[Salvation]

A Glass of Water on the Altar

Pastor’s Column

Pentecost Sunday

June 12, 2011

 

          Let’s suppose for a moment that I have placed a glass of water on our altar.  What might your first reaction to this glass sitting there be? That it should not be there!  As a matter of fact, the altar is a holy place.  It is the place where the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove during the Eucharistic prayer and changes ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This same Spirit flows out like water to you, the body of Christ, when you look on him or adore him, believe in him, and then consume him, and he becomes like fire within you. 

          All of what I have just described that God is doing is invisible.  This is why not everyone on earth believes what we believe!  But still we are left with a glass of water on the altar.  Actually, this glass of water tells us a lot about why God chooses to remain invisible to our bodily eyes (this analogy is taken from the words of Pope Benedict XVI).  There is no doubt that there is a glass of water on the altar.  It is a simple fact.  So what’s the point?

          God is not going to plop himself down -- on the altar – or in this world –- or in our lives – like this glass of water, because this would completely take away our freedom to choose, and that is exactly what we are here to do.  Life is just one little choice after the other, ending in that final choice for or against God at the end of our lives.  But if God made his actions so obvious that we could not avoid knowing he really exists, like you could not help but see the glass is a reality, then we would no longer be free to say no to God either.

          This explains why the Lord, at present, appears to be hidden, though he is in fact very real.  His Holy Spirit really will descend like a dove on this altar; he really will flow like water out from here into your hearts; he really will blow like the wind in the words of scripture; he wishes to put a fire in your heart.  But we must want this; we must ask for the gift of faith; we are free to reject these gifts.  He will almost never make himself so obvious in YOUR life or OUR church or THIS world that we have NO CHOICE but to accept him!

          You and I are like a glass of water on the altar.  You are the glass and the Holy Spirit is the water.  We are a vessel that God keeps trying to mold and expand and shape all our lives.  He does this through suffering; through experiences; through the scriptures; through the church; through our service to each other, and in many other ways.   At the moment of death, the size of this glass -- your soul -- will be set forever.  Then God will perfect the glass and fill it in heaven.  But we will not all have the same size of glass (though we will all be as full as we are able to be), and that is why it is so important to try to cooperate with the Holy Spirit now during this brief life, once we understand what he is trying to do.  The level of spiritual maturity that we have reached at the moment of death is the level that we shall be perfected at for all eternity.  The Holy Spirit may not be as obvious as this glass of water is on the altar, but he is no less real.  

                                                                                Father Gary

[Salvation]

Pentecost: Our Exposive God

Nasa: suface of the Sun

Acts 2: 1-11
1 Cor 12: 3b-7,12-13  http://www.usccb.org/nab/061211b.shtml
John 20: 19-23

Now and then we see pictures of large hotels, old hospitals, many storied parking garages, or tall unsightly smoke stacks rigged with explosive charges top to bottom. At the count of “3-2-1” the structure explodes in a deafening boom and crashes to the ground in a cloud of dust and debris. What was formerly a grand edifice is now a pile of rubble so that something new and more imposing or efficient can be built in its place. At one time it might have been difficult to imagine that this hotel or tall tower or freeway bridge could be replaced. But through the skills of engineers and more intricate building plans something better, sturdier, more beautiful and useful now takes its place.

This weekend we celebrate an explosion of sorts; a release of divine power that enters with great fanfare. The old has been replaced by a new birth; a fresh but ever present power of God is released on the world. We hear in the first reading, “Suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind . . . then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them . . .” (Acts 2: 2-3). The Apostles are filled with this blast of power from heaven as the Holy Spirit is made present to them in wind and fire. This Spirit, whose breath was present at the creation of the world, now takes a specific role as the guide and protector of the Church universal.

Like the sometime gawkers at the destruction of a building, the crowds outside the room where the Apostles were gathered, heard the sound of the wind and they were “astounded and in amazement . . .” This show of divine power is only to be made more wondrous as the Apostles speak in “different tongues” and the international crowd outside hears them, “in his native language . . .” God powerfully expands his presence in the world so the new Church may be built upon the foundation of ancient faith. Jesus’ mission expands outward and the age of the Spirit is inaugurated.

By contrast this show of divine fire from above takes a more gentle form in the Gospel. Jesus appears to his Apostles through locked doors of the room where the disciples were barred shut in fear. Here, there is no wind, fire or ecstatic speech. There is only the gentle word of the risen Christ, “’Peace . . . As the Father has sent me, so I send you’ . . . he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven . . . whose sins you retain are retained.” (Jn 20: 19-23).

Here the presence of the Spirit is shown not through impressive special effects but rather through the warm breath of the living Christ. Through the presence of Peace which takes away the fear of the disciples and offers the healing power of forgiveness. The command to forgive, to reconcile and to heal is given to these men as the core of the message of Christ. That mission, that Spirit of hope is to be taken beyond the confines of their hide-out to “the ends of the earth.”

So, Pentecost is the beginning of a new perspective – from a small point to an expansive vision for all humankind in Christ. It is a truly “Catholic” moment for the Christian Church because of its universal and inclusive implications. From Jerusalem Jesus sent his missionaries out to the larger world and since that moment, the sending has never stopped. Each generation carries the torch like Olympic runners who pass off the fire to the next runner. Today's challenge to Christian morality and threats to life, marriage, and the dignity of the human person are formidable forces which call for a new flame of the Spirit's truth. A broken world surely needs to be reconciled to God.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation we celebrate not our sinfulness but the breath of the Spirit through the forgiveness of sin as Jesus offers to his Apostles today. Forgiveness heals isolation and in a true sense brings us home within the family of the Church where we find Christ present in Word and Sacrament. Here we share in the mission of Christ as we make him present in the world through the love and service of our daily lives.

In the end it is God’s work, of course, that we do. Baptized in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are called to be signs of reconciliation and hope. God has energized his presence in explosive ways and each one of us can be a flame giving warmth to a cold world.

As we hear in Confirmation, may we be "sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit." This is one flame we pray will burn us.

 

Fr. Tim