Homily for Pentecost Sunday 31st May 2020
We are about to begin the 11th Week of Lock-Down, almost 3 months! Lock-Down is being gradually eased and this could be a dangerous time! So caution is the word as we begin to lessen the restrictions, as we continue to help and look out for each other. I wish to thank all those who have helped and continue to help me during this difficult time. I am most grateful.
I continue to say Mass in a closed St. Cecilia’s Church for all your intentions and for specific Intentions. Also, I offer the Mass for all those who put themselves at risk for our sake by the nature of their jobs, and for those stricken with Covid-19 and those who care for them. The prolonged Lock-Down is distressing, and many families are experiencing severe difficulties. We must keep up our prayers for all who are suffering.
First Reading: Acts: 2: 1-11
Responsorial Psalm: 103: 1. 24. 29-31.34.
Second Reading 1Coriinthians: 12:3-7 12-13
Sequence for Pentecost
Gospel John 20:19-23
Homily
‘When Pentecost day came round, the apostles had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind…and tongues of fire came to rest on the head of each of them’.
Today, is the Birthday of the Church!
One of the greatest Pentecosts I experienced was at Coventry Airport on 31st May, 1982, some 38 years ago, during the visit to this country of Pope John Paul II. It was a brilliantly sunny day like today, which also happens to be 31st May! I was at Our Lady’s, King’s Lynn, at the time. There was great excitement in the air. It was the first time a Pope had visited the UK. Fr. Hammond, the Parish Priest of Our Lady’s had taken two coach loads to Wembley Stadium during the day to see the Pope, and as they returned at midnight, we set off for Coventry. We arrived at 4.30am, just as the sun was rising, parked the coach and started walking and made our way to the airport. Pope John Paul arrived by helicopter and started Mass during which a number of people were confirmed. I will always remember it. It was a blazing hot day with not a cloud in the sky! (On that visit to the UK the pope was celebrating all Seven Sacraments in different places).Afterwards, he travelled round the airport in his Pope-mobile and gave us all a Blessing. I will never forget it. There was a real sense of hope and expectancy in the air, as I imagine was the experience of the apostles on that First Pentecost Sunday. I remember that there was a brisk wind on that day, too, and all the bunting and Papal flags were tossing in the wind, which together with the bright sun, reminded us all of that first Pentecost Sunday! It was a joyous occasion even though we were all very tired, not having slept on the coach to Coventry. I will always remember that visit.
The Readings today: The first is from the Acts of the Apostles, where St. Luke gives us the accepted account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, in Jerusalem at Pentecost. This was a Jewish feast in thanksgiving for the Harvest and the ending of Passover time. As with the Resurrection and Ascension, the dates and venues don’t agree. In St. John’s Gospel the Descent of the Holy Spirit occurs on the evening of Easter Sunday, while St. Mathew has the event occurring in Galilee! The Church has traditionally accepted St. Luke’s timing of the events. The Responsorial Psalm, Ps. 103, has the lovely response: ‘Lord, send forth your Spirit and renew the face of the earth’! In the second Reading St. Paul says, ‘There are a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit’. One of the Early Fathers of the Church used this to give us a lovely insight into the working of the Holy Spirit. He compares it to light rain falling on the earth. It nourishes everything. Allowing the different flowers, trees and bushes and all living things, to grow into their several kinds, all giving glory to God, and so contributing to building up the Body of Christ. Yet the signs of The Holy Spirit, ‘Wind and Fire’, often frighten people. Wind and Fire are often seen as demonic as when fire destroys all the bushland in Eastern Australia, or the recent cyclone in the Indian Ocean!
Fr. Hugh Lavery has a lovely passage in his little booklet, Reflections: ‘Men often see God as power, but that power as total oppression. Might spells danger; almighty threatens destruction. What Pentecost reveals is not spirit but the Holy Spirit; the adjective refines the noun. It declares that the power of God is holy, his Spirit wholly creative’. There is a passage in St. John’s Gospel where Nicodemus comes to see Jesus by night. Jesus tells Nicodemus, ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear the sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or whither it goes’. (Jn. 3: 8).
We often see the effects of the wind in the trees on a sunny day, moving the leaves and turning them over. Or the wind blowing on a summer’s day, making patterns as it moves across the corn, or the wind blowing over a calm lake or pond, making ‘cat’s paws’ across the surface!
This, God tells us, is what the Holy Spirit is like. It is not destructive, but creative and beneficial to all.
In our troubled times with the corona virus sweeping the world leaving grief and destruction in its path, we need God’s Holy Spirit to bring assistance, healing and relief to our troubled world. And we need to pray ourselves, especially, as the Holy Spirit is here to help us!
