I've been a bit slow posting these COVID-driven Bible Study Reflections, so I'll post the two most recent today. I hope they strike a needed chord with at least a few of my regular readers. Stay healthy, folks; but even more important, stay faithful and trust in our loving, merciful God.
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Many years ago, I read an article in which the writer ranked historical events and people, identifying those he believed were most influential. Einstein or Edison? Henry Ford or Henry Aaron? Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, or Churchill? Moses, Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammed? Or which events were more important? World War II or the Napoleonic Wars? The invention of the digital computer or the invention of indoor plumbing?
An interesting article, although the writer’s biases were fairly evident. But I suppose, like most of us, he too carries his biases to work. Ironically, perhaps the most biased among us are the secular pundits who claim to have rid themselves of religious bias and therefore belittle the importance of religion in the lives of others. Because they lack religious faith, they dismiss it as an important motivation. The irony is even greater because religious faith, when viewed objectively, has had more impact on human history — for both good and bad — than any other factor.
I recall watching a news show back at the turn of the millennium. The host asked a historian to name the most important people in human history. I don’t remember the historian’s name, but he made a point of calling himself an agnostic. And then he said something surprising, which I've paraphrased here:
As an historian, I’d have to say the most influential person in human history is Jesus Christ. The problem is, I can't understand how he came to be so influential. He was really a nobody, tucked away in a little corner of the world. He didn't write anything. He didn't go anywhere or do anything very important. He was executed for treason. And his followers? Just a handful of simple peasants. He should have been forgotten in a matter of days or weeks. It's truly inexplicable. But that's history.
Yes, Mr. Historian, that is history. And this history, viewed from the perspective of the Church's teachings, becomes very explainable. You see, the three most influential events in the history of humanity all centered on the person of Jesus Christ, and these events all took place within eight weeks of each other. Another thing they have in common: they were actions, taken not by men, but by God Himself. These events are true history — perhaps we should say, His Story — the story of the Creator of all doing the most remarkable things in an almost unbelievable, inexplicable way.
The Incarnation is the story of a loving Father sending His Son to suffer and die at the hands of those He created as a perfect offering for their sins. Our historian was at least partially right: Jesus Christ is inexplicable, until we plumb the depths of God's Love for us. His Story doesn't end on the cross at Calvary, which is the first of those three events. If it had, our historian's instincts would have been correct, and Jesus would have been, at most, a mere footnote.
But the Father wasn’t content to let it end there. He wanted us to know and to accept the truth. And so, three days later, the second event occurred. Jesus rose from the dead to prove His Divinity and to give a foretaste of what awaits those who love Him and keep His commandments.
But even the Resurrection, this momentous event, was insufficient. For the Father wants His Truth, and the knowledge of His infinite Love, to spread to the ends of the earth. His Son’s sacrificial death wasn’t just for a handful of followers, and not just for the Jewish people, His Chosen Ones, who for centuries preserved His Law. No, this act of redemption was for all of humanity, for every person is a child of God.
We, therefore, celebrate this third event, a relatively brief event in the history of salvation, but an event of such impact that it altered the very history of the world, permanently and profoundly. For what took place in Jerusalem on a Sunday morning almost 2,000 years ago is God's lasting gift to His children.
In his Gospel, St. John offers a glimpse of the effects of this special day:
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified [Jn 7:37-39].
The Father had sent His Son to suffer and die as a redemptive sacrifice, to free us from the slavery of sin and death and to give us the hope of eternal life. Now He sends His Holy Spirit, the giver of life, the personification of the Divine Love between Father and Son. And what power the Spirit has! Suddenly, 120 men and women, this fearful little band of followers, are transformed.
If someone’s never been afraid – really afraid, afraid he might suffer a violent death at any moment -- the fear that those who’ve survived combat know all too well -- then he probably doesn’t know how the disciples felt that day. They’d witnessed what had happened to Jesus, and they feared it might well happen to them. But as they gathered in prayer around our Blessed Mother in the upper room, the mighty breath of God and the fire of the Spirit’s presence engulfed them, changing them forever.
The Holy Spirit manifested within them the new, eternal covenant with God, the covenant Jesus instituted at the Last Supper. In doing so the Spirit formed them into the Church through which they would bring God's message of salvation to the world. How had Jesus put it just ten days earlier?
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always until the close of the age" [Mt 28:19-20].
Now, for the first time, they began to understand what this mission entailed. And just as suddenly, all of Jesus' teachings, all of His promises, the words of the Word of God that had seemed so cryptic, became perfectly clear. Inspired by the Spirit with this new understanding and overflowing with enthusiasm for the mission He’d given them, they poured into the crowded streets of Jerusalem to share the Good News.
