Pentecost Sunday

Scripture:

Acts 2:1-11
1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

 

 

Reflection:

When you walk through a storm keep your chin up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain,
Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone, you’ll never walk alone.

"You’ll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel." It puts into song and verse the impact of Pentecost. For fifty days, the disciples who had left everything to follow Jesus were anxiously awaiting the comforter he had promised. Occasionally he appeared to them, eating a morning meal of fish along the seashore, inviting Thomas to touch his wounds, inconspicuously walking with two of them on the road to Emmaus. But where was the promised comforter?

In the Acts of the Apostles we learn that on a day when they were all together a sudden noise like a driving wind filled the room and it appeared as if tongues of fire rested on each of them. In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul describes it as an awakening of unification and harmony. John’s Gospel portrays it as an experience of deep peace. Whatever metaphor you prefer, the Pentecost event revived the weary disciples with the conviction that they would never again walk alone. It was a moment of remarkable transformation when they experienced the peace of Christ.

Peace means different things to different people. For a soldier, peace is the absence of war. For the parents of an infant, peace can be a child asleep. For parents of teenagers, peace is a silent boombox. After a tough day, peace may be a sitting in a comfortable chair with feet propped-up and a glass of wine. Each of these is a facet of peace. But the peace of Christ is deeper than any of these. Jesus offered a peace the world cannot give. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, is a state of wellbeing. It is a heart resting or dwelling in God.

Pentecost is not simply a feast honoring the Holy Spirit. It is the feast of Easter shared with the community of disciples. Jesus lived and died for Pentecost – to share with his disciples the same Spirit of peace which had enlivened him for 33 years. It was the Spirit dwelling within the cave of his heart where he frequently found refuge and comfort from the storms which blew into his life.

Like Jesus, though our dreams may be tossed and blown, we can walk on with hope in our hearts because we never walk alone. We never walk alone.

 

Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP, is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle 

Scripture:

Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3
John 21:20-25

Reflection:

"They sent Barnabas to go to Antioch."

Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Barnabas.  His original name was Joseph.  But the Apostles called him Barnabas, which means "son of encouragement."  He collaborated with Paul as they entered into uncharted territory, proclaiming the good news, not to Jews but to Gentiles, not in Jerusalem but in Antioch and elsewhere.  They left behind the familiar for the unfamiliar.  Barnabas and Paul, as we know, had a sharp disagreement.  They stumbled along the way.  But the Paraclete – the one who walks along side us, to pick us up when we stumble – was with them.

As I reflected on this reading and its implications for us today, Fr. Pat Brennan telephoned me to share "something interesting" that emerged from the weeklong Western Provincial Chapter of the Passionist Community in Detroit.  The community did something it had never done before.   They elected to their Board of Consultors Fr. Richard Burke, who already serves as a consultor for his own Eastern St. Paul of the Cross Province.  In this unique role, he will serve as a collaborative bridge between the communities of these two provinces.

This is certainly "something interesting," and in the spirit of Barnabas’ name, very encouraging.  Like Paul and Barnabas, the Eastern and Western provinces will work in collaboration as they enter uncharted territory, discerning how together they can more effectively proclaim Christ and him Crucified.  They may stumble, perhaps even disagree.  That’s okay.  The Paraclete will be with them, walking along side to pick them up if they stumble. 

 

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
John 17:20-26

 

 

 

Reflection:

We Share and Are Sharers of the Father’s Glory

Today’s gospel gives us the concluding words of Jesus at the Last Supper. They have been part of a 3day reflection that we might compare with the beginning of John’s gospel.

The prologue of the gospel tells us that Jesus existed from all time with the Father. The Father and Jesus have an intimacy described as the inexpressible intimacy of a nursing mother with her child. We hear now that Jesus who has been in the world (the place not full of God’s love), has loved his disciples. The hour has arrived; Passion begins, and the work of Jesus will be accomplished: The Father’s love will be revealed to the disciples. As Jesus is one with the Father, so the disciples are one with Jesus, he is ‘the way’ that all may be one as he and the Father are one.

