Trinity, May 26, 2024

The Triune God is always with us. We have been commissioned by Jesus to evangelize.

Matthew 28:16–20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Music Meditations

• “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” (sung by Singing Nuns) [YouTube]
• “All Creatures of our God and King” (arrangement by John Rutter) [YouTube]
• “The Summons” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (sung by Chris Rice) [YouTube]
• “Here I Am, Lord” (sung by John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Your name, O God, is the name of love. You exist in a Trinity of love. When we make the sign of the cross, we place your badge of love on our bodies. Help us to accept that we are loved and lovable, and help us to embody that love in all that we do.

[Take a moment to think of and pray for any particular people who may especially need it, that they experience God’s love and are comforted and sustained by it.]

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” (2009), a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

The title of today’s feast can be misleading to both congregation and preachers. This is not a day we celebrate a dogma of the Church. Dogmas are important, but we don’t worship them as we gather for liturgical celebration. Nor is a day for a catechism lesson on how one God can have three faces and be called by three different names. I don’t plan to take a shamrock into the pulpit this weekend to show how God could be one and three at the same time.

Someone said once, “Anyone who talks of the Trinity, talks of the cross of Jesus and does not speculate about a heavenly riddle.” (Sorry, I don’t know the source or this quote.) Christians know about God through our experience and key to that experience is something we have in common – suffering and the cross. I know a 56 year old woman who is a vibrant and fun-loving woman. She loves her family and they return that love. She has been described by her children as “the glue that holds the family together.” She had severe back pain and an X-ray revealed a broken vertebrae.

But when she was in surgery they discovered cancer. Further tests showed the cancer had spread to her lungs. It had metastasized. Her daughter called a young woman friend and wept hysterically over the phone asking, “Why did God do this to her?” It is a question we have all heard during similar crises and maybe is a question we too have asked at similar times in our own lives. It is the question we ask out of pain and confusion, when life takes a harsh turn and threatens our faith.

It is really a Trinity question, isn’t it? Who is our God? What is our God like? It isn’t a question about church dogma or “heavenly riddles.” When Jesus looked at what was coming at him in the Garden of Gethsemane he felt it was more than he could bear, so he asked God for it to be taken away. But God wanted to stick it out with us, not pull the emergency brake and get off. If Christ had been given a quick exit that night in the garden, then we would feel even lonelier in our struggles and pain. Instead God stayed with us; Christ showed us in his obedience that no matter how many physical or emotional stresses we have on us, God is not a stranger to our pain: no stranger to emotional pain – Jesus wept; no stranger to physical pain – Jesus was broken on the cross. That’s in the scriptures.

What’s not in the scriptures is that God sends us pain and suffering to test our faith. After all, what good parent would do a thing like that to a beloved child? And we do believe God loves us and that we are God’s children, don’t we? Paul reminds us in the letter to the Romans today, “The Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God,...”

What is also not in the scriptures is what some people say to others who are in pain to console them. “God never gives us more than we can bear.” When people say things like that, I imagine God pressing down on someone to test their faith, but stopping just short of their breaking point. What a miserable and harsh God that would be! That’s not the God we celebrate on this feast of the Trinity. Here’s another one: “God helps those who help themselves.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that quote used to describe God. I have even heard people say that in scripture groups with open bibles on their laps and they quote it as if it were in the Bible they were holding. If we could help ourselves we wouldn’t need God, would we? When we are struggling and feeling lonely in our pain, we don’t need to hear about a God who will help us, but only if we can first help ourselves.

No – life has its ways of testing us; sometimes giving us more than we can bear. God is the one who helps us carry what life piles on us. Not only so we can just bear up under our burdens, but that we can even grow and mature through them. God can get us through to the other side of suffering stronger than when we first entered in. Now that’s the triune God Jesus sends his disciples into the world to proclaim.

When Jesus sends out his disciples to baptize, it is in the name of the God we have come to know through him: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” God the Creator – the source of life, the Creator who loves the works God had made. God the Christ – God in our flesh, who walked our walk all the way through death to resurrection. God the Spirit – the very life of God, in Jesus, offered us again here today as we celebrate and pray together.

How do we define the Trinity? Jesus tells us – “I am with you all days, until the end of the age.” Jesus has “defined” God for us – revealed God already with us. So, when someone calls us on the phone or weeps on our shoulder, and asks, “Why did God do this to me? What have I done to deserve this?” We can respond, as the young woman I mentioned above did, “I don’t understand all this. But I know God didn’t put this suffering on your mother. God is with us in this and God is crying with us too.” This young woman who said this to her friend is a high school graduate with three small children – she was balancing the youngest on her hip as she gave this response to her friend. There she was, a theologian, explaining the Trinity in a way her grieving friend could understand and embrace!

