Pentecost Sunday

“Then what looked like tongues of fire

appeared and settled on their heads.” Acts 2:3

Pentecost 2013

Pentecost Sunday May 19, 2013

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

First reading from Acts

When the day of Pentecost arrived, all the believers were gathered together in one place. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong blowing wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then what looked like tongues of fire appeared and settled on their heads. And all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven visiting Jerusalem. When they heard the roaring in the sky above the house, they gathered in a large crowd, and were stunned to hear their own language being spoken by the disciples. “How can this be,” they exclaimed. For these men are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native language! Here we are -- Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabians. And yet we all hear these men speaking of the mighty acts of God in our own languages”

 The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Glory to you, Lord

It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind doors locked out of fear of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst and greeted them saying, “Peace be with you!” When He had said this, He showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

Pentecost: the summit of the liturgical cycle

Pentecost is the summit of the liturgical cycle which begins with the Son’s descent to earth in the Christmas season. It continues with the Son’s ascent back to the Father in the Ascension. Now it peaks with the descent of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost which concludes the Easter Season. The Paschal candle is not lighted during Sunday Mass anymore. But neither is it relegated to some dark corner in the sacristy for another year (as was done in years past). Now the Paschal candle is moved to a privileged spot near the baptismal font. There it will be lighted whenever we baptize our little ones into Christ. Tomorrow, May 20, we will return to Ordinary Time with its color green. Ordinary Time will continue through the warm summer months into late fall. Then we will start the liturgical cycle all over again with the first Sunday of Advent (this year Dec. 1) in preparation for Christmas 2013.

Pope John’s Pentecost

The gospel says that the disciples were gathered together “behind doors locked out of fear of the Jewish authorities.” (Jn. 20:19) That’s what fear does: it locks everything up. In the 16^th century, the Church fearing the Protestant Reformation summoned the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Trent wrote for us a theology which locked everything up in prisons of certainty, and which put everything into deep freeze. That freeze lasted for four hundred long years, and some of us senior citizens were soundly reared in that deep freeze.

 Then, at long last, there suddenly appeared in our midst a man - or rather an angel - Angelo Roncalli. He was called by God to put an end to the deep freeze, and to open up a Church whose doors and windows were locked out of fear for 400 years. On Oct. 28, 1958, Cardinal Angelo Roncalli was elected Pope, and he took the name of John XXIII. Then on Jan. 25, 1959, while speaking to a group of Rome-based cardinals in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the new pope announced his intention to summon an Ecumenical Council which he hoped would cause “a new Pentecost with fiery tongues to alight upon the Church.” The announcement was greeted, however, with stony silence by some cardinals who feared “a new Pentecost.” In his diary (The Journal of a Soul) John writes jocularly that his announcement of an Ecumenical Council was greeted with “impressive, devout silence.”

 After three years of preparation Vatican II opened on the 11^th of October 1962.  With Vatican II a great theological thaw set in the Church. “A new Pentecost” was indeed enkindled. Tongues of fire were ignited everywhere. A driving wind swept through the Church, blowing open doors and windows slammed shut by fear for four centuries. John guided the Council through its first session (Oct. 11 - Dec. 8, 1962).But he died of stomach cancer before the second session opened.  As he lay dying he said to a friend, “At least I have launched this big ship -- others will have to bring it into port.” When Pope John died on June 3, 1963 (50 years ago this year!), the whole world was anxiously kneeling at his bedside. No pope in history was so beloved, nor had such a positive impact on the present and future Church as did the man who came to be called “Good Pope John.”  

 

Fr. Boulad’s Pentecost

Fr. Henri Boulad (b. 1931) like Pope Francis is a Jesuit, and he has a very impressive resume behind his name. In a very a lengthy letter[1] to former Pope Benedict XVI he complains:

 

Vatican II tried to make up for four lost centuries, but one now has the impression that the Church today is in the process of once more locking the doors that have been opened, and is tempted to turn back to Trent and Vatican I rather than Vatican II.

 
Then Fr. Boulad courageously enumerates a long litany of sober realities afflicting the Church today, which cry to be addressed. One small paragraph of his very long litany reads:

In the matter of morality and ethics, the injunctions of the Magisterium, repeated ad nauseam on marriage, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, clerical celibacy, divorce and remarriage, etc. touch nobody and only engender weariness and indifference.  Adult Europe today refuses to be treated like a child. Our Christian people have learned to think for themselves and are not about to swallow whatever comes along.

 

Then Boulad calls for a new Pentecost. He suggests the convocation of a general synod which, like Vatican II (1962-1965), would last for three years.

Pope Francis’ Pentecost

Will the new man sitting on the Chair of Peter be able to win back the some 20 million disenchanted Catholics who have fallen away from the Church? Teachings about abortion, homosexuality, birth control and the role of women in the Church are often cited as the reasons for this exodus. If you throw the sex abuse scandal into the mix, then you have a Church in crisis; membership in the pews grows older while the young stay away. But one writer says that Pope Francis, who is doctrinally conservative, shows no inclination at all that he is willing to change or reverse any of the Church’s stances on these key issues.

 However, Pope Francis’ attitude concerning papal extravagance and his tenderness toward the poor are winning attributes which might just cause wayward Catholics to take a second look at their Church. When he was the

Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was seen daily taking the bus to work, to the surprise and the great edification of many. Upon his election to the papacy he personally paid his hotel bill where he had been staying during the conclave. Pope Francis now shirks the papal palace, as he chooses to live in a Spartan apartment. On Holy Thursday, he washed the feet of several incarcerated youths as a sign of service to society’s forgotten members. On his first Easter Sunday as pope he preached the Gospel `to the City of Rome and to the World’ (Urbi et Orbi) when he stopped the pope mobile in St. Peter’s Square so that he could embrace and kiss eight year old Dominic Gondreau who has cerebral palsy. A photo of that extraordinary moment went viral, and it seems to speak a volume about what the upcoming papacy of Pope Francis is going to look like.

Could Pope Francis be opening the way for a new Pentecost in the Church? His papacy is still in its infancy and there are many challenges yet to be confronted, but as one commentator writes “Francis’ simple ways might just be the elixir for a Church that has lost its way.”

Conclusion

The many form of Pentecost

Pentecost takes on many forms. Pope John’s Pentecost blew open doors and windows slammed shut by fear for four centuries. Fr. Boulad’s Pentecost would courageously address many controversial issues, like contraception, abortion, euthanasia, clerical celibacy, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, etc.  Pope Francis’ Pentecost has its own very unique style, as it shirks the papal palace, chooses to live in a Spartan apartment, and washes the feet of incarcerated youths.

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[1] The letter can be found in its entirety on the internet.