Pentecost - (B)

“FIRST IMPRESSIONS” PENTECOST -B- May 19, 2024 Acts 2: 1-11; Ps. 104; I Cor 12: 3b-7, 12-13; John 20: 19-23 by Jude Siciliano, OP

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Dear Preachers:

WELCOME to the latest email recipients of “First Impressions,” the Dominican Sisters retreatants of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

PRE-NOTE: Thanks to volunteer Dennis Keller, we are again posting General Intercessions for the Sunday liturgies on our webpage. Go to: https://preacherexchange.com/gi.htm

I have a friend named Rosie. She is in her 70s and since childhood has been friends with Marie. Seven years ago Rosalie moved about an hour away from Marie. But she still makes the trip once, or twice, a week to see her friend, because 20 years ago Marie developed a disease that slowly paralyzed her whole body. Her brain does not communicate with her muscles. Little by little her body became scrunched up. Now, she can’t move, can’t turn her head, or speak clearly. She has to live in a nursing home under constant care.

It is heart wrenching to visit her in the nursing home where she has been in bed for 15 years in her present condition. Her sister, who was also confined in a nearby room, died a year ago. Marie has no other family and Rosie is her only visitor. So, the nursing home has to contact Rosie if they change the dose of Marie’s medication, or if she gets a flu shot, or gets sick. Rosie does more. When she visits Marie she brings her clean bed clothes and flowers, rubs her arms and face with soothing lotion, kisses her on the cheeks and tells Marie, “I love you.” And Marie says in return, barely audible,, “I love you too Rosie.”

Rosie is Marie’s advocate. She is by her side when the need arises. She offers Marie love when there’s no one else to offer it. She oversees Marie’s daily care and argues for her when she is neglected. She brings the nurses cookies, telling me it is a “friendly bribe” for their good care of Marie. Rosie is on Marie’s side, speaks up for her, protects her rights, brings her joy and hope, because Marie knows Rosie will be there for her whenever she needs her.

The Bible, in both the Hebrew text and the New Testament, is filled with names for God, but God is infinite and no one name can capture God’s identity and activity. In St. John’s Gospel, as we heard today, the name Jesus gives the Holy Spirit is Advocate. Think of Rosie’s presence in Marie’s life: that is just a hint of how the Spirit is in our life. The name Advocate, or Paraclete, means someone who is called to be at the side of a person in need – especially in a legal matter when they have no one to stand up for them. Hence, having the Advocate means we are not left on our own, especially when our need is dire!

The Advocate continues to stir up the life of Jesus in us; keeps us firm when we are challenged in our faith, tempted to compromise, or give up our Christian identity to take an easier path. The Advocate, the “Spirit of Truth,” helps us separate what is true and of God in our lives and what is false and illusionary. Or, as Jesus would say, what is “of the world.”

In today’s gospel Jesus is with his disciples around the table. It is the night before he dies. He has tried to prepare them for the catastrophe that is about to happen to him, and will happen to them, if they continue to choose to follow him. He is staying true to form, not telling them, “There, there, everything will be fine. Keep a stiff upper lip.” He speaks the truth to them. Following him in this world will not be easy. The coming crisis in their lives will tempt them to give up on him and his way. There is a danger they will grow discouraged and fall away. Jesus is telling his disciples that the suffering they will have because of him is the kind they can avoid, if they choose.

It is not the suffering we experience because we get seriously sick, or have a catastrophic accident. In situations like that we do not have a choice. He is telling his disciples they will suffer, specifically because they are his disciples. They have chosen to follow him and to live his kind of life. Jesus’ way of living caused him to be rejected suffer and die. His disciples must be made aware that if we take up his ways, his life, then we should also expect rejection and maybe even worse.

We know the cost of discipleship if we have: chosen to speak up for a less significant person in our family, or society; decided not to make a career move up the ladder because we wanted time with family, or be active in our church community; given our free time to stay with a sick person, as Rosie did; welcome new neighbors into a neighborhood, or country, that does not want them; taken time from friends we love to feed the hungry, or visit the imprisoned, etc

To be faithful to Jesus’ way of life over the long haul, can be fatiguing and costly. It cost him everything. After an initial enthusiastic beginning some decided to return to former ways of living – not bad ways, but more personal, “self-focused” ways, because they tired paying the price. Jesus would say they had “fallen away.” But he did tell us the truth, didn’t he? He clearly laid out the cost of being his disciples. He also did what he promised. He knew we were too vulnerable on our own, so he sent us the Advocate.

The “ Advocate” is a strange name for the Holy Spirit, isn’t it? It does not sound pious, religious, or theological. And it isn’t. Advocate is a term in daily life and so gives us an insight into the practical, real, everyday activity of the Holy Spirit. We have tended to think of the Holy Spirit as being “on call”... somewhere “on high,” waiting to be called upon to come to our aid when, we have an important decision to make, or we have a big exam at school. But our God is not a “part-time God.” Jesus kept his word and sent the “Advocate”...full-time, with us...up close and personal. This is a limping analogy, just a clue to the life of the Holy Spirit with us. But think of what and who Rosie is for Marie, with all her physical, emotional and spiritual needs. The Spirit is more, with us, 24/7 – God, our Advocate, full time with us.

