Pentecost Sunday
May 30, 2004

Even though it’s forty years now since the death of the great Pope John XXIII (now, Blessed John XXIII), stories still circulate about him. Here’s a favorite of mine: one day the Pope paid a visit to the Hospital of the Holy Spirit not far from the Vatican. The nun in charge who welcomed him was a little overcome by the moment. She introduced herself by saying, “Holy Father, I am the Superior of the Holy Spirit.” The Pope quickly responded, “Lucky you! I am only the Vicar of Christ!”

I like to invoke the memory of Blessed John XXIII on Pentecost because I think of him as the Pentecost Pope. In the early days of his too short papacy, when he surprised the Church and the world by convoking the Second Vatican Council, he explained his decision by walking over to a window in his study and flinging it open. The Church, he said, was in need of some fresh air. And from that day on, whenever he spoke of the Council, he spoke of his hope — his profound hope — for a New Pentecost.

Fresh air and Pentecost go hand-in-hand. Today’s reading from Acts which tells the story of the first Pentecost speaks of a mighty wind — a deafening noise that came from the sky and filled “the entire house” where the followers of Jesus were staying. And after the wind came fire — tongues of flame which rested on each of them. Small flames that soon became a wildfire.

Wind and fire — they are the story of Pentecost and Pope John XXIII wanted them to be the story of a Church that had become a little too airtight for fresh winds to penetrate; a Church whose air, like the re-circulated air on a plane, had become a little stale; a Church that, with a kind of cool complacency — doling out neatly packaged answers for every conceivable question — had effectively smothered any fire. And Pope John knew that a Church with no wind and a Church with no fire was in danger of suffocating.

Nearly fifty years have now passed since Pope John was inspired to call the Council. So much has happened in both church and world in that time, and sometimes I find myself wondering: if he were to come back now, would he rejoice to see a dream come true, his New Pentecost in full flame?

I think that the answer has to be yes and no. Let me offer two examples. The Pope couldn’t help but notice, for instance, that the way the Church celebrates Mass now is much improved: we use our own language now, we participate far more actively and, more than before, I think we come to Mass because we want to. But the Pope would also have to acknowledge, with some sadness, I’m sure, that far fewer people come to Mass on Sundays than before, and that some of the fresh air and freedom breathed into the liturgy by Vatican II has, in recent times, been compromised and curtailed by new rubrics, rules, and regulations that are rather reminiscent of the days before Vatican II. So, on liturgy, a mixed review.

And what would Pope John think of the whole issue of the Church’s relationship to the world? He was eager for the Church to abandon the post-Reformation ‘fortress mentality’ whereby the Church saw itself as standing over and against a hostile world, over and against all those who held views at odds with its own. He envisioned a Church in which “the joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of people, especially of the poor and the afflicted … would be the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the (Church) itself.” He dared to dream that the Church that for so long had seen itself as the sole bastion of truth could begin to see itself not only as the bearer of divine revelation but also as a partner in dialogue — a gentle yet persistent leavening agent in the world more given to “the tools of persuasion than those of coercion”. He used those very words in his opening address to the Council, and then he went on to speak of the severity with which the Church in the past had opposed errors, telling his brother bishops, “nowadays … the (Church) prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations.”

And so, if Pope John XXIIII were to offer comment, let’s say, on the election year tactics of some bishops in this country, I wonder what his comment would be. Would he view threats to withhold the Eucharist from public officials and voters who are at odds with certain important Church teachings as consistent with the Church of the New Pentecost? I doubt it. I have no doubt whatever that he would claim a role — even a pivotal role — for the Church in helping to form people’s consciences (people in the pews as well as public officials), but I feel confident that he would also take into account the complexities of the legislative process in a pluralistic society in which politics will always be ‘the art of the possible’, a society in which the moral law and civil legislation are often distinct realities, even though related. And I believe, too, that, he would urge consideration of the whole wide range of ethical issues that relate to the primacy and the sanctity of human life. And, in the final analysis, in an effort to change minds and hearts, I doubt that he would turn to sacramental sanctions.

That’s my speculation. And it will have to remain just that because Pope John XXIII isn’t here to offer comment or corrective. But his dream of a New Pentecost, of a new way for the Church to be the Church, of a new rush of wind and fire that would sweep through Church and world, is worth remembering on this Pentecost of 2004. Worth remembering, too, are words from the great Pentecost Sequence that we heard just a few minutes ago:

Come, Holy Spirit, Come
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
…Bend the stubborn heart and will
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gifts descend.

My friends, on this Feast of Pentecost when there are so many sad and seemingly irreparable divisions within the human family and even within our Church, I hope we can all agree on one thing: a new Pentecost will not be our doing, it will be God’s doing. Let us pray earnestly this day that the Spirit will stretch minds that are made up and open hearts that are closed up so that, full of the courage and compassion of Jesus Christ, and on fire with the Holy Spirit, the Church can fulfill its mission to renew the face of the earth!

Father Michael G. Ryan
Cathedral Pastor

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