Sunday Faith Reflection
For the Feast of Pentecost
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (Acts 2: 1-11)
Pentecost is a wonderful Christian feast. It’s the single best day of the Christian year for celebrating the spirit of Christendom Reborn.
The readings are dramatic and exciting, as they should be because this is the day, after long centuries of preparation, when “the time for Pentecost is fulfilled”: the doors are flung open and the Gospel is given to everyone. All people, from all lands, speaking every tongue. Pentecost is the ultimate celebration of Christian universalism.
The most obvious connection is to the story of the Tower of Babel. Human pride begets vain ambition, which in turn splinters the human community into factions. At Pentecost we see the human family being knit back together. Inspired by the Spirit, the Apostles suddenly speak all the languages. People from across the ancient world, startled by the sound of their own tongue, are drawn to the Apostles and their joyful message. E pluribus unum. It started in Western Asia (everything starts somewhere) but Christianity has always been a global faith.
I like to think on this day about the Syrophoenician Woman mentioned in the Gospels (Mark 7 and Matthew 15) one of my favorite Gospel stories. She asks Jesus to heal her daughter, is rebuffed on the grounds that “it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” and comes right back at him with, “Truth, Lord, but even the dogs lick the crumbs from under the master’s table.” Thanks for your patience, Lady. Your room is ready now.
Other forms of inclusion are celebrated on Pentecost, too. It’s a day for rejoicing in the diversity of talents, temperaments, and gifts united in the Body of Christ.
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.(1 Corinthians 12 4-6)
Which is another very salient theme for our own time! Many people today are under the impression that there were many Christian centuries in which the Church was mainly ruled by dictatorial patriarchs who kept everyone else firmly in place. In fact, the celebration of diversity was literally the theme of Christendom’s very first day, and the Christians shocked the Romans with their willingness to include women, slaves, the very poor, foreign travelers etc. as full-fledged members of their communities. Which should be a source of real hope in an era that struggles mightily to make sense of similarity and diversity in human nature.
So it’s a happy day for Christians! I in particular have always loved this feast because I was baptized on the Vigil of Pentecost in 2005. That’s unusual today; the Catholic Church normally receives adult converts at Easter Vigil. Which is fitting! There’s a long-but-boring back story behind my unusual reception; it suffices to say that I didn’t pick Pentecost intentionally. It was just the date on the calendar when all relevant parties happened to be available.
In retrospect though, I like it. It feels fitting. I have always loved thinking about the Church in global context. It’s birth and rebirth. Grace moving through history, often in wildly unexpected ways. Christ was born in Bethlehem, but the Church was born in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. In a very real sense, this is also when Christendom, institutional Christianity here on Earth, was born.
Lord, send out your spirit, and renew the face of the Earth.