Further reflection:

• Commentary on the Trinity >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

I am with you always.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• When I think of “God” what image comes to mind? (Father, Son or Spirit? … Something else?)
  When I pray, to whom do I pray?
• What does each “face” (persona) tell me about the nature of God?
  What gifts and support does each element of the Blessed Trinity bring to my life?
• What has the natural world around me taught me about God?
  How have I responded to the God I discover in nature? Is it praise, awe, thanksgiving, or something else?
• How does the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit) reflect the relational nature of love in our salvation history? In my own personal history?
• Do I believe that I am a reflection of the loving relationship that exists in the Holy Trinity?
  If so, how do I let others know that they, too are such a reflection?
  If not, what can I do to foster this confidence in myself as the very reflection of a loving Godhead?
• What does this gospel tell me about my status as a child of God?
• What frequent behavior of mine diminishes me as a child of God?
• How do I experience the dignity I have as a child of God?
• What do I do to make the love of God available to all those whom I meet?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Why do you think the term “Trinity” does not show up in scriptures? Fr Jude Siciliano, O.P., thinks it is because when we in the institutional Church think of Trinity, we often think of theology and doctrine; the people who lived and wrote the scriptures were instead thinking of a people’s experience of God…what God has done for them.
What has been my experience of God?
What has God done for me?
What is God doing for me right now?
When I think about the Trinity, do I think of theology and doctrine, or do I think of my experience?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Individual Christians and the church as a community, are expected to be a beatitude people: always hungering for growth in love; merciful to enemies; single-minded in our commitment to our Lord, and ready to accept persecution in Jesus’ name. Jesus taught that our response is to be total, not only in observable religious practices, but also in our unseen thoughts and attitudes. His disciples are to teach the world to act as Jesus acted, giving to the poor, and vigilant in prayer and fasting. The essence of Jesus’ commands was that we are to act in love and he told us that we will be judged according to how we loved. (—Fr. Jude Siciliano, O.P.)
How does this challenge me personally?
The gospel says that the disciples worshipped, but they doubted. Is it possible to worship and doubt at the same time?
What are my doubts?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Meditation:

Adapted from Love a Guide for Prayer (a five volume guide to the Ignatian Exercises) by J.S. Bergan and Sister M Schwan:

Read the following psalm slowly, several times. As you read, breathe in the kind, tender and understanding love of God. Imagine the strength of this love flowing through you, permeating your entire being. Consider a time when you felt the strength of God’s love in you. Allow yourself to delight in the energizing refreshments the awareness of this love brings.

Close with: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.”

Psalm 103

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all within me, his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and never forget all his benefits.
It is the Lord who forgives all your sins, who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with mercy and compassion,
who fills your life with good things, renewing your youth like an eagle’s.
The LORD does just deeds, full justice to all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the children of Israel.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He will not always find fault; nor persist in his anger forever.
He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so strong his mercy for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far from us does he remove our transgressions.
As a father has compassion on his children, the LORD’s compassion is on those who fear him.
For he knows of what we are made; he remembers that we are dust.
Man, his days are like grass; he flowers like the flower of the field.
The wind blows, and it is no more, and its place never sees it again.
But the mercy of the LORD is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear, upon children’s children his justice,
for those who keep his covenant, and remember to fulfill his commands.
The LORD has fixed his throne in heaven, and his kingdom is ruling over all.
Bless the LORD, all you his angels, mighty in power, fulfilling his word, who heed the voice of his word.
Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his servants, who do his will.
Bless the LORD, all his works, in every place where he rules. Bless the LORD, O my soul!

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province, 2021:

From today’s Gospel reading:

Jesus said to his disciples: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given me. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations…”

Reflection:

Jesus chose to give power and send out as witnesses, the least likely of his day. Doesn’t that speak to us “ordinary folk” who may not feel particularly gifted in matters of religion? Still, we are the ones upon whom Jesus pours his Spirit and appoints to “make disciples of all nations.”
So we ask ourselves:
How do we give daily witness to our faith in Christ?

There is a tale repeated in “Sacred Space” that a man went out on a starry night and shook his fist at the heavens yelling: “God what a lousy, rotten world you have made. I could have done much better.” Then a voice boomed from the clouds saying: “that’s why I put you there. Get busy!”

St. Francis of Assisi said: “All friars should preach by their deeds.” It is not enough to be telling people that they ought to follow Jesus; we need to demonstrate the love and care for others in an active way, as Jesus did. Many of us do not exert ourselves, beyond writing a check, to be active in helping the poor, the ill or the otherwise marginalized. We cannot preach the love of Jesus effectively if we ourselves are not the embodiment of that love in the way we treat those most desperate. Do some research. Find out where you can get your hands dirty in the service of Jesus.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem (from To Keep From Singing) by Ed Ingebretsen, S.J. illustrate that Jesus' mission was also His Father's mission?

“From Narrow Places”

From narrow places
the strength of our voice
rises:

our every breath
is prayer,
the great poem of need,
a constant scattering
of praise.

Early
we reach to God
in the claim of our hearts,
while he,
our father,
mothers us
in his

Closing Prayer

Lord, you terrify me with this command: “Go and teach all nations”. Help me to be rooted in you so that what I teach is actually your message and not mine pretending to be yours. Help me to have confidence in my ability to do as you ask—this in the face of my own lack of experience and theological knowledge. Help me to have the courage to keep going in the face of derision or lack of attention to your words, and finally, Lord, help me to believe that you—Creator, Word and Sustainer—are with me always.

Commentary on the Trinity

Adapted from “First Impressions”:

When we say we believe in God, we are really saying we believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the Trinity. And without this there is no Christian faith.