But the Holy Spirit had only just begun, and from those 120 disciples, He called one in particular to lead the way, one already chosen by Jesus. For in the second chapter of Acts, it’s Peter, the fisherman – full of bluster and human weakness, the man who’d betrayed his Lord in those final hours -- who now leads the way. Peter, then, the Rock upon whom Jesus promised to build His Church, is confirmed by the Spirit as the first Vicar of Christ on earth.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it [Mt 16:18].
On that first Pentecost Sunday, the Church is born.
What happened that first day? Turn to the Acts of the Apostles and once again read chapters two through five and relive the wondrous events of those first exhilarating days of the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Listen again to the words of a now-inspired Peter who called all who heard him to repentance, Baptism, and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Miracle followed miracle, and as St. Luke tells us:
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day...And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved [Acts 2,41,47].Yes, indeed, the work of the Spirit can’t be stopped. Peter, the street-preacher, tells his impromptu audience of Jews, a gathering from every corner of the Roman Empire and beyond, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He recalls the words of the prophets Isaiah and Joel [See Is:2:2,44:3 and Jl 3:1-5]:
It will come to pass in the last days that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams [Acts 2:17].
Peter was preaching to a congregation of Jews, pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem from a dozen different lands to celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost. And as Pope Benedict XVI, in his wonderful, little book, Called to Communion, explains, on that first day, the truly Catholic Church was born:
“What first exists in one Church, the Church that speaks in all tongues – the ecclesia universalis [the catholic church]; she then generates Church in the most diverse locales, which nevertheless are all embodiments of the one and only Church” [Called to Communion, p 44].
We must never forget, as so many have, that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, brought into being that day so long ago, remains with us today, still guided by the Holy Spirit, still led by Christ's Vicar, still committed to the Apostolic mission of bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. Just ten days earlier, Jesus had given His “Great Commission” to his nascent Church:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age [Mt 28:19-20].
But this mission isn’t something reserved solely to the successors of the Apostles, to the Holy Father and the bishops. No, this mission, this command of Jesus, is universal and intended for each one of us. This is our challenge as Catholic Christians. Jesus didn’t place limitations on His commissioning of the Church. We are all called to carry out the Church’s primary mission, that of evangelization.
Why this mission? Just look around you. It’s in all our lives: the sadness and hopelessness and sinfulness that plague so many today. These are God's children. They don’t need our condemnation or pity; they need evangelization, for the Father wants to bring them to Himself, and He calls each of us to take part in His work.
Does this call, this mission, frighten you? Do you resist because, deep down you are terrified of the idea of evangelizing others? You shouldn’t be. Just like Peter and the disciples on that first Pentecost, you won’t be alone. You see, we can’t do God’s work without the Spirit. St. Paul put it beautifully
In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings [Rom 8:26].
And as Paul reminded the Corinthians sometime later
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit [1 Cor 12:4-7].Do you see what Paul is telling us? We have the same mission, even though we carry it out in different ways. And it’s the Holy Spirit who inspires and guides each of us.
This first Pentecost reminds us that we need to be roused from the comfort and safety and solitude of our own upper rooms. It reminds us that we need to be amazed — that our faith should be accompanied by the sound of wind, the heat of flames, the cacophony of different voices, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming the mighty acts of God.
Peter and the Holy Spirit remind us that we all have a mission in and to the world, a world that waits just beyond our parish walls:
a world plagued by sinfulness;
a world often confused, divided, and afraid;
a world calling us to look outward as well as inward;
a world waiting to be astounded by the mighty acts of God and by a message of hope, the Good News of Jesus Christ, a message He proclaims through us, just as He did through the Apostles.
Brothers and sisters, this mission isn’t an option, something we’re simply encouraged to do. It’s a command from God Himself, an essential element of our lives as Catholic Christians.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with finding comfort in the midst of our family or parish community. Just don’t get too comfortable, for on Pentecost God took the disciples by the hand and turned their little circle inside out. Suddenly they faced not each other, but a world waiting to hear the Good News.
Yes, this can be a frightening thing. But remember, when we carry God’s love and truth to others, we will never be alone. For that’s God’s promise: the Holy Spirit will be with us, guiding us, his wisdom flowing through us. We need only invite Him into our lives.
How did Jesus put it in today’s Gospel?
“Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me” [Jn 7:38 – See also Is:12:3; Ez 47:1].
Welcome the Spirit into your life, and through you He will renew the face of the earth. Do it today and see the wonders He will bring about.
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