May 31, 2020
Acts 2: 1-111 Cor 12: 3-7, 12-13
Provincial House, New Rochelle, livestreamed
INTRODUCTION TO MASS
Altho churches in some dioceses have been reopening in recent days, that’s not so in New York, and we continue to welcome everyone to our Mass at the Salesian Provincial Center and Salesian High School in New Rochelle. We continue to pray for you, your families, health care providers, first responders, and providers of essential services. We pray for the sick, those who’ve lost their jobs, those who are hungry. We pray for the more than 103,000 who have perished in our country and the hundreds of thousands who have died everywhere else during this Covid-19 pandemic. By God’s grace and our own prudence, may it end soon.
Today we celebrate Pentecost, the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church gathered in prayer in the Upper Room. We reflect on the vocation that the Spirit gave each of us at Baptism and Confirmation to continue Jesus’ work. As the Lord renews us by his grace, we pray that thru us he will renew humanity.
Let us call to mind our sins.
Lord Jesus, you lavish your Spirit upon us: Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, your Spirit gives us strength and courage: Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you send us into the world with the Good News of salvation: Lord, have mercy.
HOMILY
If you take out a dollar bill, you’ll find on its reverse side the Great Seal of the U.S. The seal has several Latin inscriptions that were important to our Founding Fathers’ understanding of the new nation they’d just created. One of those inscriptions, emblazoned on the ribbon around the eagle’s head, is E pluribus unum, which means, “Out of many, one.” You might need a magnifying glass to read it. For many years it was the U.S.’ unofficial motto. (For the record, the official motto, since 1956, is “In God we trust.”
“Out of many, one.” Many what? It might mean the many states, 13 of them, that came together to form one nation based on common principles, ideals, laws, and purpose. It might mean the many national groups—English, Scottish, Irish, German, French, Dutch—that made up most of the people of the new nation, fought for its establishment, and subscribed to its founding principles. To our shame, one group also comprised of many ethnic peoples was long excluded from national participation, even tho numerically and economically they were very significant, namely, those of African heritage. We have witnessed in the last week that our national shame has not been entirely cleansed.
“Out of many, one” also describes what we celebrate today. 120 disciples of Jesus were gathered in the Upper Room, and on them the fire and the wind of the Holy Spirit descended and settled, fusing them into one confident, vigorous Church ready to proclaim the redemption that Jesus Christ has won for us. “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Cor 12:4), St. Paul teaches. “As a body is one tho it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, tho many, are one body, so also Christ” (1 Cor 12:12).
“Out of many, one.” The account in the Acts of the Apostles lists 15 ethnic groups, representing most of the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and Rome itself, all of them hearing the preaching of the apostles in their own native languages. It must have been what Ellis Island sounded like at the turn of the last century every time an immigrant ship arrived from Hamburg, Le Havre, or Liverpool—only then no one, not even the immigration officials, understood much, which is why so many immigrants had their names changed when they registered.
“Out of many, one.” The peoples of many tongues who passed thru Ellis Island and other ports of entry—San Francisco, Brownsville, Boston, and dozens of others—eventually learned one tongue that helps unite Americans into one people. The book of Genesis tells the famous story of the tower of Babel (11:1-9). “The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words,” we’re told, until their pride led them to challenge the place of God in heaven, and God thwarted their pride by dividing their languages so that they could no longer speak to or understand each other. Out of one, many! -- the opposite of our American experience.
St. Cyril of Alexandria early in the 5th century wrote: “With regard to our unity in the Spirit, we may say … that all of us who have received one and the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, are united intimately, both with one another and with God. Taken separately, we are many, and Christ sends the Spirit, who is both the Father’s Spirit and his own, to dwell in each of us. Yet that Spirit, being one and indivisible, gathers together those who are distinct from each other as individuals, and causes them all to be seen as a unity in himself.”[1]
So today in God’s Kingdom there is no distinction of class—the CEO and the day laborer are one; black and white, brown and red, all are one in Christ; Anglo and Latino, Asian and African, all are one—joined to Christ by the Holy Spirit, bond of love.
“Out of many, one.” Sin, pride, and ambition separated humanity from God. The Holy Spirit brings us back to God, incorporates us thru Christ into the life of the Holy Trinity. St. Cyril said as much: “all of us who have received one and the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, are united intimately, both with one another and with God.” The presence of the Spirit makes us many sinners into saints, one holy people, one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from thy celestial home shed a ray of light divine.
O most blessed Light divine, shine within these hearts of thine, and our inmost being fill!
Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour thy dew; wash the stains of guilt away. (from the Sequence)
Amen!
BEFORE THE CREED
On this last day of the Easter season, we remember our baptismal commitment, which we’ve renewed every Sunday. We hope that all those who were looking toward Baptism at the Easter Vigil will realize their hope soon and be most firmly united with Christ our Savior. Now we renew our profession of faith using the Church’s ancient baptismal Creed, the Apostles’ Creed.
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