Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost means peace: “Peace be with you.”  These are, according to the Gospel of John, the first words Jesus spoke to his disciples after his resurrection.  Mary Magdalene shouted to the disciples in joy: “I have seen the Lord!”  Yet, Mary’s message about Easter brought them no hope and joy.  Instead, they were hiding in fear behind closed and locked doors, shutting out the rest of the hostile world.  They felt better, safer, huddled together in isolation.

And then, a surprise!  Jesus bursts into their isolation.  He walks through closed doors.  Oblivious of barriers he comes.  Surprised and fearful, the disciples are stunned.  They thought it was all over.  Truly, this bunch of failures deserved to be behind locked doors.  Who wanted them?  And yet, there he was.  It was there that Jesus appeared to them and wished them “peace.”  It was there that he sent them out as a community of wounded healers, to preach the good news of Jesus.

Pope Francis has invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the Vatican and people of goodwill around the world to pray for peace in the Holy Land this Pentecost Sunday.  On his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Pope said, “All of us want peace.”  Many people build peace day by day through small gestures and acts.  Many patiently persevere in their efforts to be peacemakers.  Pope Francis is inviting us to step outside of ourselves, of our habits, our petty hates, our prejudices and certainties and to make space for the Holy Spirit. 

Once again, however, the epidemic of gun violence has come to Seattle, the epidemic that haunts this nation.  We have been here before: Café Racer, the shootings on Capitol Hill, Seattle’s Central District, the shootings at the Jewish Federation.  The shooting at Seattle Pacific University is part of a recent wave of gun violence.  We have to find a way to move forward.  It won’t be easy.  We must find a solution.  We have no choice.

This is the era of the church, whose task is to proclaim the Good News, under the guidance and with the power of the Spirit, to “all peoples” and “to the ends of the earth.”  Both Luke and John view the sending of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father, to the followers of Jesus not simply as a gift for their personal holiness but as equipping them for mission.  Our mission is one of love and of encounter, going out into the streets and getting our hands dirty, in the spirit of the church of Pope Francis.

The point is, a “Sunday Christian” is a contradiction.  This liturgy is not an escape from a godless world.  The liturgy, especially this liturgy of the Holy Spirit, sends us back to the world and its powers: back to society and politics, to technology and economics, to grace them “with the spirit of the Gospel.”  A community of grace that cherishes every woman and man as a child of God, made in the image of God, not only friends but enemies; open like Jesus to the stranger, open to the immigrant, open to those who are different.

As we celebrate Pentecost this year, what is the message from the three biblical readings that should resonate in a special way?  Of course, the Lucan images of mighty wind and tongues of fire continue to awaken our imagination to the power of the Holy Spirit sustaining the mission of the church.  Paul’s description of the church as the one body of Christ, in which there is no longer distinction between Jews and Gentiles, slave or free, woman or man, continues to inspire our work for all-inclusiveness within the church and in the world.

But I suggest John’s remark that the disciples “rejoiced” at seeing the Lord gives the most appropriate and most needed message for our time.  It is no coincidence that Pope Francis’ recent letter is titled Evangelii Gaudium, which begins with a joyous note: “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.  Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness.  With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.”

Today, a new Pentecost is happening, a new joy is bursting forth.  Once again, we can shout, with Mary Magdalene and the disciples: “We have seen the Lord!”                                   

Paul A. Magnano, Pastor