Pentecost – May 24, 2015
Acts 2, 1 Cor 12, John 15-16
Deacon Albert
Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church
Do the Apostles love the Jews? Are they afraid of them? What considerations fill their hearts and minds in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles? What concerns press upon them as they stand before thousands of “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” to testify to “the mighty acts of God?” Today’s gospel gives us that answer. Mother Church has often used song as a means of adorning and memorializing truly significant words and prayers, so I chanted these words to bring forward that extra emphasis. It is without a doubt that these same words are the ones echoing in the hearts and minds of these men who stand before a potentially hostile crowd.
“You will testify to me because you have been with me from the beginning.” Jesus has also said “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him might have eternal life.” If God loves us by giving us his Son to believe in, do the Apostles love the crowd to whom they are testifying about Christ? What would they have to fear? The gospel reading skips over a few verses that give us that answer: “the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
So, if we testify to Christ, people might want to kill us. Indeed, the original Greek word that means “testify” is martyreoor “martyr.” It was originally a basic legal term, but historical experience has shown us that testifying to Jesus is often synonymous with becoming a martyr – someone who is killed for their faith. Jesus was killed for testifying to his true identity. The very first Christian martyr was St. Stephen, who was also one of the first seven deacons – a sobering thought for me! 11 of the 12 Apostles were also killed for testifying. Indeed, Christians in every generation have been killed for testifying to who Jesus really is and the 20th century has more martyrs than the previous 19 centuries combined. (1) The 21stcentury, our own century, doesn’t seem to be any slower on that front.
Why, why is this the case? Belief in Jesus is hard because we don’t mean belief as simply accepting an idea. By “belief” we mean total fidelity to Jesus. Jesus himself calls it “work” in John 6:29. It makes demands on your thoughts, feelings and actions and demands to be your number one priority. Even the Apostles, after years of walking and living with Jesus, were not ready for everything he wanted them to believe and be faithful to. He warns them in the Gospel that he has “more to tell [them], but” they “cannot bear it now.” Cannot bear it – how hard can it be? Only with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, are they finally able to bear the fullness of the Truth. St. Paul echoes this in our second reading: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus longs to give us a truth that we can’t possibly accept without a divine power-boost. So, what exactly is so difficult to believe, why is it hard to accept that Jesus died for us in order to give us life? The hard part is accepting that this means we need to die with Jesus, not just physically, but in a thousand other ways. We have to bear a lot of truths that the world really hates or doesn’t understand: Jesus is God, Obedience to other human beings, our teachings on life, on poverty, and on chastity. We aren’t meant to bear these alone, but with each other and especially with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles bear witness to this same reality.
Scattered by fear after watching Jesus killed for telling the Truth, the Apostles, after 50 days of hiding from the people who killed Jesus, burst out of those doors and painted a target on their foreheads. Peter stands up and outright accuses the very people he was afraid of. He tells them plainly “you killed Jesus.” What happened? Peter and the disciples have just received the Holy Spirit, they are now filled with God’s own love – they no longer love like human beings, they love like the God who was willing to be killed by the people he loved precisely because he loved them enough to give them the truth. Do the Apostles love the Jews? Evidently they do. Are they afraid of the Jews? Perhaps, but that fear is powerless because the Holy Spirit, who is God, IS the “perfect love” which “casts out fear” (1 Jn 4:18).
So what do we learn from this magnificent scene and fiery display of testimony… of martyrdom? I propose three main points and a few sub-points for your reflection: The New Evangelization, reliance on the Holy Spirit, and being ready to suffer with joy.
Originally, the New Evangelization was about re-proposing the Gospel to a people who think they have heard it, but do not live it. Many Christians have forgotten or have never known the fiery heat of Pentecost which we celebrate today as the Church’s birthday – Many do not love and many are afraid. The latest Pew Poll shows that Christianity is losing ground in the U.S. population in every single denomination. (2) We need to help others encounter or re-encounter Jesus Christ with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Today’s feast is a good example for us. The Apostles still saw themselves as Jews and here they are testifying to an audience of “devout Jews.” Why try to convert a crowd filled with people who share so many of the same beliefs? Love, that’s why. They have some of the truth, but not enough. As a matter of fact, these “devout” Jews killed Jesus. A “devout” Christian who denies that Jesus is God, who disregards Jesus’ teaching on caring for the poor, or who blatantly contradicts Jesus’ own teaching on marriage is also responsible for killing Jesus Christ. Every sin we commit makes us responsible for Jesus’ death. We may be quick to quote John 3:16, but do we read 3:19? “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.” Love does not mean hiding the light because it is uncomfortable, it means letting it shine ever brighter with the joy and love of the Holy Spirit so that we might win others over to the light. Like Christ and the Apostles, this means proclaiming the tough truths to all, maybe even more especially to those who think themselves already “devout.”
Lest I give myself or anyone permission to be haughty or condescending with their view of the Truth, I must hasten to my second point: the Holy Spirit. Recall what our Gospel says – Jesus tells the Apostles they will testify, but they are the second group to testify. The First to testify is the Holy Spirit, and this has a few concrete implications. One, we must not forget that evangelization is our cooperation with God; that grace comes first and we can do nothing on our own. Two, the Holy Spirit testifies first to us, which means we are never, never done converting ourselves in this life. Three, we can literally follow the Holy Spirit by paying attention to his trademarks, which we call the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity” (CCC 1832). These fruits are character traits and tangible spiritual movements that you can detect in yourself and others if you are actually following the Holy Spirit. Someone following the spirit becomes a more patient person, and more chaste person, a more joyful person. I encourage everyone to study more about the discernment of spirits, because it can train you to identify specific times, places and ways to testify on behalf of Christ. Four, the Holy Spirit “will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears.” So should we. We receivethe faith. Jesus himself sends the Holy Spirit on the Apostles directly, but everyone else in the New Testament receives the Spirit through the Apostles’ preaching or laying on of hands. We cannot baptize ourselves, we cannot ordain ourselves, and we better not testify to ourselves or our own ideas. Jesus Christ himself is our message: we can know him in the sacraments, in scripture, in tradition, and in the life of the Church which he entrusted to the Apostles.
Finally, God’s most impressive act, Jesus’ resurrection, came directly out of Jesus being rejected by those to whom he preached the truth with love. We should expect rejection, persecution, and possibly even literal physical death. If our testimony comes from sincere cooperation with the Holy Spirit, however, we will know love, joy and peace beyond understanding. These are deeper qualities which we can know even in the midst of great suffering – suffering can even help us to know these qualities more clearly. Cooperation with the Holy Spirit can give us genuine hope that even those who kill us, physically or metaphorically, might come to believe precisely through our God-like fidelity to the truth even to the point of death. Do you love men and women from “every nation under heaven?” Do you fear them? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to testify through you?
[1] http://www.firstthings.com/article/2001/04/the-catholic-martyrs-of-the-twentieth-century-a-comprehensive-world-history
[2] http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/