Happy Birthday!

Pentecost

Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Coe 12: 3b-7, 12-13; John 14: 15-16, 23b-26

Dc. Larry Brockman

Happy Birthday!  Today is the Birthday of your Church.  Because on the feast of Pentecost some 2000 years ago, God sent His Spirit to dwell within several dozen people gathered in one small room in Jerusalem, and from that humble birth, the Christian Church has spread to all the corners of the Earth to be the largest religion in the world.  Happy Birthday to our Church!   

Now we usually dwell on Pentecost as the coming of the Spirit, but it is more than just that,  Pentecost initiated the great period of Evangelization, the conversion of the whole World- the Gentiles.  Just as Pentecost was used by the Jews as the commemoration of how God   Gave Moses the Ten Commandments and made His covenant with them to be their God; so also Pentecost commemorates for Christians how God gave the Apostles the Spirit and energized by that Spirit, He sent them to spread the New Covenant promising salvation to all people. The energy of the Spirit was not used to serve their own purposes, but rather, to accomplish God’s purpose.  They started by preaching to the tremendous crowd that was gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, one of the three main Jewish pilgrimage feasts that brought Jews from all over the World to Jerusalem each year.   

Scripture scholars tell us that the miracle of the tongues we heard about, that is, each foreign person hearing preaching in his own language, was a symbol that the scrambling of speech and confusion that occurred at the Tower of Babel thousands of years before that, was being reversed.  God used this event, the first Christian Pentecost, to broadcast a clear message:  He had sent His Son to the redeem all people, people of every nation and tongue, and now was the time to spread that message to all people; to unify all people in belief in the one true God.  And so, God’s Spirit spread like tongues of fire on His Apostles and from them to people of the many nations gathered in Jerusalem at the time- a Spirit which instilled in them God’s Love for them; and a spirit of life and enthusiasm; a spirit that promised an inheritance of everlasting life for those who believe and repent of their sins.   

The Church celebrates Pentecost each year to remind you and I of all this so that we too, just like Apostles, will go out and spread the good news of the New Covenant.  Indeed, in the Gospel, Jesus makes this clear.  There, He talks about first loving Him and then keeping His commandments.  Then he says that, quote, “..we will come to him and make our dwelling in him”.  What dwells within in us is the Paraclete, or Advocate.  But an Advocate of what- God’s advocate; God’s voice that will dwell in us and is ever present to remind us, through our conscience, of what God wants us to do; and to be an advocate for us in God’s behalf.     

In our second reading, we hear that:  “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” First, this means that these inspirations have been specially selected by God for you, whatever they are.  Second, it means that whatever manifestation you have been given, whatever urgings, talents, energies, and inclinations that God whispers to you through His spirit, are for some benefit in His cause to unite all of us.  Our community of believers, our Church, consists of many diverse people with many diverse God-given gifts that are the manifestations of the Spirit of God.  So there is a place for all of us in God’s plan to evangelize.  Just like the Apostles, we are being called to use those gifts for the greater glory of God, and to build His community of believers, the Church. 

Most of us are not being called to drop out of the life we have been given to do something entirely new, but rather, to learn how to bloom right where we have been planted.  Chances are that all of you out there recognize the special abilities that God has given you.  These are the gifts of the Spirit that you have.  They are your talents; the wholesome interests that you have; and even your limitations.  They are the things that you love.  They are what makes you special.  God wants you to use those inclinations and gifts for the common good, and in such a way, that your actions broadcast your dedication to the values and goals of Christianity.  If you are a business man; be an honest and trustworthy business man.  If you are a caretaker- a stay at home Mom or caretaker for a sick or aging person, be a loving and giving caretaker;  if you are someone’s employee; be a loyal and hard working employee;  and if you are a teacher, or a person in a position of influence through your words and deeds,  then always teach and act by what is true and of value.  Whatever you do, do it for the greater glory of God.  And like the miracle of tongues today, everyone will hear you, loud and clear, whether you speak their language or not. 

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