SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST – YEAR B
At our parish Confirmation Mass on Friday, Bishop James Massa spoke very movingly about the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. His homily led me to reflect on what fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit we would do well to pray for on this Pentecost. My thoughts were directed by the contrast between the beautiful, peaceful, joyous, inspiring Confirmation liturgy followed by picture-taking with beaming family members in front of our Blessed Mother’s Shrine on our great lawn, and the news of the latest massacre of children in school, along with images of carnage and grieving adults and traumatized survivors. As we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, come” today, what do we most desperately need from this Paraclete, this Comforter, this divine Advocate?
I will frame my response to that question in terms of our life together as the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ; but my thoughts can very easily be transposed into the sphere of our national life in the Body Politic, if I may phrase it that way.
There is one supreme fruit of the Holy Spirit that the Church – and our nation – require now more than ever. It is communio, from which we draw the English word, Communion. And that, in turn, has its roots in the act or state of being united together. For us disciples, that communion means a shared life in Christ that is characterized by the fruits of the Holy Spirit I mentioned earlier: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, etc. And in our national life, we might term it a deeply-held commitment to the commonweal, the common good of all who live within our boundaries, everyone who will be counted in the coming census of 2020.
In order to achieve that communio, foster the commonweal, I see a need for several qualities or abilities that the Holy Spirit fosters. Here, I will highlight two of them.
The first is a commitment to the truth. At the Last Supper, Jesus called the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth. “When he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you into all truth.” In an Op Ed piece in Saturday’s New York Times entitled, “The Moral Rot That Threatens America,” Roger Cohen said, “The deepest form of rot is the erosion of the distinction between truth and falsehood.” Within the Church we are still grappling with that rot, as Church leaders continue to confront the horrible truth of the extent of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up. At this moment, every one of Chile’s bishops, faced with the truth, has offered Pope Francis his resignation. In the secular sphere, we are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish genuine journalism from so-called fake news. Perhaps, only the power of God’s Holy Spirit, our relentless Advocate, can make possible a renewed commitment to the truth.
We pray, too, for civility, so that we not only speak the truth, but speak the truth in love. In the current film, A Man of His Word, really an extensive interview with Pope Francis, the Holy Father confesses that, in his travels, he has learned to listen much and speak less. When the Spirit opens our hearts to listen, then we are ready to respond with respect. A conversation or dialogue becomes possible, compassion is born, and we are on the road to arriving at consensus or compromise. Consensus is at the heart of our religious communio, while compromise is at the heart of our political system. Without civility, there can be neither.
There is an excellent series on PBS, “Call the Midwife,” about a community of Anglican nuns and lay nurses providing pre-natal and post-natal care in a poor section of East London in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In each episode truths are faced, many pleasant, some difficult to accept. But the women of Nonnatus House treat everyone with unfailing civility. The voiceovers by Vanessa Redgrave that frame each episode, express powerful insights into how communio is brought to birth by love. Each episode that I view gives me hope that the Holy Spirit will continue to bring to birth the Kingdom of God even in the unlikeliest of circumstances.
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
O, most blessed light divine, Shine within these hearts of thine, And our inmost being fill.
Where you are not, we have naught, Nothing good in deed or thought, Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour your dew; Wash the stains of guilt away.
Bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray.
Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, come.