The church fathers who describe the Trinity as a dance use a metaphor that rings true. There is something of that dance these past three days and it includes the disciples! This is appropriate because Jesus tells us, ‘I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be one, as we are one – I living in them, you living in me….Father, all those you gave me I would have in my company where I am, to see this glory of mine which is your gift to me, because of the love you bore me before the world began (17:22-24).

We remain in the world and now are privileged to share the work of the One with whom we share life and intimacy. Partners in the Dance, we now invite others to join us.

A final word on this day must include the Saint who is honored, Ephrem, a deacon and Doctor of the Church. He is known as the "Harp of the Spirit". As we have heard of the mystery of God described as ‘dance’, it is Ephrem who sings the praises of the Holy Spirit not only in his insightful theology but most beautifully in his poetry.

            In your Bread there is hidden the Spirit who is not consumed,
            in you Wine there dwells the fire that is not drunk:
            The Spirit is in your Bread, the Fire in your Wine
            a manifest wonder, which our lips have received.
                                (Sebastian Brock, The Holy Spirit in the Syrian Baptismal Tradition)

Ephrem talks of the presence and action of the Spirit in the Eucharist. He uses the imagery of the Spirit and the energy of fire. Ephrem ponders how we in our humble humanity can experience this exchange with the divine. It is the work of God manifest in Jesus through the continual presence and activity of the Spirit among us. (Liturgical Ministry, Fall 2010,  Mark Morozowick)

Saturday evening we will celebrate the Vigil of Pentecost. All the partners will be at the dance, and we who are left alone in the world, know we are not alone as we will do the work of Jesus with the energy of fire, the Holy Spirit.

 

Fr. William Murphy, CP is pastor of St. Joseph’s Monastery parish in Baltimore, Maryland.

Scripture:

Acts 20:28-38
John 17:11b-19

Reflection:

Before I became a Passionist, I was involved in lay ministry for three years. Each year I was located in a different town/parish in Missouri (Marceline, Chamois, St. Louis). In each locale, I developed friendships as I reached out to youth and seniors alike. Finally, at the conclusion of each year, there was the going away party replete with hugs and goodbyes.

Now as a parish missionary, my experience is similar. I enter various communities for a short week of preaching. After my week of ministry, there is the farewell reception with hugs, handshakes, and smiles all around.

This is a taste of what Paul was going through in today’s reading. After spending three full years of his life with the community at Ephesus, Paul was saying his goodbyes. There were prayers, hugs, tears, and even kisses. Paul had brought God’s Word and his very self into this community. Now it was time to move on. Like his Master, "we must go to the other towns and villages and proclaim the Good News." The call of a missionary is not static but dynamic. It involves many hellos and goodbyes. Some of these goodbyes can be heart wrenching.

Like Jesus and Paul in our readings, we Passionists are "sent" into the world. It is God’s Word of inspiration and hope that we bring with us. We encounter many people along the way. There are multitudes of hellos and goodbyes. While it is difficult to come and go, we surrender to the call. Since Jesus sends us, we keep moving knowing God will work in us and through us to touch people’s lives.

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 14 books and creator of television and radio programs airing in many cities. You can learn more about his ministry at: http://www.frcedric.org/

 

Scripture:

Acts: 25:13b-21
John 21:15-19

Reflection:

The Illusion of Control

I have been flying a lot lately, and I find there is nothing like a flight delay or cancellation to highlight how much we Americans value autonomy and control. We expect to go where we want when we want, and we deeply resent interference by any human or natural force.  (In fact, in most cases the word "resent" is far too tame.)

