A homily seems almost superfluous today. Look around. This is one
day you can see the homily! That great blaze of fire above us, and
the tongues of fire at the altar, speak – almost shout – of the Holy
Spirit. And you can hear the homily, too, in the beautiful sounds of
Pentecost: the organ, the chants, the choral anthems, the
congregational hymns. All echo the breath of the God’s Spirit.
At the great
Pentecost moment narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, words did not
come first. First came the sound of a mighty wind accompanied by
searing tongues of fire which came to rest on each of the apostles.
All were “filled with the Holy Spirit,” we were told. And from that
moment on, flame fanned into fire, a wildfire that spread, first
through that upper room, then out the doors and into the city and
throughout the region and, before long, incredibly, throughout the
then-known world. Two millennia later, and far from that upper room,
the fire goes on and we have been warmed by it. But my Pentecost
question for you is this: we have been warmed by it, but have we
been fired-up by it?
I have a little
story I like to tell on Pentecost. One day a monk came to his Father
Abbot saying, “Father, according as I am able, I keep my little
rule, my little fast, and my little prayer. And, according as I am
able, I strive to cleanse my mind of all vain thoughts and my heart
of all evil intents. Now, what more should I do?” The Abbot rose up
and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became
like ten lamps of fire. He answered, “My dear brother, why not be
totally changed into fire?”
Why not
be totally changed into fire? That’s the right question for
Pentecost. The great eighteenth century English evangelist and
reformer, John Wesley, founder of Methodism was, by all accounts, a
fiery preacher. “I go into the pulpit,” he once said, “and the
people watch me burn!” Now there was a man “totally changed into
fire!” A personal aside: I think about Wesley sometimes and
wonder what it was about him that burned. Was it the fire and
brimstone he preached, or was it his soul on fire with love of God?
I’m quite certain it was the latter, and I often find myself praying
that that same fire might burn within me…).
Why not be totally
changed into fire? It’s a scary thought. Fire quickly gets out
of control, fire spreads, it’s all-consuming. It may briefly smolder
but all at once it flashes forth and torches everything in its path.
Stopping fire can be like catching the wind as those who fight
wildfires know so well.
Why not be totally
changed into fire? Pentecost is often called the birthday of the
church. Is it the birthday of the church you know and love? Sixty
years ago, the great and sainted Pope John XXIII climbed way out on
an ecclesiastical limb to convoke the Second Vatican Council,
calling it a New Pentecost. John XXIII was not afraid of fire. He
was convinced that the Church needed some firing-up, needed some
wind and fresh air, and he knew that God would be in the fire
speaking in unexpected ways. And he knew, too, that truth was not
the monopoly of a few but a divine gift to the many – to all the
baptized - a gift discovered in prayerful listening and painstaking
dialogue. A tightly regimented and controlled church, he knew, might
be a comfortable and orderly church but a church lacking fire, and
John XXIII wanted the church to be totally changed into fire!
My
friends, we have a way to go, a long way to go before this ancient
Pentecost prayer of the church is realized, “Come Holy Spirit!
Fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in them the fire of
Your love. Send for your Spirit and they shall be created and You
will renew the face of the earth!”
But this renewal we
pray for – I think we will be disappointed if we wait for it to come
solely from outside - from some decree or pronouncement from on
high. The renewal is first of all the inner working of God’s Spirit
within us who believe. All of us. This is something those of you who
participated in the recent parish Synodal discussions experienced
firsthand: that you are the church, a great and sometimes restless
and prophetic movement of people baptized into Jesus Christ and
anointed with His Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that rested on Jesus
at his baptism, burned within him all through his life, led him to
the cross, and ultimately raised him from the dead, totally changing
him into fire! My friends, that same Holy Spirit now lives in you
and me!
I conclude with some
challenging poetry from the great Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit
priest, paleontologist, and theologian who believed that the single
driving force behind all of creation was the love of Jesus Christ,
and that the Holy Spirit was the divine fire of that love quietly
yet insistently renewing the church, renewing the face of the earth.
These are his words.
Someday,
after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity,
We shall harness for God the energies of love.
And then, for the second time in the history of the world,
We will have discovered FIRE!
My friends, it is
Pentecost. It is time for fire. Why not be totally changed into
fire?
Father Michael G. Ryan
|
|
