for us to make a needed and special contribution to our world at this time.
It is to this that I as a priest commit myself, God willing, in the years that lie ahead.
Conclusion 2
And now, I think I had better stop or else we might have a repeat of an anecdote that I remember and maybe you have heard.
One day a group of retired business executives were meeting. Each of them was invited to give a two-minute talk after dinner about their retirement.
The toastmaster was instructed to rap the gavel when the two minutes were up. Well, the first speaker was still going strong at the end of the two minutes.
However, the toastmaster just couldn’t bring himself to rap the gavel. On and on the speaker droned until the other guests started murmuring.
Finally, the elderly toastmaster gave in. He wound up and brought the gavel down full force, but he accidentally hit the head of the man sitting next to him.
As that man was sinking down under the table, he was heard to say, “Hit me again – I can still hear him.” I don’t want you to be tempted to say that about me.
So, I will stop here. Thank you and God bless us all of you!