Oh, how hard we try to be masters of our own destinies!  We "control" the course of our days with carefully planned time management tools and tightly scheduled itineraries. We "control" aging with dye, lotions, surgeries, and toxins. We "control" our image with assumed masks and behaviors, to the point that many people believe others only like them because they don’t really know what’s inside. We "control" sickness with machines, medicines, procedures, and ever-new cures.  We even seek to "control" dying, preferring to kill ourselves rather than let death proceed naturally. We desperately seek to imitate the young Peter who, in typical "American dream" fashion, was able to dress himself and go where he wanted to go. 

Admittedly, there is much we do actually control, and I have a responsibility to make the best decisions I can in those arenas. Yet the circumstances of my life, especially lately, have reinforced the folly of believing that any of us actually wields as much control as we’d like to believe.  Babies die, dementia takes hold, floods defy levees, people make unpredictable decisions, recessions hit, tornadoes strike in random paths, accidents happen, loved ones are diagnosed with cancer, traffic snarls, carefully laid plans go awry, and we often end up in places or situations we never would have expected. Jesus warns that we cannot do what we want at every turn. Far more often we are bound by that metaphorical belt, and led somewhere we would rather not go. 

Am I willing to allow my illusion of control to be shattered? Am I willing to be led into difficult situations, confrontations, aging, and even death?  Can I surrender my life and learn to be drawn by something greater than myself rather than pushed by my desperate striving for control? Can I find grace and love in unexpected and even tragic events? Something deep inside me is terrified by those thoughts. Instinctively I know that more often than not, I will stretch out my hands and someone else will lead me where I do not want to go. I know that placing trust in my personal ability to control my life and destiny is an exercise in futility. I keep striving for it anyway. 

Yet if I assume that I am NOT in control, perhaps I can live with less stress and more freedom.  If I assume that there will be losses, glitches, and challenges at every turn, perhaps I can better appreciate what I have while I have it.  If I know things will not go as planned, perhaps I can be open to see new things unfold. Instead of spending energy raging against unwanted occurrences in my life or protesting that I don’t deserve what is happening, perhaps I can accept their inevitability and use my energy to cope and to heal. If I love freely and deeply even though I know I will be hurt and will eventually lose my beloved, perhaps the joy I experience will be worth the pain. If I trust that when I am nailed to the cross Christ is nailed there with me, perhaps I can also believe that with God’s help I can overcome and even reach resurrection. If I let go of the need for absolute control, perhaps I can live so fully that I will arrive at my death bed without regrets.  Can I let go?

I wish I could answer without reservation. For now, perhaps it is enough to know I am working on it and I hope I am getting better. Check back with me next week when yet another flight gets canceled.

 

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s  website: http://www.amyflorian.com/.

Scripture:

Acts 20:17-27
John 17: 1-11a

Reflection:

Can you recall your experience of seeing family members or dear friends leaving to return home after a wonderful vacation? The experience for me has always been mixed: "Thanks for coming!  We’ve had a glorious time!  But…I am going to miss you.  Let’s keep in touch by phone or email or mail.   Love you!" 

Paul has mixed thoughts and emotions as he says "goodbye" to the leaders from Ephesus.  There is joy, there is sorrow.  He won’t be seeing them again.  He is sad.    There is a cloud overhead.  Indications have been given by the Holy Spirit that imprisonment and hard days lie ahead.  But he is still driven by his call and desire to continue to spread the "good news" entrusted to him.  Paul has known a deep interior change since his conversion.  Life…what is it all about?  Paul’s answer is: "I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace." 

Each of us has been given the gift of life which has been graced through baptism to become a son or daughter of our heavenly Father.  We are family.  Jesus is our brother.  Each of us has been uniquely blessed with gifts, talents and, yes, with limitations.  So we are also challenged as Paul was.  You and I are asked the question:  So…what is my life all about?  The answer continues to unravel, to be revealed as we, too, undergo that deep internal change in our relationship to God, to others and to ourselves.   How do our faith, hope and love continually, ever so slowly, sometimes quickly, affect our thinking and acting.  Sometimes the changes come through joy filled experiences, sometimes through pain and sorrow.  And so we have kept growing, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes just holding on tightly to the Lord’s hand as He guides us though darkness, and still, at other times skipping along with joy and peace.     

