The Mission of Unity The Feast of Pentecost

 The Mission of Unity

The Feast of Pentecost

June 5, 2022

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Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; Romans 8:8-17; John 14:15-26

 

          This feast of Pentecost has Jewish roots as the spring grain harvest, the first fruits of the planting season. In its later history it became associated with Moses and the giving of the Law, just as God gave the earth its first fruits of produce. It became a symbol of the covenant renewal. Christians see it as the descent of the Holy Spirit to form the Christian community into a new people of God and to harvest the first fruits of the universal mission of the church.

 

          In the Acts of the Apostles, we see that the Holy Spirit calls people into unity and finds commonality and good will rather than differences. Though people from many tribes and nations gathered in prayer, each person could clearly understand the language and dialect of the other foreigner. The Spirit unifies and it animates, and it is working through us and within us even when we do not know the Spirit is present.

 

          Through the Spirit, God calls us together to worship in one prayer space. God knows that we hold different worldviews, viewpoints, and perspectives, and yet God continues to call us to be together. God knows that some people support the mission of Pope Francis, while others pray for him to no longer be Pope. Some work hard to restore a Latin-rite liturgy, while others seek to improve the experience of the ordinary and universal liturgy that we celebrate each day. I could go on and on to list out our differences, especially as we begin to infuse political viewpoints, but that is not the point of this feast. Despite our differences, it is God who is calling us to be together so that we can understand each other better and maybe even try loving each other a little more. 

 

          Many complain that our nation is polarized, our church is rife with strife, and that individuals accentuate their differences at the expense of unity. While it is clearly a strong church teaching that the dignity of the individual is to be upheld and cherished, we have to do better in choosing the common good and building up the communities in which we find ourselves. We have to find balance between knowing we have rights and knowing when to use them; and them realizing that we have responsibilities to the whole community to contribute to its better functioning. 

 

          Last week, we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus when he rose in power to sit at God’s right hand in the heavens, and with him, we rose too. We have to continue to rise above our individual traits and characteristics in order to contribute to the commonwealth of church and society. We need to look for each other’s good will, look out for one another as each person struggles, continue to offer positive regard when someone misspeaks or makes an error, and to become less immediately and definitively judgmental on our assessment of the other person. We appeal to the Spirit to lead us and to open our minds and hearts to this type of unity because without it, a community struggles to survive. This Spirit helps us to access our fundamentally human goodness that seeks to make friends and to depend upon one another and to find joy in differences. With Jesus sitting at God’s right hand, gazing upon us and they send us the Spirit to unite us, let us continue to rise, to be raised up with Christ through the Spirit to the delight of God the Father. Let us give room, plenty of space, for the Spirit to come into our hearts to renew us and give us life. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

Monday: (Acts 19) Paul went through the interior of Greece and down to Ephesus to introduce the believers to the Holy Spirit. The community was baptized into the Body of Christ.  

 

Tuesday: (Acts 20) The presbyters at Ephesus summoned Paul, who told them that he was going to an uncertain fate in Jerusalem. Paul recounts the ways he served the Lord with humility, tears, and trials, but imprisonment and hardships await him. 

 

Wednesday: (Acts 20) Paul prays for the whole flock and he prays for them because he knows adversaries will take advantage of Paul’s absence. When Paul finished speaking, the people wept loudly and threw their arms around him and kissed him.  

 

Thursday: (Acts 22) Paul is brought to trial. The Pharisees and Sadducees are sharply divided; armed forces rescue Paul from their midst. The Lord tells Paul he must go to Rome and be faithful there the same way he was faithful in Jerusalem.  

 

Friday (Acts 25) King Agrippa hears Paul’s case and determines that Paul is to be tried in Jerusalem, but Paul, as a Roman citizen, appeals for the Emperor’s decision.  

