Pentecost 2024

The Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11 teaches us that trying to create a utopia without God always ends in disaster. When societies attempt to find unity and fulfillment apart from God, it leads to chaos. The 20th century examples of communism and fascism resulted in wars and millions of deaths because they rejected God. The solution to humanity's desire for unity is Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit brings true unity and diversity. Surrendering to the Holy Spirit's work and will leads to true happiness and peace. The Holy Spirit is like a conductor guiding our lives, and when we resist, we miss out on the beauty God wants to bring through us. The diversity within the Church is harmonized by the Holy Spirit. Pentecost enables us to respond to Jesus' salvation and live the Christian life. St. Paul contrasts the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit, warning that certain behaviors separate us from God's kingdom. The fruits of the Spirit, such as In our first reading last night for the Vigil Mass of Pentecost, we hear from Genesis 11, which is the story of the Tower of Babel. In that story, as you might recall, humanity is gathering together and they're trying to make a name for themselves. So they say, let's build a tower with its top in the sky, otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth. And then the Lord comes down and confuses their speech. And so this is taking place again in chapter 11, so we've just got eight chapters after Adam and Eve have fallen. And so Adam and Eve commit that sin, where they reach out, they're trying to grasp for divinity apart from God, and so now as a society, human beings are doing something similar. There's an echo of Adam and Eve's sin here, where they're trying to go up the heights of heaven, grasp that divinity, but without any reference to their Creator, without any reference to God. And so the great lesson for all of us is to know that any time we attempt to do that, as individuals or on a societal level, when we try to create some kind of utopia on this earth without any reference to the Lord, it will always end in disaster and confusion, like the Tower of Babel. It came to a complete and sudden screeching halt. The project, merely through human efforts, came to an end. And so again, any time that we try to do that as a society, to find unity, peace, prosperity or fulfillment apart from God, it will always end in disaster. We always have to be on guard against that, because there have been and there are in our day and age different political, social, economic movements that try to promise us a utopia on this earth without any reference or direct contradiction to God and His commandments, and that will always fail. And it has disastrous consequences for us individually and for the world and society as a whole. Just think, in the last century, in the 20th century, there was communism and fascism, both different sides of the coin, but basically promising to usher in a new humanity as long as we just got rid of certain groups of people, and it ended in wars and deaths of tens of millions of people, because there was no reference to God at all. It was simply humanity attempting to bring about peace and unity on its own, and that can never happen, because we are made to be in union with God before we can be in union with each other. And so God's answer to humanity's desire to be one, to be unified, right, because God wants that, but His answer to the Tower of Babel, that tendency in the human heart to try to order our lives around something greater than ourselves, is Pentecost. So in our first reading, we hear from the Acts of the Apostles that the Holy Spirit descends as tongues of fire upon the apostles, and they're going out and they're preaching to all of these visitors from Jerusalem. And so it's a reordering of our lives around God Himself. And then that is when we can find true unity and peace. When our lives are not rightly ordered around God, when they're ordered around something else, that's when it leads to disaster and confusion. So at Pentecost, we have that true unity and diversity. We have the speaking in tongues of various languages and cultures. We hear the different people saying we're Medes, we're Parthians, we're Cretans, we're Arabs, we're from all these different cultures and languages, but all of them, you hear them speaking the same thing. The apostles are all speaking of the mighty acts and power of God. And again, that's the only way we have true unity in our world and societies, by surrendering to the power and movement of the Holy Spirit. And the reason why the world resists this, and sometimes we resist it as well, is because again it involves a surrender to God's work and His will and our commandments, and not our own. And that's where our true happiness and peace lies, by surrendering to the movement of the Holy Spirit, which can be uncomfortable at times, because oftentimes the Holy Spirit's plan for our lives is different than our plan for our lives. But that's again where you get true diversity, because when we allow the Spirit to have His way in our lives and in our world, our church and society, that's where you get that great diversity. There's no more diverse group of people than the saints, right? The saints have been everyone from slaves to kings and emperors, priests and laypeople, religious, and everything in between. I think a beautiful image we can use of this is a symphony, right, a symphony, an orchestra. You have different musical instruments, but they all need to be playing the same piece of music, each in their own way, and they have to be following the conductor's direction for there to be harmony, for there to be unity, for there to be understanding of the piece of music. If each individual player is playing their musical instrument randomly or not following the conductor's direction, there'll be chaos, disorder, disharmony. The Holy Spirit is like that conductor directing our lives, and we can cooperate or we can resist, but when we resist, we miss the beauty of that music that God intends to play through our lives. Dr. Peter Kreef had a beautiful reflection on the reality of Pentecost and how the Lord has this diversity but also brings out unity within it through the power of the Holy Spirit. He says, Christ's church is not monolithic but full of diversity. The spirit that inspires one Catholic