When I was young the notion I had was that the Son would try to intercede on our behalf with the Father, to get God to change God’s mind and intentions towards us. Or, to put it another way, to save us from God’s wrath… God the Son at odds with God the Father. We cannot attribute to one person in the Godhead what we wouldn’t to the other two. The Son is our Savior—but so are the Father and the Holy Spirit. Thus, when we look at the Son we are also seeing the Father’s thoughts and feelings towards us. The Father is not the angry judge ready to smack us delinquent creatures down, were it not for the Son interceding on our behalf.

The same is true for the Spirit, who is not an independent agent working at odds with the Father and Son. If God is a Trinity, then Jesus has revealed the truth about God and our relationship to God and one another, which cannot be surpassed by any other teacher, as renowned and good as they may be. Certainly God works through many people of many faiths and lifestyles, but what draws us to them and enables us to discern God at work in them is that, for us, they reflect what we know of God through Jesus’ words and actions. God speaks to us in Jesus and God draws us to God and in service to others through the Holy Spirit.

When we turn in our searching to God, what do we discern? That our God is a tender parent who wants to show a parent’s loving face to us, all the time. We find a compassionate brother in Jesus, who came to serve us and offer us forgiveness, before we even asked for it. We find a liberating Spirit, who invites us into the very life that the Son shares with the Father.

Jesus sent his disciples to “make disciples of all nations.” All nations. They were to preach to others what they learned about God in Jesus. Through their life with Jesus and by living his way, his attitudes and his actions, and by taking up his cross and experiencing his resurrection through Word and Sacrament, we come to know God as an intimate who is with us always, until the end

To know the Spirit is to know the divine life which is present in us, to experience the free gift of grace and love and to be able to respond to it by living in the image and likeness of Jesus. The Spirit lifts us above fear and beyond slavish adherence to laws. Paul tells us today that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Receiving Paul’s words in faith we believe that we are already beloved children of God, freed from sin, freed to love as God loves.

While we have been accustomed to calling on the triune God as Father, Son and Spirit, in the history of the church theologians and poets have used other metaphors for the Trinity. For example: God as fire, light and heat. God as composer, singer and song. And one we are more familiar with from our Scriptures, God as speaker, word and breath (“ruah”). These metaphors may give us some insight into the nature of our God, but still, God’s mystery is beyond all words and images. We put names on God as a valiant effort to describe our experience of our infinite divine Being. In retreats with women participants it is not unusual to call on God as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.

From your experience in prayer what images would you use for God? Remember, the bottom line is, as hard as we try, we humans can never capture who God is—yet we can try. Who knows what God will reveal to us in our efforts!

Note: while Jesus used the masculine noun “Father” to refer to God, we know God has no physical body. God is not a man. Julian of Norwich, the mystic, referred to our Almighty God as Father and that we have our being in our Mother of mercy… “Our substance is in our Father God Almighty, and our substance is in our Mother, God all wisdom…” Julian said.

Pentecost, May 19, 2024

The Spirit of God is always with every one of us

John 20:19–23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Music Meditations

• “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” (Taizé) [YouTube]
• “Holy Spirit” (by Francesca Battistelli) [YouTube] (Praise and Worship)
• “Hymn to the Holy Spirit” [YouTube]
• “Be Still and Know” (sung by Steven Curtis Chapman) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Come Holy Spirit, fill the heart of your faithful one, and enkindle in me the fire of your love. Help me to recognize your presence in my life, help me to act on that presence and help me to love [name a particular person here] more each day.

Companions for the Journey

A Pre-Note:

Remember, the Gospels are NOT history, they are a theological testimony of the disciples’ experience of Jesus on this earth. Do not attempt to reconcile the first reading and the gospel into one narrative. The story from Acts takes place on the Jewish feast of Pentecost; the gospel story takes place on the evening of the Resurrection. It is enough to know that after his death, Jesus fulfilled his promise to send a helper to the disciples, an advocate who would help them be His witnesses in the world. And so this Advocate has been sent through them to us as well.

PENTECOST SUNDAY May 23, 2021
Fr. Gerard Austin, O.P.
Southern Dominican Province

For the first generations of Christians of the early Church, the liturgical year consisted of only a weekly celebration of the Resurrection: the Day of the Lord, the Sunday. At this celebration all the various elements of the Paschal Mystery were recalled. God was blessed, thanked, and praised for all the wonderful works of creation and redemption—especially for the wonder-of-God par excellence, God’s only-begotten Son, who gave of himself for us. By the end of the second century, we see attestations of an annual celebration as well. It was modeled upon the weekly celebration, but it lasted for a period of fifty days, thus being referred to by St. Athanasius as the “Great Sunday.” Thus our present “Norms Governing Liturgical Celebrations” state: “The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful expectation as one feast day, or better, as one ‘Great Sunday’.” This fifty-day period has its roots in Jewish tradition, sharing for example, in the notion of being a “seal,” a completion.

At first, no particular day or days of the fifty-day period was privileged; rather, during the entire period was celebrated: the death, the resurrection, the later appearances, the ascension, the sending of the Spirit, and the waiting for the final coming of Christ. Nevertheless, before the second half of the fourth century, certain churches and certain Fathers of the Church did emphasize different aspects of the Paschal Mystery on particular days (as the Ascension on the fortieth day, the sending of the Spirit on the fiftieth day), but never destroying the notion of whole as whole. This approach was called the “global view of the Great Sunday,” and during this time the notion of “Pentecost” extended to the entire fifty days. The entire period was a “period of the Spirit.” Jesus had promised his followers that he would not leave them orphans; he would stay with them but in a new way: through his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which he would leave to them as his departing Gift.

