A Homily – The Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Pentecost) Year A

First Reading Genesis 11:1-9

Psalm – Psalm 32(33):10-15 ©

Second Reading – Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20 ©

Canticle – Daniel 3:52-56 ©

Third Reading – Ezekiel 37:1-14 ©

Psalm – Psalm 106(107):2-9 ©

Fourth Reading – Joel 3:1-5 ©

Fifth Reading – Romans 8:22-27 ©

Gospel Acclamation

The Gospel According to John 7:37-39 ©

Sixth Reading – Genesis 11:1-9 ©

Seventh Reading – Acts 2:1-11 ©

Psalm 103(104):1-2,24,27-30,35 ©

Eighth Reading 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12, 13 ©

Sequence – Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Gospel Acclamation

The Gospel According to John 20:19-23 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 It is the Feast of Pentecost, forty days after Easter, marking the beginning of the Apostolic Age.

 Christians throughout the world celebrate this day; tradition tells us that this feast commemorates the gift of the Holy Spirit, given by Jesus of Nazareth (Joshua son of Joseph), to the nascent Church founded in his name.

 For the Church, it is a new era.

 Jesus has left the building…he has left the planet, and though it has been whispered that he will return, care for community of believers is now in the hands of his disciples, such as they were.

 The departure of Jesus marks the beginning of the age of prophecy for the Christian community. It is a time of discernment in which the Church would undergo an evolutionary process, a process by which it would become a new creation.

 From this point forward Christianity is no longer merely a sect of Judaism; it becomes an international movement, transcending Palestine as it spreads throughout the Mediterranean region, Gaul, and the Iberian peninsula, North Africa and the Near East, all the way to India and eventually…around the world.

 It did not happen overnight, and there remain human communities that have never heard the name of Jesus…or the good news preached in his name.

 In the Apostolic Age, the Church becomes responsible for teaching the way of Jesus, the new way, preached in new tongues, told through new stories shaped by every culture that encountered them; in these stories Joshua son of Joseph becomes something new as well: Jesus the Christ, a mythological, a man of godly power, fully human and fully divine.

 In Christian doctrine Jesus becomes identified with God’s own self, the second person of the Holy Trinity; he is the creator of the universe in whom all things exist, without whom not one thing comes into being.

 Be mindful.

 In his time and throughout his life Jesus preached the way of love, of service, of caring, of justice, of mercy of humility. He uttered not a tittle about his godhood.

 Remember.

 God, the creator of the universe, God of law and order. God is not a purveyor of magic tricks, God does not dabble in the supernatural or trade in miracles; therefore today’s narrative from The Book of Acts must be understood as a metaphor.

 The meaning is this:

 The Church had grown to include a great number of people from all parts of the Roman Empire, from Egypt and North Africa, from cisalpine and transalpine Gaul, from Arabia and Persia, from all around the Mediterranean Region, from North and South of the Black Sea, to India.

 In every company of believers there were speakers and translators capable of sharing the Good News in every tongue that was known; from Ethiopia to Brittania, from Carthage to the Himalayas.

 The gift of tongues is to be understood as the blessing of a multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural community. An individual possessing the gift of tongues, was someone who had the ability to interpret between one language and another, so that everyone gathered to hear the Gospel and scripture expounded on, would be able to understand what they heard.

 The myth of Pentecost, as related here in the Gospel of Saint John, narrates some of the struggles of the early Church. It was written more than one hundred years after the death of Jesus, and decades after the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. It was written by and for John’s community, in an era when the differentiation among Christians and Jews had concretized, when the leaders in the new Christian movement were trying to establish their bona fides as the true heirs of Jesus’ ministry, and doing so by divorcing themselves from their Jewish roots, by distinguishing themselves over and against their Jewish heritage.

 These new Christians re-imagined the gift of the Holy Spirit as something that was released in a breath of ritual remembering, they imagined it as something new, something new to them, but they were wrong.

 The Holy Spirit has always been with the people, has always been with humanity, the Holy Spirit did not suddenly come into the world with Jesus’ death and subsequent ascension. The tradition says that the Spirit was with us at the beginning when God breathed life into Adam’s inanimate form.

