Pentecost
In
the story of the Tower of Babel, the sacred author of Genesis tries to explain
how all the people of the earth at that time were speaking different
languages. The people try to build
a tower to be able to go up to God.
Instead, God makes them speak different languages, so that they cannot
complete the tower. The Solemnity
of Pentecost is the undoing of the confusion of Babel. St. Luke records for us in the Acts of
the Apostles that Jews from all over the world, who were in Jerusalem, heard
the apostles speaking to them in their native languages, languages that the
apostles did not know or speak minutes before the Spirit was given to them.
While it
is a work of God the Holy Spirit to allow the apostles to be able to speak to
the Jews from all across the world in their own varied native languages, the
story of the Tower of Babel, and the undoing of Babel at Pentecost, is about
something much greater than being able to speak many languages.
In
the story of the Tower of Babel, humanity tries to make itself equal with God,
to decide for itself what is right and wrong. And the result of this pride is that everyone starts
speaking differently so that no one is understood. Our society is still a culture of Babel.
We
are a culture that values having our own opinions on just about everything and we
often feel that our opinions are necessarily right, just as our neighbor feels
that his opinion is necessarily right.
The result is that we often talk past each other without any
understanding. Take, for example,
cable news stations like MSNBC, Fox News, or CNN. Each presents the same facts, more or less. But then those facts are pushed through
a particular filter by which that station views the world, their opinion about
how things should be, and we end up getting 3 different stories even though the
facts are the same.
This
is true also in the faith. More
and more people are deciding that their opinions about God, faith, and morality
are necessarily the right ones, and no one should be able to contradict what
they say, unless, of course, they want someone else’s opinion. Whether it’s on who Jesus is, how
marriage should be defined, women’s ordination, or contraception, or any other
major issue, we have become the judges of right and wrong. We are trying to build our own towers
to God to tell Him how He should be.
And the result is confusion as each person speaks past each other as they
share their opinions.
Pentecost
stands in stark contrast to this.
Rather than us trying to be on equal footing with God, Jesus sends the
Holy Spirit to the apostles, the Blessed Mother, and the disciples to lead them
into all truth, as Jesus says in the Gospel according to John, because the Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. He
is not the Spirit of Opinion. And
while the many languages that were explained by Babel are still present, each
person hears the truth, that Jesus is Lord and all that flows from who Jesus is,
from the lips of the disciples in his or her own language. No longer are opinions just being
tossed about, but the truth is delivered, and the truth is convincing.
This
gift of the Spirit of Truth did not end on Pentecost, as if it were a one-time
event. The Holy Spirit continues
to pour Himself out to the apostles and disciples in the Church. Through the successors of the apostles,
the bishops, in union with the successor of St. Peter, the Pope, the Spirit
fulfills Jesus’ promise to St. Peter that the gates of hell would never prevail
against the Church and that what the apostles would be inspired to hold bound
or loosed on earth would be held bound or loosed in heaven. This gift is called the Magisterium:
the bishops in union with the Pope, who teach, without error, on matters of
faith and morals, like on who Jesus is, marriage, ordination, and contraception.
But
the disciples, too, are gifted with the Holy Spirit, to be persevered in the
Truth. Vatican II, in the document
Lumen gentium, put it this way: “The
entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err
in matters of belief…when ‘from the Bishops down to the last of the lay
faithful’ they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. It is exercised under the guidance of
the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful obedience…” The lay faithful are guided by the
Spirit, and, under obedience to the Magisterium, are kept in the truth so that
what is believed about God, faith, and morals is not simply a matter of
opinion, but is protected by the Holy Spirit as true and right.
Does
this mean that the Church has every detail figured out? Certainly not. There are still prudential decisions to
apply the truth to everyday situations.
But these decisions should not simply be based upon opinions, as if we
decide what is right and wrong, but should be based upon the principles of
faith and morality which are united to the Spirit of Truth.
The
gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is a great gift of Jesus to His
Body, the Church, because it saves us from the endless babbling of opinions on
what should be believed and how one should live. There are so many voices that tell us that we should believe
this or do that because they know better.
Even some Christian ecclesial communities have started to reject the
parts of Scripture that do not fit modern “sensibilities.” In the midst of this babbling, we have
a sure guide in the Pope and the Bishops united with him who are protected from
preaching error in matters of faith and morals because of the gift of the Holy
Spirit. And the you, lay faithful
are also given the Spirit to lead you to believe and to hold on to what is
taught by the successors to the apostles.
Rather than being divided among our own opinions of what we think we should
believe and how we think we should live, let us be united in the Spirit of
Truth in the Church so that the Gospel may be proclaimed to every language
under heaven.