Thus, one can well argue that the entire period from the Ascension of Christ to his Final Coming at the end of time is the “Era of the Holy Spirit.” This era, in which we are now living, is an era where Jesus is no longer with us in bodily form, but in a new way—in the presence of his Spirit. We have been assured the Gift of that Holy Spirit, but still down through the ages the Church never ceases to cry out, “Come, Holy Spirit, come”—not just on Pentecost but each and every day. I think my favorite book on the Holy Spirit is I Believe In The Holy Spirit by Fr. Yves Congar, O.P. I find it significant that the final chapter of that highly respected three-volume work is entitled “The Life of the Church as One Long Epiclesis” (the Greek word meaning ‘invocation’ of the Spirit). We know that Jesus’ promise not to leave us orphans is true, but still we pray each day that the Holy Spirit who already abides within us (and among us), might penetrate even more deeply into every fiber of our being! Yes, pentecost is not just a once-for-all event of history; it is an ongoing mystery of faith.

Let us allow the global view of the Great Sunday, the view that contains all the multiple aspects of the “Paschal Mystery” to be reflected in our own private prayer as well. In conclusion, may I suggest your praying slowly the following trilogy of mantras:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
“Lord Jesus, Crucified and Risen Lord, send me your Spirit.”
“Come, Holy Spirit, come!”

Further reflection:

• Homily by Nancy Greenfield for Pentecost 2006 >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

With that he breathed on them and said: ”Receive the Holy Spirit”

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• A longer version of this gospel is read on the second Sunday of Easter. The action takes place on the evening after the empty tomb was discovered, and the disciples are cowering in fear in the upper room. Why are Jesus’ first words to the disciples (Peace be with you) so important?
  Is this a wish or a statement of fact?
  What does “Peace” mean to you?
• The gifts of the Spirt are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, gentleness, faith, modesty, chastity and self-control.
  Which ones do I feel I have been blessed with?
  Which ones do I still need help with?
  What does the gift of the Spirit of Jesus mean to me in my life right now? What are the challenges of such a gift?
  What are my gifts that I am commissioned to use for the good of others?
• Do I have any personal wisdom to impart to others?
  What is the source of my personal wisdom? (my education, my religious community, my family and friends, the culture I live in, my prayer, personal reading, for example)
• How do I define wisdom as opposed to knowledge or intelligence?
  When I say that today is the birthday of the Church, am I thinking of the church hierarchy and structures, or am I thinking of all of us in the “cheap seats”?
• How are we “church” in our homes, workplaces, communities and in this parish?
• Do I see reconciliation as something reserved to the sacrament and not requiring any agency on my part?
  What is my role in forgiving the sins of others?
  Do I see myself as an agent of reconciliation?
• Can I think of a sin that might not be forgiven?
  Is forgiveness the same as license to continue destructive or bad behavior?
  Is forgiveness optional?
• Is there anyone in my life that I have failed to forgive (“kept bound”)?
  How does this failure keep ME bound?
• Is there anything I have to forgive myself for?
• “As the Father sent me, so I send you”. What is God sending me to/for?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

From “First Impressions” by Jude Siciliano, O.P.:

The Spirit isn’t up ahead of us, cleaning out and arranging our heavenly quarters for our arrival—someday. Rather, the Spirit is here and now, urging us out to work at community building, peace and justice, love and reconciliation; helping us overcome destructive addictions, opening our eyes to God, so present in the world around us—in others, nature and in the wonders of our own beings.

In other words, I am being sent forth by the Spirit of Jesus. I am individually sent. What, in concrete terms, is my mission?
To whom am I being sent? (My family and friends, my worship community, the wider world?)
I pray to the Spirit for guidance and strength as I live out my calling in Jesus’ name.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Read Acts of the Apostles 2:1–11. Imagine that you are one of those disciples in the upper room. How do you react to the noise of a strong wind and then tongues of fire? What are the expressions on the faces of the others there with you? How does it feel to speak in a strange tongue? Do you actually feel the energy of the Spirit entering you? When the people, alerted by the commotion, gather around, do you wish for a little more time to be with this new experience? What actually, are you saying to thee people who gather? What is your purpose? After the excitement has died down and you are once again alone with your fellow disciples, how do you process this experience? Have you ever experienced a time when you were able to reach a group of people and convey an important truth to them? What was the message or insight you were trying to impart? How did it feel to be so empowered? Did you feel exhilaration, pride, humility, fear, or awe? Take some time to pray to the Spirit, not only for yourself, but to ask for gifts and the strength to allow you to make a difference in the world. Exactly what difference would you like to make? What message of Jesus is important enough to you that you would expend the energy and take the risk to share it?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from Sacred Space, a Service of the Irish Jesuits:

When have you experienced Pentecost in practice?

