Pentecost! In years past, the image that has most vividly come to my
mind on this great feast is the image of fire. With good reason, and
those beautiful hangings up there tell the fire story without any need
for words!
But this year, another image -
the image of wind, powerful if invisible – is also on my mind. Let me
tell you why. On the Memorial Day weekend, I spent some time on an ocean
beach and did something I hadn’t done for ages. I flew a kite! And I
kind of felt like a kid again! As I ran along the sand, watching the
kite do its somersaults, its flips and flops – and felt in my hand the
currents of wind that were sending it high and low - the wind of
Pentecost came to mind, the wind that swept through the Upper Room and
sent the disciples out into the streets, totally fired up. And then my
thoughts drifted to this moment in my life as I prepare, after nearly
forty years here, to try my wings at something new, to fly into some
uncharted territory.
To be honest, it’s a bit
challenging to take all this in, but while flying that kite and watching
it swoop and soar, it came to me that things were going to be okay: that
the mighty and holy Wind that is the Spirit of God, the Wind that swept
through the Upper Room on Pentecost, the Wind that has stirred and moved
the Church down through the centuries, would be propelling me,
surprising me, lifting me up. After all, God has been the Wind under my
wings for all the years of my priestly ministry, taking me to some
pretty incredible places, including this place. Why would God stop now!
But enough about me! Pentecost is about the Church, the Church out
there, the Church everywhere, including the Church that has just bid a
tearful farewell to Pope Francis and warmly welcomed Pope Leo XIV.
And Pentecost is also about the Church right here in this parish we love
so much. It’s about what the Spirit has done and continues to do in us -
all of us together - in this wonderful parish of St. James Cathedral.
So, even though I began with a solo image of me flying a kite on the
beach - how that moment spoke to me and lifted my spirits - it is you
who are uppermost on my mind today – you and countless others – who have
come together to accomplish some amazing things over the years that I’ve
been privileged to serve as your pastor.
Let me say it again: it has always
been ‘we.’ Never just ‘I.’ And, of course, it’s all thanks to the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of Pentecost – that powerful, mysterious,
unpredictable, divine wind that has been so very alive in us, sweeping
us up and inspiring us to build something quite wonderful – helping us,
in the words of the traditional prayer, to “renew the face of the
earth.” Have we done it perfectly? No, but I think we’ve done it well -
and we do it well - in so many incredible ways: in the prayerful way we
celebrate the Church’s liturgy in this beautiful Cathedral; in the
compassionate ways we reach out to – and speak up for - the poor,
the forgotten, and the marginalized whom God sends our way; and in all
the efforts we put forth to grow in our faith and to witness to our
faith – by our words, yes, but mostly by the quiet, persuasive witness
of our lives.
Dear friends in Christ, we have so
much to thank God for, don’t we! And today I give thanks for you. You
may be thinking about what I’ve done, but I’m here to remind you that it
has always been us. All of us together. In so many ways, you have been
my life for all these years, and along with God, you have been the wind
under my wings. And you have also been the face of Christ for me. How
can I not be grateful? How can I not be absolutely overflowing with
gratitude! And believe me, I am!
I want to conclude with some poetry –
and some theology - 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 wind and fire of that love quietly yet insistently
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. The
winds are blowing, the waves are breaking, the tides are rushing, the
flames are leaping. How can we not ride the wind? How can we not catch
fire? How can we not catch fire!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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