HerbEly

Pentecost: The Terrorized Become Bold Proclaimers

 

On Pentecost Sunday (May 23) we will hear the story of a  tiny group of the first Christians who are shattered and demoralized. They have seen the Lord ascend to heaven and are now left wondering how they will function. Suddenly they receive a life-giving spirit and go out to start a movement. (Acts 2:1-11) This movement will become the church and gain millions of members. This will happen during the first hundred years.

Like many of us, when I hear this story I will be wishing and wondering why I cannot be one of the ones set on fire and charging out into the world to announce the good news. Rather than wishing we are different, we should listen to the second reading (1 COR 12:3B-7, 12-13). In it, Paul reminds us that there are differing forms of service and different gifts.

All too often, we have a tendency to think that we ought to be exercising the gifts intended for another. We think that we should have that same spirit as the early apostles and feel inadequate as a result. Instead, we should discern our own gifts and set a task in light of them. 

This may seem as if we are taking the softer, easier path. If we are honest about it, we will find that it takes all of effort to use the gifts that we have. Wishing we were different is escapism.

St. Francis de Sales wrote to a young woman, advising her not to wish to go to Africa and experience glorious martyrdom unless she were able to bear the trials of her present life. Good advice for all of us.

The lectionary reading for Sunday omits verses 8-11 from 1 Cor 12. This focuses our attention on our unity amidst differing gifts. While I can see the point, I would rather have left these verses in the reading. Here they are:

 

“8 To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; 10 to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues.e 11 But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.”

 

Blessings,

 

Herb

Going Forth Even when Confined

May 16 is Ascension Sunday. The Mass readings tell us of a crowd of disciples looking up at the sky and wondering what to do next..

The readings are Acts 1:1-11;Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9;Eph 1:17-23;Mk 16:15-20

Acts tell us that he risen Lord has just gone up into the sky. The disciples watched wondering how they will build a church without Him. Historians estimate this crowd at no more than 120 members. How did such a small band of common people become“witnesses …to the ends of the earth?” Sunday’s second reading gives us a clue:

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Eph 1:18-22)

Paul tells the Ephesians - and us - three things about what we will need when we are sent. We are sent and can proclaim even if confined by age, covid quarantine, in prison or otherwise restricted. First they will be filled with enlightened hearts as they go to “ends of the earth.” Second, Christ was seated far above every earthly and heavenly authority. We will come against “earthly authorities’ in the form of crowds, governmental and private institutions and political parties. Third, Paul reminds us that we see with our hearts as well as our minds.

May we all go forth with the good news.