The Holy Spirit Wants...

Solemnity of Pentecost

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.]. When it comes to the different Persons of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the one with whom most Catholics are probably least familiar.  We learn much about the Father through the Old Testament and from Jesus, who is the revelation of the Father.  Christ, while revealing the Father, also helps us to know Him better through the Gospels.  But then He ascends into heaven, and leaves us the Holy Spirit, who works in the Church.
    For our part, we are probably used to invoking the Holy Spirit when we have an instinct to do something or not do something.  And certainly, the Holy Spirit guides our actions, whether sought out or avoided.  But sometimes it’s also simply our instincts pushing us towards or away from something.  And do you ever notice that every group seems to claim the support of the Holy Spirit?  Both those who advocate teachings contrary to the faith, like women’s ordination, as well as those who hold to the faith revealed to us by Christ will argue from the authority of the Holy Spirit that their course of action is what God wants.  
    Some see in the Gospel according to John, as John and Peter run to the empty tomb at the instigation of Mary Magdalene, a distinction between the hierarchical nature of the Church (represented by Peter, our first pope) and the charismatic nature of the Church (represented by John, the one loved by the Lord).  John (charism) arrives at the tomb first, but waits for Peter (hierarchy) to go in.  Throughout the history of the Church, these two groups have oscillated back and forth for more influence.  The Second Vatican Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, states, “The Church, which the Spirit guides in the way of all truth and which He unifies in communion and in works of ministry, He both equips and directs with hierarchical and charismatic gifts.”  In other words, both the hierarchical and the charismatic are gifts of the Holy Spirit, all given for the salvation of souls.
    I mention this because the Holy Spirit is often invoked by some for pushing the Church to new realities, while others invoke the Holy Spirit as the one who brings order to chaos.  In reality, both are right: the Holy Spirit pushes us beyond our comfort zone, but also orders and unifies all of creation.  We see this in the Upper Room scene at Pentecost.  On the one hand, the Holy Spirit took those who probably knew only Aramaic, Hebrew, and possibly common Greek, to those who proclaimed the Gospel so that everyone present, from many different parts of the Roman Empire, could understand the proclamation of the Gospel in their own tongues.  The Holy Spirit pushed the disciples out of the comfort of the Upper Room, and eventually to lands as far as India to the east, down to North Africa and Egypt, over to Rome, and lands in-between.  It helped the Apostles discern that non-Jews could become members of the nascent Church without becoming Jewish and being circumcised.  
    On the other hand, the message that the disciples proclaimed was the one Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one message of salvation.  As the disciples traveled far and wide, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church expanded its influence, and began to rid the world of the worship of demons in the pagan religions.  The Holy Spirit united all those who wanted to follow the Lord to be united in faith and morals, as discerned by the Apostles and their successors.  
    Even before that, the Holy Spirit is the one who spoke through the prophets, who were often a bit…eccentric.  The prophets were often the outcasts of society, because they called society from its rejection of God back to fidelity.  The Holy Spirit inspired King David to dance with abandon before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought into Jerusalem, which dancing David’s wife Michal mocked because it made David look too much like the common people.
    But the Holy Spirit also took the primordial chaos and ordered it into light and darkness, land and sea, different forms of animals, and was given to our first parents to give them the breath of life.  The Holy Spirit guided sacred authors to compose literary works to communicate God’s saving will, and guided the bishops to choose which works were, in fact inspired by the Holy Spirit, and which were simply the works of man that also told stories that involved God.  
    In our own lives, too, the Holy Spirit often pushes us beyond our comfort zone.  He fills us to continue the proclamation of salvation through Christ.  He sometimes puts us in situations we never expected, sometimes even dangerous situations.  But, as our Advocate, He pleads our cause and gives us words to respond to our attackers, as He did for St. Stephen.  
    But as He pushes us to new realities, He does so with the continuity of what has come before.  The Holy Spirit deepens our understanding of what God desires for His people, but without contradicting what came before.  For example: the Holy Spirit has revealed that the Church is meant to be led by the Pope, the Vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter.  That is a truth that can never be rejected, without rejecting what the Holy Spirit has revealed.  At the same time, the Holy Spirit can guide the Pope to understand how to exercise that power in new ways.  The Holy Spirit has revealed that marriage is between one man and one woman for life.  That can never change.  But the Holy Spirit can give us new guidance on how to share that truth with those who have gone through a divorce, or those who struggle with same-sex attraction.  
    [Joshua and Halley: the Holy Spirit has led you here to this day when you will receive the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation.  You have come by different paths, but have come to this union of faith in what the Holy Spirit has revealed through the Church and her sacred teaching office.  The Holy Spirit will give you new ways to proclaim that one faith, and to witness to the life of Christ from this point on, and into the future, especially as you prepare for Holy Matrimony.  Be open to the Holy Spirit pushing you to spread the faith, but also stay faithful to that faith as revealed to us by God through His Church, which is still one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.]
    If we feel that the Holy Spirit is only keeping us in our “safe spaces,” then we are probably missing out on one aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit.  If we feel that the Holy Spirit is going against what has been taught infallibly before, then it’s not the Holy Spirit to whom we are listening.  Each of us will have different ways that the Holy Spirit operates in us.  No matter what, may we be open to the Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son is God, for ever and ever.  Amen. 