When you feel an inner urge to be kind, constructive, forgiving or compassionate, do you sense the Spirit at work in your heart?
When you settle down to pray, do you sense the Spirit bringing you into the world of God?
When you take up a demanding task because it is the right thing to do, do you sense the Spirit encouraging you?
When you protest against injustice or falsehood, do you sense the Spirit protesting in you?
When you stand up for gospel values and try to be inclusive, do you sense the Spirit calling you?
When you find yourself watching out for the needy, do you sense the spirit making you aware of others?
When you experience deep-seated joy without any special reason, do you sense the Spirit of God working in you?

Once you begin to catch on, you find that the Spirit is everywhere! You begin to attend to your inner promptings, asking “is this a nudge from my friend the Spirit?”. Life will take on a new color and will cease to be boring and predictable. You become free to dance with the Spirit.

Literary Reflection:

What does this poem by Denise Levertov say about trust in the Spirit of God?

“The Avowal”

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them;
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

Literary Reflection:

This beautiful, profound little poem, “Primary Wonder,” by Denise Levertov (1923–1997), reminds us what is important when we get overshadowed by life’s little problems. When she became present to the mystery, experienced that joyful cosmic stillness within, she realized her life, and all of creation was sustained by the Creator. Life’s problems receded, became insignificant when presented with such primary wonder. (—from a commentary by Philip Goldberg)

“Primary Wonder”

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng’s clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed one, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

Poetic Reflection:

The coming of the Spirit into our lives is not always as dramatic as it was described in the Acts of the Apostles. Sometimes the Spirit works within us slowly and deliberately, quietly teaching us how to be and teaching us where we are meant to go in our lives. This sense of the gradual working of the Spirit, especially through the beauty of the natural world, is captured beautifully by Theodore Roethke in the following poem:

“The Waking”

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Closing Prayer

Dear Jesus, help us to radiate your spirit, and by word and example help us to share it. Help us to understand that the gifts of your Spirit are not for us alone, but are to be shared. Help us to tell others how much God loves each and every one of them… Help us to BE God’s love for them.

Homily by Nancy Greenfield for Pentecost 2006

We are very familiar with the Acts account of the coming of the Spirit. We describe it as the day the church was born. Pentecost is our yearly reminder of who we are as a people and the gift God has given us and continues to give us so that we can complete the work of making us a church.
Sometimes, when I think of the phrase “The Birthday of the Church”, I have this crazy image of a bird (well not just any bird, a dove….) descending upon that upper room with the code of Canon Law in a long, long papyrus, clutched in its mouth. In short, I, too, often think of Pentecost as the establishment of the corporate and juridical structures of the church which are still in effect to this day. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Spirit of God did not descend on an institution; the Spirit of God descended on people –Peter, James. John, Mary, and others.

When the Holy Spirit descended upon those in that house, the tongues of fire were not organizational directives, but a source of strength for the events that lay ahead—gifts of wisdom, understanding, compassion, fortitude, justice, piety.

The mighty roar of wind was the sound of Jesus filling his disciples with the energy of his resurrected new life—giving them hope, courage energy, vision. But not giving them a road map.

The ability to speak in tongues was not a parlor trick bestowed on the apostles so they could assert their superiority over those around them. The fact that each listener heard the apostles speaking in his or her own language was a sign to them and to us that as followers of Christ, we in the church are called to put an end to divisions which separate us, to work together with whatever gifts we have been given for the betterment of all.
We see signs of our need for this Spirit everywhere:
from the fractures in our own beings and communities,
the divide between the haves and the have-nots,
the abuse of the very planet we live on,
and especially, the divisions among the people of God. On serious issues: papal power, sacraments, the Lord’s Supper, contraception, homosexuality, abortion, who are allowed be priests, and more, we disagree with others inside and outside our walls. (Burghardt: To be Just is to Love),
Impossible to overcome, you might say.
But let me propose a start. I go back to an old document from the Second Vatican Council, some 40 years ago which said: ”Christians should also work together in the use of every possible means to relieve the afflictions of our times, such as famine and natural disasters, illiteracy and poverty, lack of housing and the unequal distribution of wealth. Through such cooperation, all believers in Christ are able to learn easily how they can understand each other better and esteem each other more and how the road to Christian Unity may be made smooth”(Decree on Ecumenism) (Burghardt, Ibid)
Wishful thinking, you say? Look at how far the Peninsula Interfaith Action group has come in a few short years.

Pentecost is a birthday celebration not only because we commemorate the occasion of the gift of the spirit, but also because we rejoice in the understanding that the Spirit has been with us and continues to be so. Whatever builds and shapes the community is a sign of the Spirit's presence. So, we see the fruits of the Spirit in wise leaders, courageous prophetic voices, elderly seers, musicians, painters, poets, defenders of the vulnerable, happy children learning about God, gifted preachers and spiritual advisors. We also know the Spirit is at work among those in our community who are examples of prayer, compassion, tenderness and welcome.
The Spirit is present too when the sick are nurtured, healed; the sad comforted and we are in solidarity with the needy.
Jesus is continuously present to us, through his Spirit.
Without the Spirit's animation in our church, this would not be the case and our Christian life would be impossible.
(J BOLL, FI PENTECOST 2004)

But let us not forget that Pentecost is not just about the institutional church—out there, all very nice, and so forth. Pentecost is about us—you and me. I have decided that if Pentecost doesn’t bother us personally, then we have missed the point.
If Pentecost DOES bother us, because we feel the mighty wind and literally get blown away by a new awareness of God’s presence in our everyday lives;
if Pentecost bothers us because we see our old notions of how the world ought to work go up in flames;
if Pentecost bothers us because we begin to cut through the babble of consumerism, rugged individualism, national self-interest, the babble of hatred, violence and self-indulgence and hear the steady voice of God saying to us such things as:
“Feed my lambs, feed my sheep”.
Or: “I have no body now but yours”,
or: “Do you love me?”

