Pascha VI

Pascha VI

Acts: 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Psalm 98; I John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17

Humans have harnessed the wind for centuries. From windmills that dot the landscape of the Netherlands to wind turbines that dot Madison County just north of us; from the sails of 2nd century Chinese junks to the great 19th century merchant clipper ships that crossed the oceans.

Yet how many windmill blades and ships have lain still, dead in the air and water? We might be able to harness the wind but we cannot create or control the winds.

So it is with fire. We have harnessed the heat from fire for our backyard grills and home fireplaces to the great smelting kilns of industry. But as we saw this past year in California and Australia we cannot control fire and wind.

Being in control has been the curse of human life since Eden garden. We have always wanted to be our own god. But what we have never understood is that being God is not being fully in control of everything. By giving humanity free will, God relinquished control over our personal and humanity’s decisions. If we want to destroy this planet, we can. If we want to lead a sinful life, we can. If we want to crucify God to rid ourselves of God, we did.

God can only invite, urge, imply, impel, and lead [though even God cannot be assured anyone will follow]. Being God, at least our idea of God, is not the answer. Yet we continue in our delusion of control where the disruption of our lives to any degree is simply unacceptable, especially if it means changing cherished ideas and ways of living; thus changing our hearts.

There may be good reason why scripture images the Spirit of God as fire and wind. We would do well to heed those images and their consequences for us.

Isn’t the lack of control why so many of us are frustrated during this year of pandemic? We don’t like being told what to do whether from government officials to science and medicine. Our worlds of work, education, worship, shopping, movement and travel have all been disrupted.

Most of us react negatively when our perceived stable world is disrupted. Some people calmly ride the tide. Most of us swim against the tide in a flurry. How have we reacted this past year? Is there a middle ground? And what is the middle ground? Saint Ignatius of Loyola would ask us, what are we feeling? Why are we feeling in a particular way? What do these feeling tell us about ourselves and our relationship with God? Where is God present in this situation? This is middle ground, stopping to catch our breath and reflect.

Because where God is, is the calm and stability we are looking for in the midst of all this disruption. Recall the incident of the storm on the lake. Jesus is asleep. The disciples thinking Jesus doesn’t care. They were blind to the calm of a sleeping Jesus teaching them to trust in God as he was.

Consider today’s encounter in the Acts of the Apostles between Peter and Cornelius. This encounter never should have taken place. Peter: Jewish, circumcised according to the Law, eats kosher foods and does not engage gentiles. Cornelius, Gentile, uncircumcised, Roman centurion who represents the imperial and oppressing political power over the Jews.

Consider all the situations in today’s world that are similar.

Both Cornelius and Peter simultaneously experience visions. Cornelius, a God-fearing man, is told to make an invitation to a Simon Peter in Joppa. Peter, hungry, is told to eat non-kosher, unclean animals.

In the lives of both Cornelius and Peter the Spirit causes disruption. Peter is invited to become ritually unclean by entering the house of a gentile. Cornelius will forsake the gods of Rome including the emperor. Why? Because the Spirit fell upon all present who were listening to the word.

Like Peter and Cornelius, we do not lead the Spirit, the Spirit leads us!

In like manner 60 years ago, the Spirit moved among us.

“like a flash of heavenly light…”

a “sudden emergence in our heart…” 

“an unexpected illumination”

“like a hidden flower in the fields: not even visible, you advert to its perfume”

Flash, sudden, unexpected, hidden, perfume – these are the words John XXIII used to express his experience of the Holy Spirit in calling an Ecumenical Council at a time when we were a numerous, strong and prosperous Catholic Church.

Yet how many Catholics still think that the Second Vatican Council was a mistake, the cause of the decline in vocations, the loss of our teaching authority, a lack of reverence and abuses in the liturgy,  and the sexual abuse crisis? How many Catholics are rowing against the tide back into the past? Did the Council disrupt the Catholic Church? Yes it did! That is what fire, wind and Spirit do.

Just like our supposedly progressive, industrial, scientific, society is learning from indigenous peoples that ‘controlled burning’ of forests and fields renews growth; so spiritual disruption is a form of ‘controlled burning’ for a renewed spiritual depth within in each of us and in the Church.

The calling of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council is but one example, but an example of the Spirit’s ‘controlled burning’ that has touched us all.

We should note, the Spirit fell on those who were listening to the word. If we listen closely to the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles we will not find a God of the status quo but a Spirit that disrupts like fire and wind – a ‘controlled burn’ – our cherished and honored ideas and way of life to bring about God’s reign. Is this the God you and I want to engage with?