The Spirit is Given for a Benefit June 4

Piety

Jesus, you said "Peace be with you." You sent the spirit who came on the wing of a tornado and lit your disciples on fire. Today, we need you to stoke up our fires a bit. Kick up that inspiring wind. Peace won’t come alone. It needs help. Your help. Our help.

Maybe we have become too complacent. Maybe we have gotten immune to the headlines of war, terrorism and death…

In Haditha Killings, Details Came Slowly
Terror Plot Foiled in Canada
Casting a Web for Terrorists
A Calculus of Race and Death?
Indifference on Ethics?
Iraq Insurgent Urges Sectarian War
China's Tiananmen Secure on June 4 Anniversary
Pakistan General Defends Terror Fight

…and that’s just one of today’s paper!

Come Holy Spirit. Re-fill the Hearts of your faithful Cursillistas and re-enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit to us and we shall be re-created, re-born with the inspiring breath of Jesus. You shall re-new the face of the earth through us as the hands and feet and arms and lips of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Study http://www.usccb.org/nab/060406.shtml

Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2006 “The Spirit is given for some benefit.” 1 Cor 12:7

Anyone who has strolled the cards and crosses that religious stores sell for students receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation will recall that many of these are adorned with a small, white dove.

But the first coming of the Holy Spirit sounded more like a tornado or hurricane than a peaceful candle lighting ceremony.

And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind,and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Imagine what it would be like today. People would be there from Israel and Palestine. Turkey and Greece. Egypt and Libya. Iran and Iraq. Lebanon and Cyprus. Crete and Rome. Northern Ireland and England. Russia and Chechnya. India and Pakistan. The U.S. and Mexico. Great Britain and Argentina. Sudan and Chad. China and Taiwan. Even New Jersey.

With the sounds outside approaching fast, there would certainly be a television tuned into the Weather Channel and a police band radio tracking emergency calls as well as the sound of the hubbub in the room.

But the Spirit doesn’t come just to replace Jesus. “The Spirit is given for some benefit.”

That benefit is the unity of the body of the Church. Out of this diversity comes oneness, unity. Not just the unity of the Trinity but the unity of the entire body of the people of God. The Spirit would renew the face of the earth…erasing all borders and boarder disputes making all people sisters and brothers.

The peace of Christ would come at last because petty squabbles over earth, minerals and ownership would be over.

Action

The result – the fire of love. When we have the fire of love, we can’t keep it to ourselves. We have to be about the work that the Spirit inspires. Jesus told the disciples (twice) in today’s Gospel, “Peace be with you.” But in a world torn by war and terrorism more today than yesterday, we still have to work for peace.

Maybe that means to go out into the world and profess the Good News. See today’s Washington Post for a feature story headlined “A Long Wait for Peace” on the peace protestors encamped for 25 years across from the White House and the comments of many including peace studies teacher Colman McCarthy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201885.html

“I take my high school and college students regularly to the vigil,” says Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist who now teaches peace studies. “I'd rather they see a sermon on peace than hear one.”


The fact that the nation is at war again, that nuclear fear is once again in the air, does not take away from the vigil keepers, McCarthy says: “The basic philosophy of the peace movement is not to worry about being successful, but to worry about being faithful. For 25 years these people have carried on a commitment that goes back to Isaiah.”

Next time you are in Washington, why not stop by and say hello. They are easy to find. Go to White House gate and then cross the street to “1601” Pennsylvania Avenue. No metal detector. No photo I.D. required. No phones to wiretap. Just a simple, timeless message. Peace be with you. Where have we heard THAT before?