Homily for the Feast of Pentecost
31 May 2020
Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon
Brooklyn, New York
Bishop Gregory John Mansour
“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love and you shall renew the face of the earth”.
This beautiful prayer shows the power of the Holy Spirit to change us and to make the earth new again. Like the warmth of the sun that makes all things grow, like the rainfall that waters the parched earth, the Holy Spirit makes all things new again.
But for a moment let’s go beyond the beauty of creation, and of God’s Holy Spirit, and focus on our own sinful human actions. We can name just a few:
Human trafficking, pollution, wars, refugees, the internally displaced, greed, egotism, “me first”, political rivalries, hatred, anger, revenge, poverty, apathy, “I do not care”. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, all too familiar these days. May God’s Holy Spirit help us!
Pope Francis noted these sinful human behaviors in the middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic. On March 27, 2020, in a stunningly beautiful walk in the rain in a lonely Saint Peter Square, he invited us to seek forgiveness. He challenged us to care, to call upon God for help, to become better, and to change.
Nonetheless, one sentence in his address stands out, in fact, it could be considered an indictment of our bad behavior.
Pope Francis said, “We carried on regardless, thinking we could stay healthy in a world that was sick”. (Urbi et Orbi address)
This sobering indictment was meant to wake us up, and for many, like myself, it did. The Holy Father then granted a plenary indulgence to all who during this Pandemic served those in need, and he asked us to stay in the state of grace, far from any sin.
In the Divine Liturgy of Pentecost, right after the priest’s communion, we celebrate the Rite of Genuflection, which is a sincere and honorable worship of God. It is sincere because we kneel and pray, not only with our lips, but with our lives, changed by the Holy Spirit.
The Pentecost of 2,000 years ago, was a time of deep and abiding change for the early Christians; they found the courage to do God’s will, even to suffer death for the truth of God’s merciful invitation to repent. They also found the courage to be humble before God, and to accept any harsh treatment, just as their Lord and Master did.
There’s a story in the Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis, that reminds us of just how human beings can be sinful towards one another. The story begins with the joy and harmony of Adam and Eve in paradise, which is central to understanding the Bible. But then comes the Fall of Adam, then Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel, out of jealously. Then evil multiplied on the earth, and so Noah and the flood came as a “solution” to man’s sinfulness. Then came the Tower of Babel, where the people continued, even after Noah, to grow in sinfulness, competition, envy, and hatred. Once again, we are reminded of the words of Pope Francis: “people carried on regardless, thinking they would stay healthy in a world that was sick”. This was the world of long ago, but unfortunately, it is also our world of today: defiant and angry, “carrying on regardless”.
Pentecost is different. One could say it is the opposite of this uncaring world. In fact, Pentecost is the remedy for this world of sin. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the early Christians were of one heart and one mind; they preached a life-giving repentance. They welcomed all people into this new “Way”. They gave of their wealth to the community, so that poor among them felt at home and equal. They thought of the orphan and widow, and so they ordained deacons to serve them. They “broke the bread” and prayed in their homes. They were no longer afraid of what Jesus suffered, but were willing to suffer this way themselves. They spoke their own language, yet different people from different lands understood them in their own language. This new “Way” is the direct opposite of Babel, where because people were so evil to each other, God confused their languages, but now God’s followers could make themselves understood to all, they included all, and they served all, especially the poor and marginalized among them.
Pentecost is a marked change in human history. Jesus’ way of life and of death become the way and the hope of the early Christians. They were unafraid to say, as we do and in Arabic “we are witnesses of this”, of what? of Christ risen! (Nahna shoodun ala thalika) Those early Christians now witnessed unafraid their new hope found in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.
On the Feast of Pentecost, with the Rite of Genuflection, a humble kneeling before God, the words of Pope Francis remind us of our past way of life: “we carried on regardless, thinking we could stay healthy in a world that was sick”. Today we humbly acknowledge that we made the world sick by our greed, hatred, anger, revenge, rivalries, and apathy. However, today by God’s grace, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit, we also help make this tired and sick world of ours right again.
With God’s Holy Spirit, the prayer of the Virgin Mary and the Apostles, and our own life-giving repentance, in Jesus’ name, we can make the world new again.
“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love, and you shall renew the face of the earth”.