Feast of Pentecost, May 19,
2013
Epistle,
Acts 2: 1 Gospel, John 14: 23-31
The Feast of Pentecost
was prefigured in the Old Testament by God revealing Himself to the Israeli people
on Mt. Sinai. (Exodus 19: 9-11 &
16-19)
“And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God . . . they stood at the
bottom of the mount. And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was
come down upon it in fire . . . And the sound of the trumpet grew by degrees
louder and louder . . .” And in Acts 2: 1-4 we read “they were all together in one place:
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it
filled the whole house . . . And there appeared to them cloven tongues, as it
were of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” On Mt. Sinai were fire and the
loud sound of trumpets. On Pentecost Sunday, the loud sound of wind and the tongues
of fire.
Pentecost can also be seen as a kind
of repetition of the Annunciation of Mary, where the Holy Ghost descended upon
her to begin the conception of Jesus. On Pentecost Sunday He again descended upon
Mary so that we might be born into the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.
This is another indication of the role Mary plays in the Church and of her
importance to us. It’s no wonder we venerate her as our mother. +
Our Lord said, “Peace
I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.”
Here is a definition of our Lord’s peace variously credited to Sts. Augustine,
Peter Chrysologus or Ambrose: “Peace is serenity of mind, tranquility of soul, simplicity
of heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity.” Peace “takes away
enmities, restrains wars, holds back anger, treads down pride, loves the
humble, calms those who quarrel, reconciles those who are enemies, and is
pleasing and acceptable to all. It seeks nothing that belongs to another;
regards nothing as its own. It teaches a love that has never learned to hate.”
It does not know how to be lifted up above
itself. It does not know how to be puffed up in pride. (Patrologia Latina, 39, Sermo 97) This is the Law of Peace that is given to us by the Son of God. It is
both a law and a great gift, and it’s the will of God that we live according to
this Law.
We
can have peace or hostility, but why promote hostility between people? This has
consequences that we cannot escape from. The devil promoted hostility between
the First Man and God when he appeared as a serpent in the Garden. Satan already
knew the consequences of disobedience to God. For us, either we accept the
charity of Christ and follow the Law of Peace, or we must know that in
imitating the devil we become like him. If we embrace Christ’s peace, we find
that we live in freedom – no matter what form of government we live under.
Job
wrote that “[God’s] Spirit hath adorned the heavens.” (Job 26: 13) These adornments of heaven are the virtues that St. Paul lists in (1 Cor. 12: 8) as Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy and Tongues,
what we call the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. We know the Apostles were lacking in
these gifts before the coming of the Holy Ghost, but look at what they did
after His coming. Before the year 100 A. D. they and their disciples had spread
the True Faith to all the known world. +
Now
let’s talk about the Trinity. When we confess God the Father, God the Son and God
the Holy Ghost, the Three Persons in One God, let us put out of our minds the things
we use to measure the universe – length, width, height and time. Let us
understand that God is at all times and in all places, complete and perfect and
One. We cannot prefer the Father to the Son and the Holy Ghost. Nor can we
prefer the Son to the Father and the Holy Ghost because they are One. Further,
we cannot believe that God is Omnipotent and Unchanging if He has begotten a
Son Who is inferior or less than Himself. Some say that Jesus was created at
some point in eternity, long before the universe was created, that He is indeed
the Son of God, but not God. Rather, that He is a minor god, with a small “g”. But
they do not understand the word “eternity.” Eternity in the religious or
theological sense is the condition of timeless existence. Eternity then is the
absence of time. That is why the Church teaches us that Jesus was eternally
begotten of the Father. In other words, Jesus has existed eternally. Those who
die in a state of mortal sin will suffer the pains of hell, eternally. Those
who die in the state of Sanctifying Grace will enjoy the presence of God,
eternally. So in this sense, eternity is either your punishment or your reward,
depending on the state of your soul when you die. As to Jesus being God, there
are ample proofs of this in Scriptures. One is from John 16: 15, “All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine.” God
the Father has Divinity, therefore, so does the Son. And so does the Holy Ghost
as we see at John 16: 13: “when he,
the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself . . .” The word “himself” shows us that the Holy Ghost is, Himself,
a separate person. He teaches us “all truth” because only God can do that. Therefore,
He is God. St. Augustine says that the Holy Ghost does not speak of Himself
because He is not from Himself, but proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Fr. Robert Witham (d. 1738) wrote that if the Holy
Ghost shall teach all truth, and teach it forever, how is it possible that the
Church can err, or has erred, in matters of faith, at any time or in any point
of doctrine? If this were true, would not the Holy Ghost have forfeited his
title of the Spirit of Truth?
We have a prayer to
the Holy Ghost: “Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, enkindle in
them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created and
Thou shalt renew the face of the Earth.” This prayer comes from Psalm 103, v. 30 - Douay, Haydock. (RSV
104: 30) This same Holy Spirit inspired a youthful harpist and created the
psalmist, who was King David (1 Kings
16: 18). He moved the soul of a “herdsman plucking wild figs: and made him
a prophet,” (Amos 7: 14). He entered
a young boy who was disciplined in the spirit, and made him a judge (Daniel 13: 45). He entered into a fisherman and made him a
preacher of the Gospel and head of His Church, St. Peter (Mt. 4: 19). He filled a persecutor of the Church and made him the
Doctor of the Gentiles, St. Paul (Acts
9). He filled a publican and made him an Evangelist (Luke 5: 27,28). The Holy Ghost renews the face of the Earth by
inflaming people with the love of God, and these people in turn do God's work
in the community. The Apostles, who before were afraid of their enemies, now
under the influence of the Holy Ghost, dominate them with their authority. I
suspect that a refusal to accept the authority of the Church is the reason why
many people refuse to join Her or drop away and abandon Christ’s Mass and His
Sacraments, all of which are His gifts to help us reach Heaven.
Many
ask how can I love the Holy Spirit whom I cannot see? A mind taken up with only
visible things cannot see the invisible. However, we can see God by looking at
a metaphor from nature. We cannot watch the sun directly as it rises in the
east, but if we look to the west at sunrise, we can see the beauty of the sun unfolding
on the face of the earth. Looking at God is somewhat like that. We can see His
beauty unfolding in the lives of His saints; and in the good works of His
children, because His beauty is like sunlight shining upon the earth.
Jesus tells us today,
“The word which you have heard is not mine; but the Father’s who sent me.” Pope
St. Gregory the Great helps us understand this when he writes, “ He Who speaks
is the Word, the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, and because of this the words
the Son speaks are not the Son’s but the Father’s: for the Son is Himself the
Word of the Father” as we learn in John Chap. 1: “and the Word was God . . . and the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us.” We know that Jesus is the Word of God become Man, and we believe the
Word of God. +++
We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass:
The Mass of All Ages
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