Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

June 8, 2025
Collect of the Vigil
Villa Maria, Bronx
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

In the collect or opening prayer for Pentecost, we 1st acknowledge what God has done in “the paschal mystery,” which culminates today in the 50th day of Easter, i.e., on Pentecost, whose literal meaning is “50th.”  Then we pray that God’s grace may gather all the nations of the earth into a union of praise to God.

What has God done in the paschal mystery?  He has given his Son to us for the forgiveness of our sins and our reunion with him, adopting us into his divine family.  The Fathers of the Church liked to remind us that God became human in order that humans might become God.  Indeed, we make that prayer at every Mass during the preparation of the gifts as the priest prays silently as he pours water into wine:  “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

God carries out this program of the paschal mystery in 2 steps.  1st, Christ suffered, died, and rose, a lamb sacrificed to atone for our sins.  “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

2d, the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon us, the bond of unity between himself and the Son, and between them and us.  Our collects always end with an intercession thru Christ, “who lives and reigns with you [the Father] in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”  That “unity” is the 3-fold Trinity, and us too, the Church united by the Spirit, the unity of all Christ’s members to one another and to the Trinity.

The collect of this Mass asks that all “the scattered nations” and all “the confusion of many tongues” be made “into one great confession” of the Father’s name.  (In this context, “confession” means acknowledgement and praise.)  “Scattered” and “confusion” reference the confusion sown when humanity undertook to raise a great tower to the heavens, the infamous tower of Babel (see Gen 11:1-9), and the many tongues heard and understood when the Holy Spirit graced the apostles on Pentecost Sunday so that they could proclaim the Gospel to all nations (Acts 2:1-11).

The reading from the Church Fathers in the breviary for the day before Pentecost comes from an anonymous sermon that originated in Africa.  It speaks eloquently of this gift of speech:

“The disciples spoke in the language of every nation.  At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit:  whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue.  We must realize, dear brothers [and sisters], that this is the same Holy Spirit by whom love is poured out in our hearts.  It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world.  And as individual men [and women] who received the Holy Spirit in those days could speak in all kinds of tongues, so today the Church, united by the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.”

It’s God’s purpose that the Gospel reach everywhere and save everyone, uniting all of us as his children, members of the household of God—not as servants in the household, but as God’s beloved children.  The Holy Spirit overcomes the confusion wrought by our sins and gathers us, forgiven and redeemed, heirs with Christ to the kingdom of heaven.