 Know this!

 Jesus said: let the thirsty come, your thirst will be relieved.

 Do not be confused on this point; belief is not the coin you exchange for access to God. Jesus said simply: “Come if you are thirsty. Drink and be restored.”

 Jesus calls us to follow the way, and the way is life, trust him and keep to the way. Give water to the thirsty, feed the hungry, take care of the orphan and the widow and the poor.

 Do not muddle around in the rhetoric of John, or allow John’s confusion stop you from understanding that when John attempts to qualify the good news of the Gospel and its message of infinite hope, when John attempts to circumscribe it by any measure, it is precisely there that John deviates from the way.

 Remember this!

 The spirit has always been with us, all things come into being in the spirit of God, are sustained by God’s spirit and to God’s spirit all things and beings return, just as day follows night.

 Reflect on the teaching of Paul:

 Who teaches that God is the creator of the universe; the eternal God is the first source and center of all things. The infinite God engenders all potentialities and yet interferes with none of them, having created the universe in state of absolute freedom, uninfringed by divine coercion.

 God does not manipulate creation, and yet the entirety of what passes in the created order, moves according to God’s eternal purpose, there is no contradiction in this mystery.

 The Spirit of God animates all beings, sustains all of creation throughout all time. Pentecost is a feast that acknowledges and celebrates this reality, it does not mark the instantiation of the reality at a particular point in time.

 The mission and ministry of Jesus is passed on to the church and the community of believers through this revelation. We here it in the calling to love and care for those in greatest need, to serve justice and be merciful in the face of the world’s horrors.

 It is wise and good to anticipate the coming of God. It is wise and good to desire the divine presence. Anticipate that moment, relish it, cherish it, but remain present to the people and events that are actually occurring in the world.

 When you are in prayer and your thoughts are unformed, when your feelings are unclear and no words come to your mind, or when the words that do come are inappropriate for prayer; then be silent, quiet your mind, still the murmurs in your heart, let go of the voices and listen.

 Be mindful: the prayers we pray for ourselves, are the same prayers we are called on to pray for everyone else, even our adversaries, including our most bitter enemies.

 If you pray for light and understanding, if you pray for life and peace, if you pray for solace and grace, if you pray for healing and guidance, if you pray for any blessing at all, make that prayer a prayer for everyone.

 Remember the wisdom of Isaiah who says: in the end every knee shall bend, and every tongue confess the name of God. In the end we are all in this together.

 Remember what the Psalmist wrote:

 It is impossible to hide our sins, our guilt, our anger, and our self-loathing from God.

 All sins are forgiven by God, though for us to forgive ourselves and for us to forgive each other, these are much more difficult tasks.

 We experience misery in our guilt until we admit our faults and ask forgiveness, until we give up our anger and forgive those who have hurt us; until then we are bound by it.

 Have faith, trust: the death of the body is not an impediment to God’s salvific will. God will go beyond any threshold to save God’s children; God has promised to pierce the veil of death.

 If you follow the way Jesus taught, then you are on the path of love and mercy, seeking reconciliation, you are forgiving and among the forgiven.

 Know this!

 God does not require or even desire our praise and exaltations, except insofar as those praises take the form of mercy and compassion expressed toward our fellow human beings. Serve God through the love and kindness you show one another; this is the way of salvation…it is close to you…have no fear.

 God does not come and go from our lives according to our deeds and merits. God’s salvation reaches everyone. The God of Jesus Christ is the God of all people, and Pentecost reveals this.

 All of those things which we imagine that divide us one from another, all these thoughs and ideas are illusions born of fear, a lack of trust (faith) in our neighbors, in ourselves, and in God.

 We are all the children of the living God, the living God whose voice is love and who dwells within our beating hearts.

 Remember this!

 

First Reading Genesis 11:1-9 ©

The Tower of Babel

Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ (For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.’

Now the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built. ‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.’ The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

 

Psalm – Psalm 32(33):10-15 ©

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

He frustrates the designs of the nations,

  he defeats the plans of the peoples.

His own designs shall stand for ever,

  the plans of his heart from age to age.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

They are happy, whose God is the Lord,

  the people he has chosen as his own.

