by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n Ordinarily I do not launch into preaching On the other hand, humor\u2019s ability to surprise, In that spirit I recall the purportedly true story of Pete Flaherty, Sometimes humor can pull us up short and change our perspectives. Sometimes those adjusted viewpoints during this global outbreak But sometimes our altered points of view are about larger issues In these topsy-turvy times, On the other hand, a global health crisis While we are very familiar with today\u2019s readings Some elements that I previously never gave a second thought These pandemic-induced epiphanies have prompted me Interestingly enough, most of those gifts For example there is a distinctive gift of speech in the 1st reading, The second reading doesn\u2019t so much innumerate When it comes to Jesus, the key gifts of his spirit in today\u2019s gospel Reimaging these Pentecost charisms as framed by today\u2019s readings In challenging times one needs to negotiate understanding Work for the common good is particularly taxing Forgiveness is certainly in short supply And who could deny that there is a high demand for peaceability My confirmation preparation, Some have even suggested One prophetic preacher contributes to that adjustment He writes:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n absent the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples could go back to their previous careers as fishermen. I can almost hearing James and John explaining, “Sure, it was a wild and crazy three-year-ride, and that Jesus sure was a heck of a guy, but maybe we needed to get that out of our system before we could settle down and take on Dad’s business.” Once the Spirit comes, however, that return to normalcy is no longer an option. They will now be propelled throughout the ancient world to herald the unlikely message that God has redeemed the world through an itinerant preacher from the backwaters of Palestine who was executed for treason and blasphemy.<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n How\u2019s that for revisiting Pentecost?<\/p>\n Now you might be thinking to yourself. Isn\u2019t today supposed to be a celebration But maybe there is another way to consider The famed 5th century theologian and preacher, John Chrysostom, Chrysostom recalled the passion narrative reporting In his catechetical instruction to those about to be baptized, That may not be your favorite happy thought about being church But we are sustained through it all by God\u2019s unrelenting Spirit, It is a challenging step, in challenging times. She writes:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s one thing To bear this blessing, Bring your sorrow. I will not tell you But in the place or opens your ear this is the reason for this struggle, May we embrace the ache that opens us <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.workingpreacher.org\/craft.aspx?post=1575<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Holy Spirit does not come to solve our problems, but to create them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":52254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,3294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-ars-praedicandi"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nwith a joke or other form of humor
\nas it could appear to be a cheap way
\nto grab folk\u2019s attention before they doze off.<\/p>\n
\nakin to the power of the unexpected
\npacked into those gospel parables,
\ncan startle, even unsettle us
\nand open a door to new revelations.<\/p>\n
\nmayor of Pittsburgh in the mid 1970\u2019s.
\nDuring his tenure as mayor he was once inspecting
\na construction site with his wife Nancy.
\nDuring that visit a construction worker called out to Nancy
\nasking if she remembered him from high school.
\nPete stood back while his wife and the worker chatted.
\nHe didn\u2019t say anything until they got into the car.
\nThen Pete wanted to know who the guy was,
\nhow long they dated
\nand why they broke up.
\nEventually he concluded, \u201cYou know, Nancy, it\u2019s a good thing
\nyou married me; otherwise you\u2019d just be married
\nTo a construction worker.\u201d
\nNancy rejoined, \u201cNo Pete, it\u2019s a good thing you married me;
\notherwise he\u2019d be mayor of Pittsburgh.\u201d
\nIt all depends on your perspective.<\/p>\n
\nAnd as we have all come to realize,
\nsomething that is no laughing matter, like a pandemic,
\ncan do the same.<\/p>\n
\nare about small things,
\nlike how long we should be washing our hands.
\nOver the past two months I don\u2019t think
\nthat I\u2019ve ever sung \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to myself so much
\nas during that increasingly frequent sanitizing ritual.<\/p>\n
\nlike the balance between personal freedom
\nand the common good,
\nor what it means to be counted as part
\nof a vulnerable population,
\nor how often underappreciated workers
\nlike bus drivers and grocery clerks
\nare actually deemed essential.<\/p>\n
\nsome may presume that although a pandemic
\ncan render a church building vacant on such a great feast,
\nit won\u2019t necessarily change that feast.<\/p>\n
\nthat prevents the faithful from even gathering
\nfor this closing festival of the Easter season
\nmight provide startling lenses
\nfor rethinking Pentecost in these perilous times.<\/p>\n
\nrepeated year after year on this annual festival,
\nthey read differently for me in the current moment.<\/p>\n
\nnow show up on my virus-wary radar:
\nLike the disciples gathered together in one place.
\nSounds like an illegal gathering to me,
\nwith folk not practicing social distancing.
\nAnd then there is Jesus intentionally \u201cbreathing\u201d on the disciples
\nin that Gospel reading.
\nNow I know it\u2019s the Risen Lord
\nand he is not an asymptomatic carrier.
\nBut these readings,
\nwith their references to wind and breath and body,
\nin an environment obsessed with airborne pathogens
\nand ventilators
\nand a deeply wounded social body
\nprovoke unusual responses in me.<\/p>\n
\nto reflect on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
\nThose of us of a certain age
\nHad to memorize a classic enumeration of those gifts
\nbefore we could be confirmed.
\nRemember? There were 7 of them:
\nwisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety,
\nand fear of the Lord.<\/p>\n
\nare not featured in today\u2019s liturgy.
