8 June 2025

8 June 2025 - Pentecost Sunday

Transcript

Write:  

Genesis 11:6 (Vigil Mass)

Then the LORD said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach.

Acts 2:4 (Day Mass)

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Reflect:   

It is – and always has been – an issue of PRIDE.

Whether you are talking about the time in Genesis when the people wanted to “make a name for themselves,” or you are talking about the modern church where there are people who want to fight over… the Traditional Latin Mass or what we do here, pejoratively called the Novus Ordo – the new order, also called the Mass in the vernacular, or you get into some of the secular issues of people acting foolishly in whatever their favorite issue is, it boils down to… PRIDE.

I do not think it is wrong to call pride the first sin – the sin of Satan. I think it is at the root of Original Sin, though there is more to Original Sin than just pride. That is a topic for another time.

Apply:   

There is something about our human nature – our FALLEN human nature – that lends itself all too rapidly to the sin of pride. It leads to being insulted for… things that should never create those kinds of problems. I know I have experienced it. Something I have invested in that all of a sudden someone else does not like… and what happens? I take it as a personal attack. I know none of you are like that. You have a much better control over your spiritual lives. I am still trying to learn – and I’m not always succeeding. (You know it’s not easy to pray for humility. Have you ever heard the litany of humility? I will close with that.)

Speaking in different languages, the apostles on Pentecost had to face the charge of being drunk. The people in that day could not understand how the Holy Spirit would descend as he did. But he did descend, and one of the fruits of that coming of the Holy Spirit is that barriers of language were removed that day. And it says that three thousand people were added to the Christian community that day. There are over seven thousand languages in the world! The Tower of Babel really screwed up the world. The sin of pride really screwed up the world.

I remember hearing the story from within the charismatic movement – a movement that believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today. For most people, what is called “glossolalia” – or speaking in tongues, does not appear to be a known language, but is a way of prayer in the Holy Spirit that defies… logic. But the story is told of a salesperson who was trying to help a family that spoke only Spanish pick out a dress for “la abuela” – grandma. They were down to two selections but couldn’t make up their mind. According to the story, this salesperson started praying in the Holy Spirit, not knowing that they were praying in perfect Spanish! The salesperson had an opinion on which dress grandma should have. When the family heard the prayer of the salesperson – in Spanish – they bought that dress. And everybody was happy.

Personally, I have “prayed in tongues” as the saying goes. In fact, I still do. Almost every Mass! I don’t do it out loud, but it is during parts of the Eucharistic Prayer – usually when I am holding up the Body and/or the Blood. I never do it out loud because that would seem to be… prideful.

But there are many gifts of the Holy Spirit that are described in Scripture that need to be more available in our Christian lives. You can find lists of them in a number of places in the Bible: Isaiah 11:2-3 ; Romans 12:6-8 ; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28 ; Ephesians 4:11. And there are other places that would give you an exhaustive list. You can go online and do a search for “spiritual gifts in the Bible.” You will find all kinds of lists there. I will let you explore those for yourself.

But in all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will never find an inclination toward pride. In Acts chapter 8, we hear of a man named Simon Magus who was so impressed with the power of the apostles that he wanted to buy it from them. “But Peter said to him, ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought that you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no share or lot in this matter, for your heart is not upright before God. Repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your intention may be forgiven. For I see that you are filled with bitter gall and are in the bonds of iniquity.’ Simon said in reply, ‘Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.’”

We don’t hear anything else about Simon Magus. I would like to think that he was humbled and gave up the foolishness that he was about – including his pride. Well, we can pray for humility. And as I said earlier, I want to close with the litany of humility which is – in my opinion – one of the greatest gifts the Holy Spirit has handed the modern church.

Pray/Praise:   

You can join me in this prayer:

O Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, Hear me. 

From the desire of being esteemed, …

Deliver me, O Jesus. 

From the desire of being loved, …

From the desire of being extolled, … 

From the desire of being honored, …

From the desire of being praised, …

From the desire of being preferred to others, …

From the desire of being consulted, …

From the desire of being approved, …

From the fear of being humiliated, …

From the fear of being despised, …

From the fear of suffering rebukes, …

From the fear of being calumniated (slandered), …

From the fear of being forgotten, …

From the fear of being ridiculed, …

From the fear of being wronged, …

From the fear of being suspected, …

That others may be loved more than I, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

That others may be esteemed more than I, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

That others may be chosen and I set aside, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

That others may be praised and I unnoticed, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

That others may be preferred to me in everything, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 

Amen.

+++++