Dear Friends,
Come, Holy Spirit!
We celebrate the great Solemnity of Pentecost today! There a few basics about Pentecost with which most of us are familiar: it is 50 days after Easter; it is when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus in the form of tongues of fire, emboldening them to proclaim and witness to Jesus the Lord, risen from the dead; it is considered the “birthday” of the Church. We pray that the Holy Spirit descend upon us today in order to form us anew in Christ and to strengthen us to witness to Christ.
There are some other items with Pentecost to discuss. The first deals with the Tower of Babel, an event occurring in the Book of Genesis. In that passage, humanity decides to make a name for itself, building a tower and city from artificial materials. To keep things brief, humanity displays a brash pride and an opposition to the natural goods and natural order provided by God. As a result, humanity is scattered and their language confused, hence “Babel,” as in they babbled, making unintelligible sounds. Scripture scholar John Bergsma makes this point: “The city that opposes God is also the city of unintelligiblity. It suggests that opposition to God (lack of faith) leads to the loss of intellectual ability (lack of reason).”
How is this related to Pentecost? Pentecost is a bookend to the Tower of Babel. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples, filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus, and Acts 2 tells us that people from all nations were gathered in Jerusalem, and they all understood the message of the disciples. Again, John Bergsma explains, “In both cases, there is confusion because of speaking. At Babel, they are confused because they do not understand. At Pentecost, they are confused because they do understand! The Tower of Babel tells us how mankind was fractured. Pentecost tells us how mankind is reunited as a family: by the Spirit, which forms the Church, which is the new Family of God...The Tower of Babel reading emphasizes the role of Pentecost and the Church as the re-gathering of the human family.”
The other item to discuss with Pentecost was the Jewish liturgical celebration of the giving of the Law at Sinai. How does this relate to the new Pentecost? Again, John Bergsma helps us, “At Sinai, the Law was given in a fearsome storm and on tablets of stone. At Pentecost, there is a peaceful storm of the Spirit (the rushing wind, the lightning-like tongues of flame) and the giving of the Law on the Heart. As St. Thomas says in his treatment of the Old Law in the Summa, 'the law of the New Covenant is nothing other than the Holy Spirit.' The Spirit is the Law written on the heart promised with the New Covenant: 'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jer. 31:31-33).'”
Bergsma continues, “So we see that Pentecost is the fulfillment of what Jeremiah prophesied: a new covenant would be given to replace the old covenant broken by Israel in the wilderness and elsewhere. This new covenant involves the writing of the law on the heart (the gift of the Holy Spirit) as well as the knowledge of God (the seven gifts of the Spirit) and the forgiveness of sins.”
To summarize all of this, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost brings about a re-gathering of the human family and also is God writing His law upon the stone tablets of our hearts. This is a great feast, and so we cry out to the Holy Spirit to fall upon us with His gifts.
We are saints under construction, living in the life of the Spirit, the Law written about upon our hearts. Have a great week!
In Christ,
Fr. Matt