Moving Ahead

Pentecost

Readings:

* Acts 2:1-11

* 1 Cor. 12:3-7, 12-13

* John 20:19-23

Moving Ahead

Groundhog Day

You may have heard about the man who was reading his paper early one morning at the breakfast table. His wife came over to him, looked at him, smiled, and said, “I bet you don’t know what today is, do you?” He looked at her and said, “Of course I know what day it is!” and went back to reading his paper.

He didn’t have a clue, so he thought he better cover all possibilities. He has flowers sent to her in case it was her birthday, bought her a beautiful bracelet in case it was her anniversary, and a box of chocolates to cover any other occasion. He pulls into the driveway and his wife comes out to greet him. As he gets out of the car and gives her the bracelet and chocolates, she throws her arms around him and says, “Oh, honey, this is the best Groundhog Day I’ve ever had!”

The Church’s Birthday

Well I hope you know what today is? We often refer to today as the Church’s birthday. The Spirit of God came upon the women and men gathered in the upper room. Out of a group of fearful and waiting followers, the Holy Spirit created the Church, the community to which you and I belong. So, in some way, today is our birthday.

On our own birthdays, many of us take a few moments to think about our lives, where we have come from, where we find ourselves and where we are going. As a Church, we can do the same thing. We are now over two thousand years old. We’ve been through a lot, an awful lot. Many hundreds of books have been written about the history of the Church. There have been good times and bad times.

Our Truth

Until recently, there was a tendency to only look on what was good about our history, but we need to see ourselves in the light of the truth. As the Second Vatican Council stated: the Church is always in need of reformation. Even though we believe that the Holy Spirit has never abandoned the Church, at times we have not listened to the Spirit. Instead of being authentic witnesses to Christ, we have often only witnessed to our own pride and power.

But as most of us would probably agree, those days are over. The Church is no longer held in high esteem by much of the world. We are being humbled and purified. Many dioceses have found themselves on the brink of bankruptcy as they struggle to come to terms with the hundreds of lawsuits facing them. Our clergy and religious are an aging group. Our seminaries and convents are no longer filled. Some religious orders have not had a single vocation in years. The divorce rate is out of control.

Not Working

Something is not working. We are struggling to hold onto our young people. In many countries of the world, the empty pews on a Sunday morning are a stark reminder that many Catholics are not gathering for the celebration of the Eucharist as they once did.

And yet in spite of this, we know that the Holy Spirit has not left us. It seems to me that our most pressing task is to listen to the Spirit. We need to discern what direction to take, how we need to change, what we need to do. Just as those first disciples gathered to pray and to wait, so we need to continue to gather and to pray and to wait. The answer is not to abandon our Catholic community. If anything, we need to meet more, to pray, to discuss, to dream, to plan, to act together.

We Need To Be Together

There is so much work to do, but we need to do it together. If there is any lesson, any hope we can take from today’s feast, it is that we must act together under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We need to put away our petty grievances, our little divisions, our unforgiveness. We need to regroup, to share how we see things, to pray together and lay plans for the future. We need to do this as local communities and as the larger community of the universal Church.

As Pope Benedict said in his homily on this feast many years ago: Human pride and egoism always create divisions, build walls of indifference, hate and violence. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes hearts capable of understanding the languages of all, as he re-establishes the bridge of authentic communion between earth and heaven. The Holy Spirit is Love.

A Vision For The Future

Let’s not be like the one hundred and twenty year old woman who was asked to describe her vision for the future. She replied, “Very brief.”

Our feast declares that the Holy Spirit will always be with the Church. The Pope says that the Holy Spirit is love. That’s probably our biggest clue.

We need to bring the Love of the Spirit to every place and every person. As followers of Christ, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we can bring the Gospel message to all peoples, in all places, and at all times.

Happy Birthday!