Jesus has been honest with us. He is not dwelling with us any longer, the way he did when he walked the earth. But he has not left us orphans facing daily challenges to the practice of our faith. He knows how vulnerable we are against the strong tugs of our world. At our Eucharist today we might name the challenges we face as we attempt to live faithfully Jesus’ way. Here we will be fed with the “daily bread” we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer, the food the Advocate feeds us for our ongoing and challenging journey. Jesus made a promise to his disciples who were about to be pressed, scattered, divided and tempted by events. In one way, or another, that happens to each of us at some moment in our lives. Probably more than once. Jesus keeps his promise, he gives us his Spirit, our Advocate. If it helps, think of the Holy Spirit as our full-time Rosie, always by our side, especially when we need her.

Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/pentecost-sunday-mass-during-day

QUOTABLE

Everyday Mysticism....  the experience of the Spirit I talk of here is also to be found in a mysticism of everyday life outside a verbalized and institutionalized Christianity, and therefore may be discovered by Christian in their lives when the encounter their non-Christian brothers and sisters, or in their study of religious history, Christians need not be shocked or astonished at such a revelation. It should serve only to show that their God, the God of Jesus Christ, wants all men and women to be saved, and offers God’s grace as liberation to all human beings, offering it as liberation into incomprehensible mystery. The grace of Christ takes effect in a mysterious way...and...allows people to share in the paschal mystery of Jesus, even where people who are loyal to their conscience have not yet been reached in any convincing way by the explicit message of Christianity and have not been molded by the Christian sacraments.

—Karl Rahner, quoted in LIVING PULPIT, Volume 5, No.1

JUSTICE BULLETIN BOARD

When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

—Psalm 104:30

 Have you ever wondered what the apostles were talking about just before the moment of Pentecost? Do you think they were busy with idle chit chat or discussing the politics of the day or engrossed in discussing their daily routines? I think they were actively praying for the Spirit of truth of which Jesus had so clearly spoken. They desperately needed guidance in order to go forth, now that Jesus was no longer with them. Imagine a group of holy people gathered with one deep heartfelt desire for the presence of the Holy Spirit. . .and God answered their prayers big time.

What does this mean for us as we gather so many years later? Being filled with the Spirit is not just a one-time historical event. The Spirit of God is our life’s breath too—the force that can call and transform each of us. In his writings, Paul emphasizes that only in living with the Spirit by our side can believers truly follow Jesus. . .and the Spirit acts.

In Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Holy Longing, (Doubleday, 1999), he uses an expression that I had not heard before, to “put skin to prayer.” By this, he means that the pray-er concretely involves him or herself in trying to bring about what they are asking God to do. For example, he writes, “If I pray for world peace, but do not, inside of myself, forgive those who have hurt me, how can God bring about peace on this planet? Our prayer needs our flesh to back it up” (84). After Pentecost, we see the apostles put skin to their prayer.

Today marks the beginning of Laudato Si Week, May19-26. This Laudato Si’ Week and Pentecost, let us gather in community to contemplate and nurture seeds of hope for our “suffering planet” (LD 2). There is a need for both personal and cultural transformation amidst our ecological and climate crises. Let us be seeds of hope in our lives by our actions, rooted in faith and love.

There is a powerful formula here. To pray for the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives to guide us and then, as part of the Body of Christ, to act as Jesus would; to put some skin in our prayer. It seems to me that we could renew the face of the earth!

Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

FAITH BOOK

Mini reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s Acts of the Apostles reading:

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Reflection:

Look what happened very rapidly for the gathered disciples: the descent of the Spirit upon them, the gift of tongues, Peter’s speech and the formation of the Church. While the elders in the Hebrew Scriptures (1 Samuel 10:5 ff) spoke in ecstatic speech under the impulse of God’s Spirit (“prophecy”), today we celebrate Jesus’ Spirit empowering all in the fledgling church to speak to the nations and to be understood by them.

So, we ask ourselves:

• Do we find ourselves always gathering with people like ourselves?

• What “different” or “foreign” group do I need to reach out to?

POSTCARDS TO DEATH ROW INMATES

"The death penalty is one of the great moral issues facing our country, yet most people rarely think about it and very few of us take the time to delve deeply enough into this issue to be able to make an informed decision about it."
– Sister Helen Prejean

Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or, whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.

Please write to:

• John Henry Thompson #0406487 (On death row since 11/14/2002)

• Elrico Fowler #0134151 (11/14/1997)

• Stacey Tyler #0414853 (11/114/1995)

----Central Prison P.O. 247 Phoenix, MD 21131

Please note: Central Prison is in Raleigh, NC., but for security purposes, mail to inmates is processed through a clearing house at the above address in Maryland.

For more information on the Catholic position on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network: http://catholicsmobilizing.org/resources/cacp/

On this page you can sign “The National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty.” Also, check the interfaith page for People of Faith Against the Death Penalty: http://www.pfadp.org/

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If you would like to support this ministry, please send tax deductible contributions to Fr. Jude Siciliano, O.P.:

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