Then we have every right to be bothered and afraid—in the words of Elmer Fudd, “vewwy vewwy afraid.”

The Spirit of God, you see, cannot be harnessed, domesticated, owned. She blows where and when she will.
The greater our sense of control over our lives and our personal environment, the more whimsical and illogical seems the miracle of God’s grace.
And once we acknowledge the reality of the Spirit in our lives, we cannot go back to who we were.
Scary.

Then there is the sheer weight of the responsibility that this gift of the Spirit lays on us. When we breathe in God’s love and grace, we must also breathe it out. Just try inhaling without exhaling, and you will se what I mean.
We must not simply receive, we must respond. And that response cannot always be a nice comfortable little set of pius platitudes that offend no one and cost nothing. Look at where the spirit led those in that house on Pentecost.

Be afraid, be very, very afraid.

No one knew this better than Jesus. He said to the disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”
There always seems to be something in my own life that offers resistance to The Spirit: fear of the unknown, a certain measure of placid self-contentment, inertia, whatever. What I sometimes forget is that the Spirit of God, if we let her into our hearts, GRADUALLY shapes and transforms us—GRADUALLY aligns us to God’s will.
What I sometimes forget, is that the Spirit of God is kind and gentle, understanding and, yes, quick to give me a second chance. Or a third. Or more.

There is a Latin hymn we used to sing and occasionally still do, “Veni Sancte Spiritus.” In the hymn we pray, “Come Holy Spirit,” in other words, we are aware of some absence or incomplete presence of the Spirit in ourselves or in our church community. We know God is always with us, yet the hymn-prayer acknowledges our lacking and our need for the Spirit to bring completion.

Come, Exuberant Spirit of God
Flame
Wind
Speech.
Burn, breathe, speak in us.
Give us life, form us into your community and renew the face of the earth.

Happy birthday to us

The Ascension of the Lord, May 12, 2024

We are called to carry on Jesus’ mission; He is with us

Mark 16:15–20

He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

Music Meditations

• “Be Not Afraid” (sung by John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]
• “Christ Has No Body Now But Yours” (written by David Ogden, sung by Exultate singers) [YouTube]
• “Christ in Me Arise” (composed by Trevor Thomson) [YouTube]
• “Untitled Hymn” (“Come to Jesus”) (Chris Rice) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

O Lord, you are the way. The goodness I find in life comes from you. Help me to be grateful and joyous because of the gifts you have bestowed on me. Teach me to be generous in sharing your love and your gifts to those I meet along the way.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from Jude Siciliano, in First Impressions 2021, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

During the years I preached in West Virginia I remember small towns, “up the hollows”, where there were churches whose ministers and members of the congregation, as a test of their faith, would plunge their hands into a box of rattlesnakes, pull one out and hold it before the congregation. Others would drink strychnine poison. Why not, isn’t that what Jesus is saying, in today’s gospel, believers will be able to do as we go about proclaiming the gospel? The rural communities that performed those tests of faith saw their ability to do these feats as a sign that the living Christ was in their midst fulfilling his promises to them. Some of the faithful were able to handle snakes and drink poison and survive. Their community supported them and celebrated their faith. Others suffered snake bites and the effects of drinking deadly poisons...some even died. But even then, their communities took the failure on themselves as a congregation, they didn’t fault the individual preacher or believer’s faith. They saw the failure as a sign that the whole community needed to turn more fully to the Lord.

I belong to a church community that interprets these signs of belief in another way. I hear in today’s gospel a promise that signs will accompany believers. In Jesus’ time there were large cracks between the human world, what we can could see, measure and explain, and God’s. Illnesses and negative human conditions that were beyond their ability to explain or heal, were credited to evil spirits and demons. So, for example, a person suffering from mental disease was said to be “possessed.” Since the afflicted weren’t their usual selves, the community reasoned, it must be the fault of an outside and malevolent spirit possessing the person. Nowadays, science, modern medicine and drugs have filled in a lot of the cracks between what was once unknown, mysterious and frightening and what was in the realm of the measurable and explainable. We have narrowed the void, answered a lot of “mysteries.” So, then, where is God in all this and what about Jesus’ mission and the signs he promises we will perform as a testimony to our faith?