\nNow while it is true that the first reading presumes
\nthat those gifted with the spirit and speaking boldly
\nreceived a good dose of fortitude from that heavenly breeze,
\nand although today\u2019s preface that we will soon pray
\ndoes note that the spirit opens all
\nto the knowledge of God,
\nthe readings seem populated with gifts
\ndifferent from the tradition seven.<\/p>\n
\nand the remarkable ability to speak across language barriers
\nand still be perfectly understood.<\/p>\n
\nthe gifts of the Spirit
\nas it clearly notes
\nthat they are intended for the common good –
\nan aspect of spiritual charisms unexplored
\nin my confirmation preparation.<\/p>\n
\nappear to be peace and reconciliation.<\/p>\n
\nsuggests that maybe the gifts of the spirit
\nhave a particular role to play in times of adversity.<\/p>\n
\nwith those who may not speak our language
\nor share our social, political, or religious thoughts.<\/p>\n
\nin a time when some people\u2019s assertion of individual rights
\nactually jeopardizes the health of families and communities.<\/p>\n
\nwhen acrimony and greed are so rampant.<\/p>\n
\nin our homes, on our streets, and in our world
\nwhen family pressures are mounting,
\nunemployment is skyrocketing,
\nand international collaboration is waning?<\/p>\n
\nadmittedly from a long time ago in a galaxy far away,
\ngave me the impression that the gifts of the spirit
\nwere personal benefits intended to help me grow.<\/p>\n
\nthat if we had the proper infusion of the Holy Spirit
\nwe wouldn\u2019t need ventilators or face masks
\nor even a vaccine.
\nThat view of the Spirit and this feast may need some adjustment.<\/p>\n
\nby suggesting that the Holy Spirit
\ndoes not come to solve our problems, but to create them!<\/p>\n
\nIf Pentecost is about the gifts of the spirit
\nand if those gifts cause problems,
\nlet\u2019s look for another Spirit \u2026. or at least another feast.<\/p>\n
\nof the birth of the church?
\nA kind of ecclesial happy birthday party?
\nSo who invites a guest who brings gifts
\nof dilemmas and problems to such a gathering?
\nEspecially if the guest list is limited to 10!
\nScratch \u2018em from the list and find a jollier replacement!<\/p>\n
\nthe festival of the Church\u2019s birth and
\nthe way to deploy spirit gifts
\nfor the continued birthing of Christ\u2019s presence
\ninto the world.<\/p>\n
\ncalculated the birth of the church differently.
\nRather than placing it on Pentecost,
\nhe located it on Good Friday, on Golgotha, on the cross<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nthat after Jesus had died, one of the soldiers
\npierced His side with a lance
\nand immediately blood and water flowed out (Jn 19:34).<\/p>\n
\nhe suggested that the blood and water
\nsymbolized Eucharist and baptism,
\nthe sacraments that birth new Christians.
\nAnd so he concludes that the church itself
\nwas born from the side of Christ,
\nand that we fashion a church from blood and water.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBut it is undeniable that our very existence
\nwas forged through crucifixion and death,
\nthat over the centuries we have endured
\npersecution and diminishment,
\nmartyrdom and abuse.<\/p>\n
\nthat holy hurricane and sacred fire,
\nthat like a summer sun we hope will scorch a hidden virus,
\nwill burn away greed and small-mindedness,
\ndivisions and political polarizations,
\nme-first attitudes and a diminishment of the common good,
\nand in the process opens us to the that divine inferno of love
\nthat blazes only in honoring of God and neighbor.<\/p>\n
\nSo we heed the poet\u2019s warning as we pray for blessing,
\nfor God\u2019s disruptive Spirit,
\nin these unsettling times.<\/p>\n\n
\nyou must understand
\nabout this blessing:
\nit is not
\nfor you alone\u2026.<\/p>\n
\nyou must first take yourself
\nto a place where everyone
\ndoes not look like you
\nor think like you,
\na place where they do not
\nbelieve precisely as you believe,
\nwhere their thoughts
\nand ideas and gestures
\nare not exact echoes
\nof your own.<\/p>\n
\nBring your grief.
\nBring your fear.
\nBring your weariness,
\nyour pain,
\nyour disgust at how broken
\nthe world is,
\nhow fractured,
\nhow fragmented
\nby its fighting,
\nits wars,
\nits hungers,
\nits penchant for power,
\nits ceaseless repetition
\nof the history it refuses
\nto rise above.<\/p>\n
\nthis blessing will fix all that.<\/p>\n
\nwhere you have gathered,
\nwait.
\nWatch.
\nListen.
\nLay aside your inability
\nto be surprised,
\nyour resistance to what you
\ndo not understand.
\nSee then whether this blessing
\nturns to flame on your tongue,
\nsets you to speaking
\nwhat you cannot fathom<\/p>\n
\nto a language
\nbeyond your imagining
\nthat comes as a knowing
\nin your bones,
\na clarity
\nin your heart
\nthat tells you<\/p>\n
\nwe were made:
\nfor this ache
\nthat finally opens us,<\/p>\n
\nthis grace
\nthat scorches us
\ntoward one another
\nand into
\nthe blazing day.<\/p>\n(Jan Richardson, A Blessing for Pentecost Day<\/a>)<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nThe grace that scorches us
\nThe blazing day that renews us as we pray
\nSend us, Send us, Send us your spirit Oh Lord.<\/p>\n
\n