“Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
This prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper reflects not only the time of our Lord but our time as well. One might say that this insight of Jesus is true at every point in history. The world with its glamour, opposing forces, and thirst for blood, always stands in opposition to the world of faith and knowledge of God. While different points of history have seen various levels of opposition, and even periods of apparent cooperation, the will of the world is always in opposition to the Kingdom of God.
This is often a hard lesson for us. Americans tend to be very much attached to the world – not just to worldliness but to the world itself. Yes, we are materialistic; yes, we over consume on everything – we consume a disproportionate level of the world’s resources, and are skeptical that there are implications to the burning of fossil fuels or the disposal of wastes. But it is not specifically that sense of the world that Jesus is challenging. It is the idolatry of the world that he is drawing our focus to. The intense and radical commitment to nationalism and national privilege is a not unknown force within the American consciousness. The presupposition that American values are Christian values, and that Christian values are American values places us in a false and problematic situation. There is a real distinction between the two, and that chasm is getting ever deeper. We would like to think that being a good citizen means being a good Christian; that there is no dichotomy between them. In the idealized memories of a past that never was this is deemed to be true and we lament the loss of what never was. This, too, is dangerous, as it means that we are working for the wrong things.
The Christian community is deeply fragmented in many sectors. Some Christians view the world as a prophetic voice that challenges the church to growth. We see this tendency as some Christians support same sex marriage, abortion, torture, or the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The history of both the Jewish and Christian traditions argue against that tendency – the prophets of God challenge the world, calling the world to a deeper sense of justice and a response to the call of the Lord.
Fundamentally our response to the world must reflect our relationship with one another as grounded in love. Even if the world hates us we cannot hate the world.
Sometime in the second century an unknown disciple wrote a letter to a man named Diognetus where he explained the stance of the Christian in the world. In part he states:
To sum up all in one word— what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. “
This is our challenge, one which given the current nature of public discourse, seems even more daunting than it did even for the early Church.
May 15 – The Holy Spirit upsets the balance
It should not be a surprise that God likes to throw us off balance. Popular wisdom says that if you want to make God laugh, just tell God what your plans. We see this reality expressed throughout the Bible, and in the lives of so many of the saints. Indeed, if we were really honest with ourselves, we all could make this same statement in our own lives. Even one small decision or event can change the entire direction of our lives. Perhaps the clearest example of this is found in the Solemnity which we celebrate this weekend: Pentecost.
The disciples and other associates of Jesus are assembled together in the room where they have been staying since Passover. The past 43 days have been filled with turmoil, confusion, bitter moments and times of great joy. In clear though various ways, they experienced the Resurrected Christ over a period of 40 days. Again, in some dramatic way they were aware of Jesus taking his final leave from them in the Ascension. We expect that the disciples experienced some real sense of emptiness. Jesus is gone now but not really, and he is coming back, but they didn’t know when. This period of days between the Ascension and the Pentecost must have taken them back to the emotional chasm of Good Friday. Jesus is gone – again!
This morning they are greatly disturbed, not in a negative way, but in a way that they never imagined or expected. They are overwhelmed with the power of the Holy Spirit. How exactly they experienced what they later reflected upon in their preaching and writing we do not know. Other than the account in the Acts about the earthquake and the tongues of fire, we know nothing else of what happened in that room. What is left for us is their understanding of those experiences. That Jesus promised them that they would receive the Paraclete is certain. It is a promise that we have seen through the instructions of Jesus at the Last Supper. As with the resurrection, they did not exactly know what to expect. The word paraclete (rendered advocate in Latin) basically means a lawyer; someone who will speak on their behalf before the authorities. If the disciples were expecting a knock at a door what they got was the door literally being blown off its hinges.
While Jesus, through his teaching, the Paschal events, and instruction to the disciples after the resurrection had prepared the disciples for what was to come, they cannot comprehend the depth of their mission until they are overpowered by the Holy Spirit.
Overwhelming it was! These disciples have the sudden courage to leave their rooms and go even to the Temple precincts to proclaim that Jesus is Lord, is itself testimony to the dramatic action which has happened in their lives.
What the apostles quickly understood has remained for us a mystery: that we cannot contain the Holy Spirit. While the apostles did not fully grasp what they had gotten themselves into, the Holy Spirit guided and directed them in ways they could never imagine. The Holy Spirit’s fire-power overwhelmed their thoughts and actions. The curious crowd understood less about the Holy Spirit than did they, yet these people quickly saw the fruit of the work: they understood in ways that to them seemed unimaginable – each heard in their native language; this lead 3,000 of them to be baptized that day.
The Spirit continues to speak to us – in our own language – in so many varied ways. All we need now it to let go and allow the Holy Spirit to set us to the work which has been prepared for us.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.