Jesus tells us we will be able to “drive out demons.” New medical drugs can now alleviate schizophrenia and bi-polar disorders. But there are more powerful demons medication can’t deal with, that concerned Jesus and continue to require believers to confront and drive out. For example, the demon poverty: even in a wealthy country it grows and continues to victimize the young and elderly. The demon of ignorance: it holds people captive and locked in darkness, superstition and prejudice. The demon of war: it seduces the powerful into thinking that problems can be solved quickly by force. The demon of racism: a sometimes subtle demon, but these days it has raised its divisive head in ugly manifestations. Even the so-called enlightened discover racism is still a part of their lives. The demons of homophobia, sexism and ageism and all the other “isms” that permeate our institutions and churches. These are demons that might not be driven out with a prayer of exorcism. But they may be driven out by a prayer for conversion, a prayer to have our own hearts and attitudes changed; a prayer for wisdom, to know where and how we must get involved to do something; a prayer for strength, to keep us in the struggle against these demons over the long haul; a prayer for courage, as we face opposition; a prayer for hope, as we deal with discouragement and lack of quick progress.

Jesus says we will lay on hands to cure the sick. We do this in our prayers and sacramental anointing of the sick. But we also show the sick and very old, who are often on the periphery of our communities, that we want to stay in contact with them through visits and gentle touch—“laying on of hands”. Some years ago Vernon Jordan, a presidential aide, was shot in the back. While acknowledging the expertise of the doctors who worked on him, he said what really saved his life, was the doctor who sat with him and held his hands—day after day. We lay hands on the sick in many ways. We stay by the side of someone struggling with illness, despair, loneliness, addiction, divorce and death. Someone said to me once, “I don’t always know what I am to do—I just show up.” That’s a way of “laying hands on the sick,” just show up. That’s also one way to face the powerful forces that surround us and need to be driven out: we “show up.” The risen Christ acts through his disciples who show up, giving them: wisdom when serious problems and issues arise; power over the evil forces of unjust systems, policies and governments; a healing touch, when someone just needs a faithful presence standing with them in the valley of the shadow of death.

What are we doing at each Eucharist? Are we holding a memorial service for someone long gone, who once inspired the world? Lamenting his absence saying, “If only Jesus were here, he would know what to do.” No. We are celebrating the signs of his presence we have experienced in and through his community, the Word and the sacred bread and wine we eat at this meal.

The Acts of the Apostles starts with an injunction by the risen Christ to wait. I wonder if the activists in that early community weren’t frustrated by his directive. You can see that they were ready to get on with things—and they would have gotten it all wrong. It’s their question that reveals their mis-direction, “Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” Of course, they mean a purely external, politically and militarily dominant kingdom of Israel. No, they will have to wait for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, then they will know how and where to be Jesus’ witnesses. He wants them to break free of their limited view, their biases and tendency to misinterpret the meaning of his life. What he also wants is that they witness to him far beyond the boundaries of Israel. They will, he says, have to be, “my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” For all this they will need help, so they must acknowledge their dependence on God and wait for God’s pleasure to pour that help out on them.

We are not good at waiting. We tire out if we do not get quick results. Waiting on lines, for lights, for our children to come home from the dance, with our aging parents at the doctor’s office, for the strife to end in Myanmar, and Yemen to come finally to peace. Waiting is not what we do well. Why is waiting so frustrating? Because it means someone else, or some other power is in charge, not us. And being out of control and subject to other forces reminds us of our finiteness, and vulnerability.

Jesus tells the disciples to “wait for the promise of the Father.” They cannot go off spreading the news of his resurrection on their own. They are a small, fearful community that has no power on its own. As the Gospels showed, they have a tendency to get Jesus’ message all wrong. What’s more, they flee when things get tough. On their own they will be misguided, perhaps engage in ways that are not of Jesus. Haven’t we made some pretty big mistakes in our history about his message and in his name? Our history has tales of promoting our religion by forced baptisms and by trampling over the dignity and cultures of whole civilizations. And like the original disciples, we have been cowardly when courage and resistance to force was required.

So the disciples and we must “hold our horses,” restrain ourselves and wait for God’s promise to be fulfilled. What’s more, the fulfillment will come at God’s timing, not our own. We are action-oriented aren’t we? We have our projects and plans; we want to get on with things. Even when our plans and intentions are noble and serve a good purpose, how does God figure into them? Do we know? Have we asked? Do we wait for an answer, some direction? Maybe we have to “hurry up and wait.” “Don’t just do something, stand there!” Waiting on the Spirit is a reversal of our usual mode of operating.

Thomas Troeger, the Presbyterian preacher and homiletician, in a sermon preached on Ascension Day, recalls the frustration of the disciples and the early church in their waiting and longing for the fulfillment of the reign of God. He says we too know that frustration. After having given our lives over to Jesus Christ, we experience not triumph, but a mixture of triumph and defeat. Has anything really changed? What difference does our faith make? “When will things come together in some whole and enduring pattern?” he wonders. And then Troeger quotes Yeats’ lines to describe our world:

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
the blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
the ceremony of innocence is drowned;
the best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.

—from “The Second Coming”

We are wearied by our waiting. With Yeats we voice our longing, “Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.” It’s a lament, a prayer of need and dependence. We need help that we cannot provide for ourselves. Troeger invites us to hear again what the early church heard in its anguish and yearning, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by [God’s] own authority.” How difficult it is for us to hear these words surrounded, as we are, by the kind of events we see and hear on the evening news—pictures and sounds of human distress. What we have, Troeger reminds us, is the belief that Christ reigns and will send the Holy Spirit to help us live as we must. We cannot force the hand of this Spirit, it is a gift constantly coming upon us. And one that still requires waiting.

