PENTECOST

I wonder how many men here would remember the answer if I suddenly said, ‘Introibo ad altare Dei.’ I say men, because this was the opening line of the old Latin Mass and, since girls were not allowed to be altar servers then, it’s highly unlikely that any of you the women here were ever initiated into the almost Masonic mysteries of what was known in those days as ‘the Latin,’ the answer in this case, whispered at the foot of the altar steps so that nobody could hear it, being ‘Ad Deum qui laetificat iuventutem meam.’ Or how about ‘Sursum Corda, a much easier example? More of you, I suspect would know that the answer to that one is ‘Habemus ad Dominum.’ Moving into the vernacular, however, the phrase from those bye-gone days that I would like to reflect on today was our response whenever a priest said the words; ‘Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and we shall be created;’ to which generations of Catholics replied, ‘And thou shalt renew the face of the earth.’ For as long as any of us here can remember, and for years before that, we have been asking the Spirit to renew the face of the earth. And so the question I am inviting you to reflect on today is this. Is anybody listening? Is there anybody out there?

Well, speaking for myself, I know there is. And yet, although I know it, in terms of certainty I am only 95% rather than 100% sure. And the reason for this, as I have said so often, is that, with faith, there is always an element of not knowing which reflects the fact that 1. God always leaves us free to believe or not believe and 2. There are always things about the real God, as opposed to the gods we create for ourselves, which are unknowable and beyond the power of human words to describe. Every day, wherever I look, in all that happens, I see the Spirit of God renewing the face of the earth. But even as I do, I have to keep choosing to believe it and trust that it is true. I cannot prove it and often when I speak to people about the presence of God in everything that happens I see a familiar look come over their faces and I know they don’t really understand what I am talking about.And, ultimately, I have no answer to that except to invite you to listen again to what I have to say and then ask yourself a very simple question. Do I believe that? For me, the evidence is everywhere: in the history of the Church, in everything that goes on in the world, in the lives of those I meet and, in my own personal experience. But what you believe about it all is something you must decide for yourself. So let’s look at each of the four areas I have just mentioned.

For me, the whole history of the Church which many of us have looked at more closely in recent months, is the most amazing and wonderful story of God’s renewing Spirit at work. Yes, terrible things have gone on. Horrific things were done in the Church’s name. Some of the Popes were an utter disgrace. And in our own time we have the desperately sad story of abuse in the Church highlighted again last week by that report on the appalling cruelty and sexual abuse which went on for years and years in schools and children’s homes in Ireland. And yet, the Church is so much more than that. And its more than that because, deep within everything that has happened, the Spirit of Pentecost has been at work. The God whom the Old Testament called a restorer of ruined buildings, has never stopped doing his work and the result is that we are still here. And you know what gave me the most joy about the history course? The number of people who told me afterwards that seeing the weakness of the Church exposed so honestly and so openly for all to see, without any attempt to hide what had happened, had made them love that Church more, not less.

And its the same with the world. Deep within everything that goes on in this very flawed world of ours, God is at work, drawing us to himself. In recent months, we have seen the crisis in the banking and financial system and now we hear almost nothing else but stories of MPs and their expenses. And yet, deep within all of that, for those who have eyes to see, something truly wonderful is happening. At last the goddess money, whom we have worshipped for so long, is being exposed for the fraud she is. Her feet of clay are there for all to see and people everywhere have been shocked by the sheer extent of the greed and self-serving irresponsibility which has been going on everywhere. And as this has happened, slowly but surely a window of opportunity has opened up for us. Whether we take advantage of it or not, only time will tell. History is littered with windows of opportunity which came to nothing and this may well happen again now. But the Spirit of Pentecost never gives up. The restorer of ruined buildings is never at rest, and all around us, if we take the trouble to look, there are green shoots of moral and spiritual recovery. Only a couple of days ago, an article in the Guardian, typical of many which have popped up all over the place in recent months, spoke of how the current crisis is not the work of bankers or politicians but the result of the selfish, materialistic pursuit of pleasure through sel-indulgence which is at the root of our whole culture. It speaks of the bankruptcy of our whole economic system and ends by quoting Franklin Roosevelt who, in his first inaugural address as President of the United States famously said that it was time to drive the money-changers from the temple. And in this as in so much more, lots of it in the ordinary daily events of my own life, I see and experience the renewing Spirit of Pentecost at work.

But, of course, I could be completely mistaken. Maybe I am just imagining it. Maybe I am making it all up because it is what I want to believe. Maybe all these things have nothing to do with God. Maybe there is no God. Maybe the events of history are purely random, with no direction, no purpose and certainly no Holy Spirit working deep within them to bring about the creator’s dream for all that he has made. But that is not what I believe.

What matters more, of course, is what you believe.


BIDDING PRAYERS


The Gospel cannot be partly true, half true or a little bit true. It is either the most important truth to emerge in human history or the greatest deception ever inflicted on the world. If it is the first, then it deserves our complete commitment. If it is the second, then we should have nothing to do with it except work to remove every trace of it from society. And so, on this feast of Pentecost, we pray for the grace to decide one way or the other which it is and then live out of that decision.............Lord hear us

If Pentecost is true, then, as a men and women led by the Spirit, we are called to be a people deeply committed to the world. At the heart of today’s feast is the command of Jesus to reach out to all nations, to break down the barriers that separate people from one another and work for the coming of God’s kingdom where there is no more distinction between Jew and Greek, male and female, slave and free man. And so we pray for the generosity of spirit we need to think in this way....................Lord hear us

In the second reading today, St Paul speaks of how there are a variety of gifts, all from the same Spirit. The particular way these gifts are given to us, he says, is for a good purpose. No two of us are the same and yet the Spirit lives and moves in each of us. And so we pray for a deep sense of this truth. We pray, especially, for those whose self-image is so low that they cannot bring themselves to believe it, leaving the wider community deprived of something only they can give.....................Lord hear us

We heard, today, how the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. But St John is talking about more than physical doors. He is talking about closed minds which refuse to admit the truth, closed eyes which refuse to see the truth and closed ears which refuse to hear the truth. At the root of this is fear: fear of where the truth will lead and what it will mean to open up the doors of our minds and hearts. And so we ask God to lead us beyond this fear...........Lord hear us

The phrase ‘reading the signs of the times’ has been fundamental to the Church’s thinking for the last fifty years. Coined by Pope John XXIII when he called the Second Vatican Council, it speaks of the need to examine and sift through everything that goes on in the world to discern how the Spirit is moving in and through the events of history. And so we ask God to teach us and guide us as we try to do this here in St Matthew’s........Lord hear us

From a faith perspective, everything that happens in the world is an opportunity to be in touch with the movement of God and respond to it. Many, if not most of these opportunities, are squandered. History is one long story of opportunities lost. But God never gives up. Every new situation provides us with a whole new set of them, and we pray that the world will not squander the opportunity for serious reflection and radical long-term change offered by the current financial crisis.......Lord hear us