From the heavens the Lord looks forth,

  he sees all the children of men.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

From the place where he dwells he gazes

  on all the dwellers on the earth;

he who shapes the hearts of them all;

  and considers all their deeds.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

 

Second Reading – Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20 ©

Moses Led the People Out of the Camp to Meet God

Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel:

‘“You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.”

‘Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’

So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do.’

Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.

 

Canticle – Daniel 3:52-56 ©

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest, Lord God of our fathers.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

Blest your glorious holy name.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest in the temple of your glory.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest on the throne of your kingdom.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest who gaze into the depths.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest in the firmament of heaven.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

 

Third Reading – Ezekiel 37:1-14 ©

A Vision of Israel's Death and Resurrection

The hand of the Lord was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the Lord.”’ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.

Then he said, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead.” So prophesy. Say to them, “The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.”’

 

Psalm – Psalm 106(107):2-9 ©

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia!

Let them say this, the Lord’s redeemed,

  whom he redeemed from the hand of the foe

and gathered from far-off lands,

  from east and west, north and south.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Some wandered in the desert, in the wilderness,

  finding no way to a city they could dwell in.

Hungry they were and thirsty;

  their soul was fainting within them.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need

  and he rescued them from their distress

and he led them along the right way,

  to reach a city they could dwell in.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Let them thank the Lord for his love,

  for the wonders he does for men:

for he satisfies the thirsty soul;

  he fills the hungry with good things.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia!

 

Fourth Reading – Joel 3:1-5 ©

I Will Pour Out My Spirit on All Mankind

Thus says the Lord:

‘I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men see visions.

Even on the slaves, men and women, will I pour out my spirit in those days.

I will display portents in heaven and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.’

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord dawns,

that great and terrible day.

All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, for on Mount Zion there will be some who have escaped, as the Lord has said, and in Jerusalem some survivors whom the Lord will call.

 

Fifth Reading – Romans 8:22-27 ©

The Spirit Himself Expresses Our Plea in a Way that Could Never Be Put into Words

From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved – our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were – but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet – it is something we must wait for with patience.

The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

 

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 7:37-39 ©

'If Any Man is Thirsty, Let Him Come to Me!'

On the last day and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood there and cried out:

‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to me!

Let the man come and drink who believes in me!’

As scripture says: From his breast shall flow fountains of living water.

He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

 

Sixth Reading – Acts 2:1-11 ©

They Were All Filled with the Holy Spirit and Began to Speak

When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’

 

Psalm 103(104):1-2,24,27-30,35 ©

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

Alleluia!

Bless the Lord, my soul!

  Lord God, how great you are,

clothed in majesty and glory,

  wrapped in light as in a robe!

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

How many are your works, O Lord!

  In wisdom you have made them all.

The earth is full of your riches.

  Bless the Lord, my soul.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

All of these look to you

  to give them their food in due season.

You give it, they gather it up:

  you open your hand, they have their fill.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

You take back your spirit, they die,

  returning to the dust from which they came.

You send forth your spirit, they are created;

  and you renew the face of the earth.

Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

Alleluia!

 

Seventh Reading – 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 ©

In the One Spirit We Were All Baptised

No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.

Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.

 

Sequence – Veni,  Sancte Spiritus

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,

From the clear celestial height

Thy pure beaming radiance give.

Come, thou Father of the poor,

Come with treasures which endure

Come, thou light of all that live!

Thou, of all consolers best,

Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,

Dost refreshing peace bestow

Thou in toil art comfort sweet

Pleasant coolness in the heat

Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, light divine,

Visit thou these hearts of thine,

And our inmost being fill:

If thou take thy grace away,

Nothing pure in man will stay

All his good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew

On our dryness pour thy dew

Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will

Melt the frozen, warm the chill

Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on us who evermore

Thee confess and thee adore,

With thy sevenfold gifts descend:

Give us comfort when we die

Give us life with thee on high

Give us joys that never end.

 

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel of John 20:19-23

As the Father Sent Me, So Am I Sending You: Receive the Holy Spirit

In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

 

The Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Pentecost) Year A