Pentecost Sunday

Link to the Mass readings for Pentecost: http://www.usccb.org/nab/052310.shtml

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;/there are different forms of service but the same Lord;/there are different workings but the same God/who produces all of them in everyone.”

This is the essence of today’s readings. Christianity has always meant to be universal, and called the Church in the beginning Catholic (meaning “universal”) because it was the church for everyone. Today especially this rings true, because of the widespread feeling that everyone is an individual and has to do what is right for them. If one feels the strongest pull in Buddhism, that is where he should rest his soul. If a girl is gay, that is ok, because she isn’t hurting anyone. If one is Catholic but does not want to live chastely with those they are dating, than it is fine because that is how they live their spiritual life.

This isn’t all wrong, or a lie. There is much Truth to be found in Buddhism, and love is love no matter who feels it. And each path we walk is our own, and each struggle uniquely individual. But there is only one God, and one Holy Spirit, and it is that Spirit that each Jew from all over the world hears when the disciples speak in their language. Because God’s truth is universal, and speaks in whatever language we are able to understand, at any and every point in our walk with God.

And this is what we hear: that our sins can be forgiven; that God is great, and all He creates is good; and He has come to renew the face of the earth. This call is universal and speaks to the heart of each of us, and reminds us that we are each uniquely beautiful.

The Church is universal, with a place for each of us. We each experience God uniquely because of who we are and what we’ve done with Him (and without Him). But He is the same God. And He works in all of us. People feel that because they are different and the Church is the same that they do not fit inside it. But while the Church does hold the Truth is has received from Jesus with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is made of a myriad of unique pieces. We are as many parts of the one body: one may be the hand, and touch the lives of the poor; another the ear, who hears God in music and shares that; this one might be an eye, and see God in those who other people can’t. And we might be one of these, each of these, or none of these but God works in us. God’s people are amazingly different, and sometimes that drives us to ostracize those who seem too different, or reject those ways that are not our ways. But Christ is big enough to hold us all. Just because you speak God in a different language does not mean we are not speaking of the same God.

This is not to say that all things are lawful. There are some which are not. There are things we cling to of the world and not of God, and confuse the two. But how shall we know between the two?

“Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before him in whatever our hearts condemn, for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. Beloved, if (our) hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit that he gave us.” (1 John 3:19-24).

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!