to run for political office inspires another to enter a monastery. The same spirit who inspires a theologian to write a book inspires a chef to cook for a homeless shelter. Unity and diversity do not oppose each other except through tyrants and totalitarians, and Christ is not our tyrant but our lover and savior. Because he is our creator and designer, because he alone knows us through and through, we each find in his mind the secret of our identity. Because he is our lover and savior, because he alone can fill our restless heart, we each find in his will the secret of our peace and joy. During Holy Week and this whole Easter season, we've been celebrating Jesus' accomplishment of our salvation through his death, his resurrection, and his ascension, his opening the way to heaven. Now here at Pentecost, we celebrate our response to that reality. At Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to respond to that salvation that Jesus wants for us. It enables us to actually live the Christian life with courage, faith, hope, and joy. Whatever God has called us to respond to that in our individual vocations, in our individual lives. And again, we have the option of either following the Holy Spirit's lead or we can resist and fall for a false version of happiness or unity without reference to God. We see that dynamic in our second reading where St. Paul's letter to Galatians, he contrasts the life of the flesh and the life of the spirit, and he lays it out quite directly. Right? St. Paul is nothing but direct. This is in chapter 5 and in chapter 3, St. Paul calls the Galatians foolish and stupid. Right? So St. Paul has no problem not mincing words when he's trying to get the important points across of the realities of our faith. And so he writes, as we heard in our second reading, the works of the flesh are obvious. Immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking abouts, orgies, and the like. So he's telling his readers, the Galatians, these are obvious. You're well familiar with what it's like to live apart from God. This is what it looks like. This is what a life of the flesh devoid of God looks like, and it's not good. And apparently St. Paul had had to talk with them about this before because he then goes on and says, I warn you, as I warned you before, so this isn't the first time he's talking to them about this, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So it's good to remind ourselves from time to time that there are certain behaviors that will separate us, will cut us off from God's kingdom, that separate us from the life of the Spirit if we insist on clinging to them. And we can go through that list of the works of the flesh, and that seems to sum up much of our modern American culture, unfortunately. So it's important for us to be aware that what's the works of the flesh, what are the works of the Spirit? And St. Paul goes on and contrasts the works of the flesh with the works of the Spirit. And he says, in contrast, the fruit of the Spirit, so how do I know the Spirit is operating in my life? Well, St. Paul gives us the fruits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He goes on to say, if we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. So another way St. Paul could be saying this is, become what you are. Through baptism and confirmation, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit. We are then transformed. And so St. Paul is saying, well, be what you are, become what you are, cooperate with the Holy Spirit. And again, if I'm wondering, okay, where is the Spirit operating in my life? Those fruits are a great place to look. Am I a person of love? Do I will the good of the other, even at my own expense? Am I a joyful person? Do I have peace? Am I patient with others, especially the faults and failings of others? Do I have kindness? Am I generous? Am I generous with what God has given me, my talents, my gifts, my money, my time? Am I faithful? Am I faithful to God no matter what? Do I have gentleness? Do I have self-control? Am I able to control and direct my passions so they are centered in Christ? And if I find that I'm lacking in one of these areas, or all of them, or three or four of them, this is a beautiful fruit for prayer, to ask God to give us more of that. Lord, I need more love, I need more gentleness, faithfulness, generosity, self-control. This is something that God delights in. He wants to give us more of the Holy Spirit. It's not a gift that He kind of hands out little by little. He wants to pour it forth upon us, but we actually have to want it, we actually have to desire it. In Luke 11, verse 13, Jesus says, If you then who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? In John chapter 3, verse 34, John writes, For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration His gift of the Spirit. So the Scriptures tell us that God delights and wants to pour forth the Holy Spirit in an abundant way in our lives, but again, that we need to ask for it, we have to desire it, we have to want our lives to be changed by it. St. Hilary of Poitiers summed it up this way, He said that we receive the Spirit of Truth so that we can know the things of God. Unless it absorbs the gift of the Spirit through faith, the mind has the ability to know God, but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge. This unique gift which is in Christ is offered in its fullness to everyone. It is everywhere available, but it is given to each man in proportion to his readiness to receive it. Its presence is the fuller, the greater a man's desire to be worthy of it. Again, St. Hilary is saying that the Holy Spirit is there, He is available, God wants to pour it forth upon everyone, but we receive it in proportion to our readiness, our willingness to be open to it. So to say, Lord, I want to receive more of the power of your Holy Spirit, even if I'm uncomfortable, I give you permission. Come take control of my life, give you permission to turn my life upside down, enabling me to love you and to love others, to become the man or woman that you've called me to be. So there's always more of God's Spirit if we want it, if we desire it. So today as we approach Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, let's ask the Holy Spirit, let's beg him for the grace of openness and courage, who might follow his movements in our lives so our lives can be rightly ordered towards him in the life of heaven.