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Pentecost—A Mighty Wind Lest you forget, fifty days after Easter we have Pentecost; “there came from heaven sound as of a violent wind. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves. Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven...and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language.” (Acts 2) Pentecost is the counterpoint to the dispersal of the human family, following the Tower of Babel, where God intervenes to save man from his arrogance; men who had lost sense of their humanity; “let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven.” (Genesis 5) “God’s punishment was the grace necessary to relearn the humility that ennobles.” The lesson didn’t take. As the human family becomes more tribal, war was born, “as the fear of the other became the overriding passion that motivated each group to force others into their story or to face annihilation.” (S. Hauerwas) Pentecost symbolizes the “reunification” of people, the joy of comradeship, the possibility of a new creation flowing from the Spirit who fulfills the promise of Jesus that we abide in God and He in us. As John McNamee is fond of saying, Christian faith is a stretch, belief in something as preposterous as the Resurrection. Christ is risen! And then the Spirit comes! This is our faith. Pentecost affirms that we can transcend our differences while celebrating our uniqueness. The empowerment of the Spirit is best dramatized in Peter and the other apostles. As Shusaki Endo in his Life of Jesus ponders, “one of the deepest mysteries we encounter in reading the Bible is how it could be that these disciples, who had been cowards, became in the end courageous apostles... How were they able to bring off this interior conversion?” The transformation is so profound that out of the ashes of cowardice and betrayal martyrs are born. For us, the faint hearted, Pentecost celebrates our possibilities, pursuing what we could not have imagined. Prophetic witnesses to inspire us abound in our midst. John Langan, S.J., theologian of Georgetown University, and expert on just war theory, spoke at Villanova and confirmed, with all the nuances of an academic, what many an unlettered layperson already knew. This Iraq war is unjust and immoral. In his purview there was never just cause to launch this bloody war and those responsible for so much death and destruction should be held accountable. We are hoping the Spirit will visit the hearts of the American bishops and counsel them to say enough death, come home America. It is imperative that we all press on and not tolerate this betrayal of our own humanity. I believe it’s Thomas Friedman, the N.Y. Times columnist and writer, who recently called the Iraq war, the greatest tragedy in American history. The last vestiges of American “exceptionalism” were erased by Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It is to the everlasting credit of Pope John Paul II that he begged, pleaded and cajoled the Bush administration, no war, and warned of the grave consequences for the Iraqis. Now the 100,000 plus dead Iraqis, (Johns Hopkins study), and 1,574 Americans, as of 4/27, are mute testimony to his prophetic wisdom. The Spirit is life giving; that’s our mantra! Joe Bradley |