Truth Is

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Our first reading and Gospel focus on keys: the keys of the house of David and the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  We’re no strangers to the power of keys.  Just imagine (or remember, depending on the person) the terror that enters a person’s heart when he or she suddenly realizes that the keys are locked in the house, or the car, or are lost somewhere.  Or think about the real pain that is caused when a parent tells the teen that the privilege of having keys to the car is gone as a punishment for some bad behavior, or, when the tables are turned, when a child has to tell their parents that they no longer have the privilege of the keys and that they can no longer drive out of a concern of safety for the parents and for others. 

But keys are not simply taken away.  When keys are given, it’s a great experience of freedom.  Think about the joy that you had, or that your kids have, when you first get the keys to the car after you’ve gone through driver’s ed.  Think about the joy that comes when you’ve gone through what seems like a mountain of paperwork and you are finally handed the keys to your new home.  Keys can be a very uplifting aspect of our lives, not just a negative one.

In the first reading, we do get a more negative sense of the keys, because they are being taken away from Shebna, the master of the palace.  Earlier in this same chapter, the Lord condemns Shebna with being more concerned with monuments to his glory than with God’s own people.  And so God speaks through Isaiah to say, “‘I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open.’”  Eliakim becomes the new bearer of authority and power, because he has the keys to the House of David, the royal house.  Eliakim, and no longer Shebna, gets to decide who can enter the House of David, and who will remain outside.  He is the gatekeeper, now, to Shebna’s shame.  Shebna is like the young driver that just lost his driving privileges.

Statue of St. Peter near the
Sea of Galillee

In our Gospel, though, St. Peter is given the keys, which are not taken from another, but are given freely as a gift.  And this gift comes as a reward for the faith that Peter exhibits at this moment (although at others he doesn’t show such a great faith).  Jesus asks the disciples who others think He is.  It’s almost as if Jesus is posting, “Truth is…” to his disciples, except that Jesus wants to know what others think about Him, rather that posting what He thinks about others.  And when Peter, by the grace of God, is able to say the words, “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,’” Jesus responds to those words with even more powerful words, words that ring the interior base of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome: “‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.’” 

We lose the connection that existed in the original Aramaic that Jesus spoke, but which is still communicated in the Greek (in which the Gospel according to St. Matthew was first written) or even the Latin, which was copied by St. Jerome from the Greek.  In Latin we would hear, “Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram…”  We hear more clearly that our Lord, who gives Simon the new name of Peter, meaning a new identity that he has, just like Jacob was renamed Israel by God in the Old Testament, makes Peter the rock upon whom the Church is built.  Peter gains the special ministry to act not only in the person of Christ, but as Christ’s vicar on earth.  Peter is the Rock.  Petrus est petram. 

And while all the apostles, in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John, will receive the power to forgive sins through the words, “‘Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,’” Jesus says to Peter alone, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.’”  This unique authority is given to St. Peter alone, and is part of the basis for the Catholic teaching on the unique role of the Pope as Head of the Apostolic College (the bishops united as one), just as Peter is the Prince of the Apostles. 

This power and authority, really a service to the unity of the disciples of Christ, continues today through the Petrine Ministry of the pope.  The Pope, as successor of St. Peter, continues to hold the keys, allowing him, either by himself, or as the head of the college of bishops, to guide all of us in knowing how the teachings of Christ apply to today’s situations, letting some things in, and keeping others out.  Some may not like that the pope, as successor of St. Peter, has the power of the keys, but they’re not our keys!  The keys belong to Christ, and He bestowed them on Peter; not because he was the bravest, or the wisest, or the holiest.  But, Jesus knew that Peter was the one to receive them according to the plan of God.  The great news is that, if we stick with St. Peter and his successor, then we’re sticking with the guy who has the keys into the house that Jesus promised he had prepared for us, just like when we are young, if we stick with our parents, we’ll always be able to get into our house.

Pope Benedict XVI at the Mass of the Rings

More often than not we hear people nay-saying the pope.  Someone always has some kind of complaint about this or that homily, this or that teaching, what he wears, how he celebrates Mass, etc., etc.  Today I want to be clear to you: I love the pope.  I thank God now for Pope Benedict XVI, just as I thanked God years ago for Pope Bl. John Paul II.  I thank God for the pope’s leadership, his teachings, and all that he has done to guide the Church to further holiness, while he himself strives to be a saint.  I hope that you, too, will join me in praying for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as he fulfills his Petrine Ministry, and show your love and support for him, especially when he is under baseless attacks from others that we know.  Is Pope Benedict perfect?  Certainly not.  Neither was St. Peter.  Pope Benedict is, however, striving for perfection just like you and me.  But he’s our pope who has been given a special mission by Jesus to guide the Church into greater holiness.  And, after all, he has the keys!