(Thomas Troeger’s sermon was preached in 1982 and is reprinted in Seasons of Preaching, pages 158-9.)

Further reflection:

• Homily by John Kerrigan for Ascension 2012 >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• What signs Jesus’ presence do I recognize of in my world? In my life?
  When have I felt the absence of God in my own life?
  What happened to my relationship with God, the church, and the world because of this felt absence?
• Have I ever had anyone to whom I was very close depart, either through death, physical separation, or a relationship which ended? How did I deal with it?
  Do traces of this person’s presence still continue to be felt?
• What are the personal demons that I to drive out of my life and psyche?
  Have I called on the Spirit of Jesus for help?
• What serpents lurk in my life to threaten me?
  What are some of the poisonous substances and ideas that I drink in every day?
  Is Jesus the antidote for me, or is something else the antidote?
• Do I experience the Gospels as revealing to me how God is working in my own life?
• In what ways does the mission “proclaim the gospel” apply to me?
  Do I feel I have any kind of ministry/mission to the world?
  Have I ever taken any risks in my ministry to the world?
• Do I understand that I am called to “another Christ”, to be a person who make known the love of God and God’s care for the world?
  Do I understand that I many never know how much of this I have actually accomplished?
  Do I understand that it is enough to do what I can?
• Mother Teresa said: “I am not called to be successful; I am called to be faithful”. How does this give me hope in my own efforts?
• Am I sometimes overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of being Christ for others?
  How paralyzing is this fear?
  Do I understand courage is acting in the face of fear?
  What people in my life have been examples of determination to do the right thing, to do the better thing?
• How does prayer and how do the sacraments give me some strength to simply do the best I can?
  Can closeness to the love of Jesus and his forgiving heart help me to forgive myself when I have failed to measure up to the goals I have set for myself to be more Christ-like?
  Can I hit the rewind button and try again?
• Am I a blessing to anyone in my life?
• Adapted from “First Impressions”:
  God has some work to be done that can only be done by one person, with that person’s specific personality, strengths, weaknesses and gifts. What gifts have I been given to use in the service of Jesus’ mission?
  Am I using them now?
• To be disciple one first needs to be in relationship with Jesus. What is my relationship with Him?
• From Father William Gallagher:
  When Jesus asked the disciples to go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature, what do you think he really meant?
  What is God’s desire that is being revealed to us by this simple statement?
  How does your parish do this?
  How do you?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

This section of the gospel after verse 8 very likely was an addendum by a later writer to end Mark’s gospel on a more hopeful note. It has stayed as part of the gospel to this day, and provides a very good picture of the tasks committed to the church by Jesus. In addition, I am commissioned to be Church, to be Jesus’ emissary in my world.

The Church has a preaching task. It has been commissioned to tell the story of God’s good news to all the earth, to all creation. We, too are part of the church and commissioned as well. So I ask myself: what do I consider God’s good news? How proactive am in in sharing this with others, especially those outside my safe circle? Do I understand that I proclaim the gospel by the way I live my life and the way I treat others?

The Church has a healing task. When in the Church’s history has she brought comfort and healing to those so in need of love and care? When has the Church instead brought judgment, exclusion, division? Do I think the Church has some more work to do in this regard? Where does the world need healing the most? Am I, as church, a source of healing or a source of division for those around me?

The Church has the task of conveying the power we all have, in the name of God, over the forces of evil and despair. How has the Church’s power been used in her history? Where has the Church been a real force to counter evil and persecution? Where can the Church do better? I may not be a snake handler, exactly, but where can I do better to demonstrate the power of God in my life?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

When Jesus left the disciples for the last time, he did not call them to stay in a tight circle, guarding the message, and imparting it only to those in “the club”. He did not tell them to be careful, to protect themselves, to be careful not to bite off more than they could chew. Do I understand the Jesus command to preach to the whole of creation is a challenge for me to be inclusive in my love?
Where is my heart narrow and exclusive?
Where am I open and expansive?
Where do the poor, the homeless, the dirty, the addicted, the mentally ill, the difficult to love, the outcasts of any kind, fit into this mandate?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Imagine that you are one of the disciples, returning from that scene on the mountain where Jesus disappeared forever. What do you remember about his final words, and how you felt to see him leave? What questions are in your mind at this point—such issues as “Is it really over?” or “Who will lead us now?”, or “Am I willing to commit to this group to complete what Jesus started?” or “Is it time for me to go back home, to my former life?” What joy do I feel as I move forward with our mission? What gives me that joy? What do I say to my friends? What do I tell our followers? How do those in the temple receive our message?

In my own 21st century life, all I have is the story of Jesus that those before me have told. Do I believe it? If so, how do I live out my call to carry on the work of Jesus and the early disciples? I compose a prayer, asking Jesus to give me the tools I need to spread the joy of the gospel, and to give me the energy I need to change the world, to make a difference.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem comfort us with an understanding that Jesus is with us still?

“Ascension”

And if I go,
while you’re still here…
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
—behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
—both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
…I will be there.

—Colleen Hitchcock

Closing Prayer

Lord, you have chosen me to be your ambassador. You trust me to be your good news in the present tense, in the here and now. Help me to see the signs of your presence in my life. Help me to proclaim the good news of your love by the way I live my life.