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Truth is a Sure Sign of the Spirit's Work
This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on Pentecost, May 30, 2004
"He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'"
REMEMBER HOW WE USED TO start prayer? "In the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost"? Some wit said, "I have no trouble believing in God, but I have a hard time believing in ghosts." With a change in nomenclature the church in the last decades has strengthened our awareness of the presence and work of the Spirit.
Take a moment or two and stop breathing. What happens when we cease to breathe? Not much. Yet we so often take our breath for granted. It was no accident that Jesus breathed on the disciples when he imparted the Holy Spirit. The spirit is the "ruach Jahweh", the breath of God.
While Resurrection and Ascension exalt the Glorified Lord, Pentecost brings us God's immanence. God is more interior to me than I am to myself, in the words of Augustine.
The spirit not only brings us into God's presence, she empowers us to act. "Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful with the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and renew the face of the earth."
The flame promotes the fire of prophecy. Think of the courage required of the US soldier who first removed the veil over the atrocities committed in Iraq's jail. Speaking the truth with integrity, even when it embarrasses church or state, is a sure sign of the spirit's work.
The Spirit is also symbolized by the dove of peace. In the Pentecost Gospel, the Risen Lord twice offers the greeting of "Peace be with you". Never has the church needed to take up more urgently the invitation of the Lord to be an instrument of unity and peace.
This Memorial Day we remember the fallen in all wars. We cannot fail to honor the courage and generosity of those who risked their lives for others. Nor should we ever take human sacrifice too lightly.
While we honor the dead, we need to be careful not to glorify war itself. Bestowing the word good on World War II may gloss over the bombing of Tokyo, Horoshima and Nagasaki. While some argue their strategic necessity, it is hard to square these actions with just war principles of discrimination and proportion, as the movie the Fog of War points out so cogently. The situation in Iraq brings home to us again the need to find other ways of resolving conflict. Now more than ever we need to recall the urgings of successive Popes: "War! War! Never again!" Paul V1, "Development is the new name for Peace" Paul V1. "War is always a dangerous trap for humanity" John Paul II.
As alternatives to war our Popes offer the instruments of dialogue, diplomacy, development as well as the strengthening and reform of international institutions and law to protect human rights. Unipolar visions of hegemony need to give way to multi-lateralism in a multi-cultural world.
As the first reading for Pentecost points out we can never underestimate the power of human speech. "We hear them speaking in our own tongues the mighty acts of God" When speech is spirit-filled the miracle of dialogue is possible and unity is established in diversity.
The presence of the Spirit is felt in the flame of prophetic truth telling and in the mystery of communication. These works bear the fruit of peace.