Like Paul, you and I need to keep in touch with Jesus.  So much of what we see, experience and are challenged by, makes no sense unless we keep coming back to Jesus and his love for each and all of us.  His words, his teaching are backed up with his loving concern.  "Come, take up your cross and follow Me."  He will never abandon us. "Greater love than this no one has but that he lay down his life for his friends." 

 

Fr. Peter Berendt, C.P. is on the staff of Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center, Houston, Texas.

 

Scripture: 

Acts: 19:1-8
John 16:29-33

 

 

 

Reflection:

Paul arrives in Ephesus, which at that time was one of the great cities in the region. The ruins of the great temple to the goddess Diana are still standing. Ephesus was regarded as one of the finest cities in the empire, a center of politics, religion and commerce.

Paul seems surprised that the "disciples" had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They were baptized in the baptism of John the Baptist. What is the difference and why Paul’s concern?

In a recent and intriguing article in a Chicago newspaper, researchers discovered that 80 per cent of people return to their old patterns after recovery from a heart attack, heart surgery or being diagnosed with diabetes. That is, when doctors prescribed to patients new diets and a routine of exercises to follow, most patients, within months, returned to their old eating habits and lack of exercise. It’s very difficult for people to change their old routines, the researchers discovered, even when faced with ill health if their lifestyles didn’t change.

The baptism of John was a ritual of forgiveness. The person sought God’s forgiveness and promised not to sin again. The person was sincere and struggled to fight against the temptation to sin. But within a few weeks, a few months, that person often was back to his/her sinful habits, attitudes and actions. Promises and will power were not enough. We know this experience from our New Year resolutions; they so often fall to the wayside after time.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit was not only a ritual of forgiveness, but a sacrament that bestowed the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who strengthens our will power, who enables us to fulfill our solemn promises. The Spirit enables us to become a "new creation." In John’s baptism, we are left to our own devices. In the baptism of Christ, we are gifted with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

As we celebrate Pentecost, we can give thanks for this wonderful gift of God, the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to be faithful disciples of Christ. "They spoke in tongues and prophesied." Let us be open to the Holy Spirit so that we make those lifestyle changes and speak the words of love, forgiveness and encouragement that we have been afraid to voice.

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P., is Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

Scripture:

Acts 1:12-14
1 Peter 4:13-16
John 17:1-11a

Reflection:

Where is heaven? 

When I was a young child I had the idea that Heaven was above and Gehenna was below. This was confirmed and reinforced by the images of heaven I was shown. But as I grew older this didn’t seem to make much sense. I was a child of the space age. How far would we have to send out our spaceships before they found heaven? And as to the other place, well, Jesus never spoke of people being "cast down." In the parables about the kingdom of heaven the image was always one of being "cast out."

So the question arose for me, where is heaven? Today’s readings lead to other questions along the same lines: if Jesus said, "I am with you always," how is it that He’s taken up to some far off place and leaves the apostles? And what does it mean that, "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven." 

In the Acts of the Apostles today we read that, "a cloud took Him from their sight." In both the Old and New Testaments clouds are often used as a sign of God’s presence or kingdom. Jesus said the kingdom of God (heaven) is near, at hand, among you, within you, between you. If we weave these images together today’s readings begin to make more sense. Jesus has indeed entered into the kingdom of God–the kingdom of God that lives within us and between us as the Body of Christ. This is the Kingdom of God that is among us. This is "the cloud" that has hidden Jesus from our everyday eyes.

So a new question arises: can I learn to look with new eyes, can I allow Christ to enter into me, so that I live in Him and allow Him to live in me, so that I can experience and share the Risen Christ?

 

Talib Huff is a lay volunteer at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California.