 

Saturday (Acts 28) When Paul entered Rome, he was allowed to live by himself. He called together the leaders of the Jews to let them know the charges brought against them. He told them his story. He remained for two years in his lodgings and received all who came to him without hindrance as he proclaimed the Kingdom of God.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 16) The disciples realize Jesus is returning to the Father and that he is strengthening them for the time when he will not longer be physically with them.  

 

Tuesday: (John 17) Jesus raises his eyes to heaven and realizes it is time to glorify the Father through his death so he may give eternal life to all that we given to him. He revealed God’s name to them and now it is time to see the glory of God revealed.

 

Wednesday (John 17) Jesus prays for the safety of those given to him. He wants them to be safe as they testify to God’s steadfastness in a harsh world. He prays for unity, “so that they may be one just as we, Father, are one.” 

 

Thursday (John 17) Jesus consecrates them to the truth and wards off the Evil One. He also prays for those given to him through the testimony of others. The love Jesus and the Father share is available to future disciples. 

 

Friday (John 21) After the Farewell Discourse ends, Jesus appears at the seashore with Simon Peter who professes his three-fold love of Jesus. Jesus forgives him and asks him to care for his people even though the authorities of this world will eventually have their day with him. 

 

Saturday (John 21) Peter turns to Jesus and asks about the Beloved Disciple. Jesus retorts, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?” This disciple is the one who wrote the testimony about Jesus and can attest to its truth.

 

Saints of the Week

 

June 5: Boniface, bishop and martyr (675-754), was born in England and raised in a Benedictine monastery. He became a good preacher and was sent to the northern Netherlands as a missionary. Pope Gregory gave him the name Boniface with an edict to preach to non-Christians. We was made a bishop in Germany and gained many converts when he cut down the famed Oak of Thor and garnered no bad fortune by the Norse gods. Many years later he was killed by non-Christians when he was preparing to confirm many converts. The church referred to him as the "Apostle of Germany."

 

June 6: Norbert, bishop (1080-1134), a German, became a priest after a near-death experience. He became an itinerant preacher in northern France and established a community founded on strict asceticism. They became the Norbertines and defended the rights of the church against secular authorities.

 

June 9: Ephrem, deacon and doctor (306-373), was born in the area that is now Iraq. He was ordained a deacon and refused priestly ordination. After Persians conquered his home town, Ephrem lived in seclusion where he wrote scriptural commentaries and hymns. He was the first to introduce hymns into public worship.

 

June 9: Joseph de Anchieta, S.J., priest (1534-1597), was from the Canary Islands and became a leading missionary to Brazil. He was one of the founders of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero. He is considered the first Brazilian writer and is regarded as a considerate evangelizer of the native Brazilian population. Alongside the Jesuit Manuel de Nobrega, he created stable colonial establishments in the new country.

 

June 11: Barnabas, apostle (d. 61), was a Jew from Cyprus who joined the early Christians in Jerusalem to build up the church. His name means "son of encouragement." He accepted Paul into his community and worked alongside him for many years to convert the Gentiles. He was stoned to death in his native Cyprus. He was a towering  authority to the early church. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• June 5, 1546. Paul III, in the document Exponi Nobis, empowered the Society to admit coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal. 
• June 6, 1610. At the funeral of Henry IV in Paris, two priests preaching in the Churches of St Eustace and St Gervase denounced the Jesuits as accomplices in his death. This was due primarily to the book De Rege of Father Mariana. 
• June 7, 1556. Peter Canisius becomes the first provincial superior of the newly constituted Province of Upper Germany. 
• June 8, 1889. Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins died at the age of 44 in Dublin. His final words were "I am so happy, so happy." He wrote, "I wish that my pieces could at some time become known but in some spontaneous way ... and without my forcing." 
• June 9, 1597. The death of Blessed Jose de Ancieta, Brazil's most famous missionary and the founder of the cities of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. 
• June 10, 1537. Ignatius and his companions were given minor orders at the house of Bishop Vincenzo Negusanti in Venice, Italy. 
• June 11, 1742. The Chinese and Malabar Rites were forbidden by Pope Benedict XIV; persecution broke out at once in China.