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PENTECOST SUNDAY News spreads like wild fire. For the most part it is bad or scandalous news. Tiger Wood, Sex abuse scandal, a
plane crash, a volcano erupts. But then there is good news. In Copenhagen yesterday, at a bus stop a man in a tuxedo enters and starts playing trumpet. The bus driver Mukhtar looks confused. A woman begins to sing a
birthday song. It is the driver’s birthday. As he drives on there is a group of people who appear to be protesting. He gently honks the horn. The people turn around and cheer. Their signs bear his name. Tears
come to the driver’s eyes, as they bring him flowers and a present. There are three things to be noticed: Mukhtar is black, he has a Muslim name and he is in a country where Africans are not well
received. Good News. Are we excited enough to talk about it, to share it? Today is the Church’s birthday. It is our time to spread the good news – to speak about our church, to speak about our faith. But is there anything to cheer about, to celebrate. If we put aside the sex scandals for a moment, there does not seem to be much to be excited about. One Catholic remarked – our churches seem empty, there seems to be very little reverence, our liturgies are more show and tell, than prayer, the homilies have little relevance to our lives. We seem to move from partial confusion to total chaos Yet, we have a lot to cheer about – we have happy and stable families, we have religious sisters who do tremendous amount of work in hospitals, in schools, in work with immigrants and refugees, in teaching in our universities, we have priests who are dedicated shepherds of the people in their charge, we have young people who are willing to dream dreams – and the elderly who continue to bring vision and maturity to our church communities. But let us rewind to 2000 years ago. At that time there was also confusion and chaos. The Apostles were frightened and confused. They hid behind locked doors. The Disciples on the road to Emmaus had lost hope. They were running away from Jerusalem. Their morale was low. We seem to be in a similar situation just now. But something changed in their lives. We find them in the Temple in the portico of Solomon preaching. They are not afraid. They are arrested and taken before the Sanhedrin and the Chief priests but they rejoice. There is hope, there is courage, there is optimism. Perhaps we too can take some of the steps they took. Jesus had asked them to stay in Jerusalem. As I said last Sunday, it was not just a geographical place. It was a symbol of the Church. Stay in Jerusalem meant stay within the Church Community – weak as its members may seem, and sinful as we are – this Church is not built on sand. It’s life does not depend on fragile and sinful man. It’s foundation is Jesus Christ himself. Jesus asked them to pray. While he walked with them before the Resurrection, he said to them Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. Now he tells them to call on God and God’s help. That is the feast we celebrate today. God listens to their prayer and pours out the gift of the Holy Spirit. They are excited about the good news. They are on fire with a need to go and tell everyone what they have experienced. So they tell the Parthians and Medes and Elamites and peoples from Pamphylia and Phrygia, from Asia and all the peoples who have come from Egypt and as far away as Libya. They all hear and they understand. It is not merely words that they understand. They understand the hope and they can see the glory – in the light and truth of God’s promises to them. Like Thomas, they experience and they believe. Pentecost is just the beginning. We too must go into the Upper Room, go back to the Church Community. This is the Body of Christ, this is Vine and we are the branches. Cut of from the community – even though they seem and are weak and sinful, it is here that we get strength . It is here that our faith will be re-enkindled, it is here that we will be on fire again. Do we love our faith so much that we want to tell people about it? God so loved the world that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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