In order to understand more fully what the Pentecost experience means, as told us in our 1st Reading, (Acts 2:1-11) we need remember who “They” – the people who had this wonderful experience – actually were. You can see and hear me give this Homily on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf0QnuHnwAM
They were not, as some might think, a select group of male apostles, just standing around waiting for something to happen to them. No! What we read a few lines before today’s Reading is that they were engaged 1) In “Continuous prayer” and 2) They were not alone, for this continuous prayer took place - let me quote - “With several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (Acts 1:14)
The mention of Mary, Our Lady, is surely significant here. It reminds us that they already saw themselves not just as followers of Jesus, but as members of his family. I was struck with what Fr Timothy Radcliffe says of Our Lady in one of his excellent books. He points out that if we have a friend, we know how important that friendship is when he or she invites us home to meet his or her mother. Right from the beginning, following the words of Jesus to John from the cross, the Church took Mary as our mother, and thus affirmed in a very real way that we are not a collection of individuals following Jesus as best we can by ourselves, but a real family tied to one another by bonds of love, and committed to serving and supporting one another in whatever way we can. This is particularly worth remembering if we meet non-Catholic Christians who say that by honouring Mary, and asking for her prayers, we are distancing ourselves from Jesus. In fact the opposite is the truth; for as we honour Mary we grow closer to her son. Our relationship with him is not an individual thing, but something we share together by being one with one another under the loving eyes of our holy Mother.
Don’t forget that Mary was probably with Jesus and his followers more often than is mentioned in the Gospels. What is important is that at two crucial moments, the death of Jesus on the Cross, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, it is made clear that she was present. But notice of course, that as in other places in the Gospel story, she wasn’t the only woman present; for here, as in the Resurrection stories, some of the other women who followed Jesus also play a prominent part. And there is mention of others too; for “his brothers” either means members of his extended family, in effect his cousins, or simply others who followed him, who though not apostles were nonetheless part of the family.
So the Pentecost experience is given to a family, a community at prayer, with one mother looking over us; and that takes us on to our 2nd Reading today. (1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13) Here St Paul makes very clear how the Holy Spirit draws us so close to one another that he can describe us as like “A human body” which “Though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body.” Earlier in this his First Letter to the Corinthians (3:9) he had described us as “Co-workers in God’s service… God’s field, God’s building.”; and we get that idea developed in the 1st Letter of St Peter (2:5) where we are described “As living stones…. being built into a spiritual house.”
These are all fine words, fine ideas, but how do they play out in our ordinary experience as members of the Church today? In order to make us think more deeply about this, I want us to think for a moment about what happens if, when we are gathered as a family, a community, for Mass one Sunday, the priest fails to turn up. What do we do? Maybe we wait for ten minutes assuming he is late or has overslept.? Perhaps someone goes and knocks on his door and there is no answer. Then what.? Well I’m afraid I know what some people would do. They would say “Oh well, no Mass today” and get up and go home. But I hope you know what should happen. One of those who normally reads should go up to the Lectern and lead you in the first half of the Mass up to and including the Bidding Prayers. The Hymns should be sung, the Readings read, but of course unless there was someone competent to do so there would probably not be a Homily – unless of course someone had one on their Mobile phone sent to them via the Internet. After the Bidding Prayers, the Liturgy would conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Devotions such as the Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God) offered to Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle. The Liturgy would then finish with the last Hymn, unless perhaps there were enough hosts in the Tabernacle for one of the Eucharistic Ministers to distribute Holy Communion.
The question you need to ask yourself is would that happen in your Church, and if not why not? Are we so dependent on the presence of a priest that we cannot be the Church unless a priest is present? We need to remember that thousands of Catholics in Africa and South America and Asia who gather to pray and sing like this Sunday by Sunday, only see a priest to say Mass for them every few months. I know one parish in Malawi where there are some 20 what are called Out-stations that function like this, and where the Church is growing and flourishing in a way that might startle us. This priest I know via Twitter casually mentioned that he had 100 Baptisms on Easter Sunday !
But what would happen in your Church if there was no priest? Would those who have cars, and the time, drive off to places where there was a priest saying Mass, as if the Holy Spirit is only given to priests? And if they did, if they deserted those who could not manage the journey, what would it say of their sense of being a community, a family, like those who gathered in continuous prayer on the Day of Pentecost. No, our faith is a communal thing. We do not ask for Mary’s prayers, or the prayers of some saint, because she or they are our favourite, or because it makes us feel comfortable; we ask for them because we are a community, a family. That is why we must always be asking ourselves what can I do to make my Church more like that gathered family at the first Pentecost.
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