24 May 2026

24 May 2026 - Pentecost

Transcript

Reading:  

Acts 2:4

Write:  

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit… 

Reflect:   

Pentecost. The birthday of the church. So, do you call the Holy Spirit a birthday gift or a wedding gift? Answer: yes. I mentioned last weekend that the Holy Spirit was the gift of Jesus for his bride the church. I even said, “what a wedding gift!”

But what kind of a gift – or what attributes of the gift need to be highlighted? I am going to focus on one, but it has affects across the entirety of our spiritual lives. 

One of the things that is so often commented on is the fact that people could understand what the apostles were saying when they were from so many different places. Now, I have my own opinion on this: the apostles were speaking their own native language. There was some sort of a… translation into all the other languages for the people to hear. This was what the miracle of Pentecost tongues was all about. It was a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel. All of these other nationalities would have heard the apostles “babbling” in Aramaic. But the Holy Spirit ran the original translator app in the minds of everybody there. 😉

Now, let’s dig just a little deeper into the story of Babel. The people in that day were trying to build “a name for themselves” – those are actually the words that are used in Genesis – God came down and confused their language, making their efforts unintelligible to one another. The city of Babel was opposing God, trying to make a name for themselves instead of humbling themselves before God. This suggests that opposition to God – a lack of faith – leads to the loss of intellectual ability – a lack of reason. Let me reread that last sentence: this suggests that opposition to God – a lack of faith – leads to the loss of intellectual ability – a lack of reason.

But along comes the Holy Spirit with the gifts of faith and reason – and all of a sudden the tragedies of sin begin to be reversed! At Babel, the people are confused because they do not understand one another. At Pentecost, they are also confused because they do understand. The fracturing of humanity was beginning to be healed. Then, the devil gets in our way.

Apply:   

There have been some unfortunate attempts to accomplish the same kind of thing from a purely secular point of view. Can you say the United Nations? I do not think it is a mistake to see the efforts of countries in the United Nations as trying to heal the wounds of Babel – heal the wounds of sin. But you cannot do that without Jesus! What is that interesting bumper sticker? No Jesus, no peace – know Jesus, know peace. The first phrase is a negative: no. The second phrase is about knowledge: know. No Jesus, no peace – know Jesus, know peace.

Whether it is the United Nations, communism, freemasonry, or any other attempt at some sort of secular peace, you are dealing with an attempt to replace the One True Church which is the only organization that does in fact establish an end to Babel.

Throughout a number of the prophets of the Old Testament there was a call to something new. Pentecost is the fulfillment of those prophecies. A New Covenant would be given to replace the Old Covenant broken by sin going all the way back to the Tower of Babel – or even further: to Adam and Eve. Man could not live up to the covenant with God on its own; it required the man-God, Jesus. This New Covenant is the beginning of the Church and it involves writing the New Covenant on the hearts of all believers and establishing the knowledge of God and the call to forgiveness of sins.

This forgiveness of sins is what Saint Peter preached on Pentecost. Later in chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, Peter addressed the crowds with these words, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

But, there is yet another issue of confusion – similar to Babel – that has unfortunately infected Christianity. Not the Catholic Church, mind you, but Christianity as a whole. The unity that the Holy Spirit calls us to in Christ has been fractured by those who do not understand the unity of the church before God. Those who choose to separate themselves from the Chair of Peter participate in the effects of Babel.

This Solemnity of the Holy Spirit should be a cry for unity among all Christians. Actually it is a cry for all people to join Christ. It is a terrible scandal that Christianity is not united. I have even run across some Protestants who have boldly and publicly said, “if you are Catholic I have absolutely no fellowship with you!” (Sigh!) I think this kind of attitude is part of the reason why efforts of evangelization fail. Why should anyone want to join a church that seems so fractured? Anyone who does not see this as a failure of our efforts to live completely for Christ… Well, they are just blind. And the blindness is not caused by the Holy Spirit.

Last, a bit of humor. This happened before I was even ordained. I was at a Pentecost Mass and the lector in trying to get through all those city names. He read them this way: “We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and… Omaha” – he could not figure out how to say “Pamphylia.” It got a laugh out of everybody, and even a smile out of Archbishop Sheehan.

We are in serious time. A time when the unity of the church is called into question. It is okay to poke fun at ourselves, provided we also take seriously the call to holiness that the Holy Spirit has called us to. As I said at the very start, Pentecost is the birthday of the church. And the Holy Spirit is both a birthday gift and a wedding gift – and also so much more.

I repeat the alleluia verse from today: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” It is part of a longer Holy Spirit prayer that I pray for us all now.

Pray/Praise:   

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
 and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
 and you shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful
 by the light of the Holy Spirit,
 grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise
 and ever rejoice in his consolation.
 Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

+++++