This week we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  Pentecost is a Feast of the Holy Spirit, but at the same time it is about Christ Himself, because it is Christ who sends us the Holy Spirit.  The Apostle Peter explains the event of Pentecost in this way:  “At the right hand of God he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, poured out as you see and hear (Acts 2:33).”  Yes, it is Christ who fulfills His promise to send us the Holy Spirit.  How important it is for us to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, the Church and in our own lives.

When we speak about the Holy Spirit and reflect on the experience documented in scripture, we also speak of the experience of our own lives.  How true it is that the Holy Spirit acts in the life of each Christian.  It is the Holy Spirit we have received in Baptism and every Sacrament and in a particular way in Confirmation.  Those who have received Holy Orders experience the Spirit in yet another way.  Each one of us is alive in the Spirit, and how we recognize the working of the Spirit in our lives is what we call the spiritual life.  Yes, the spiritual life is the life of a Christian, which is lived in the Holy Spirit.

The account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles begins with the indication of the time and place, “when the time of Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in place together (Acts 2:1).”  The Feast of Pentecost for the Hebrews was a feast of celebrating the first fruits of the harvest.  In Israel, spring comes early and the first fruits of the harvest are also early and sometime in May the new crops of fruits and vegetables are ready for harvesting.  The people of Israel to this very day have multiple celebrations and holidays.  It seems that they are always celebrating one thing or another.  What a wonderful way that the Jewish religion sees its relationship to God, one of celebration.  So it was with the Feast of Pentecost, another time for celebration.  When the Apostles were gathered in the Upper Room, somewhat fearful and not knowing what would happen, they had experienced the Ascension of the Lord, and now were waiting for their fulfillment of His promise, although they were not quite sure what the promise would bring.  It was a striking event that occurred in the Upper Room, the room shook and there appeared to be tongues of fire over heads of the Apostles and disciples and there was a new zeal and a freedom from fear that they experienced.  Therefore they went out and preached the Gospel in an entirely new way.

The Holy Spirit, indeed, is the soul of the Church.  That is why on Pentecost we celebrate the birthday of the Church.  It is a day on which the Church gives birth to its mission.  In John’s Gospel we hear how blood and water flowed from the wound in the side of Christ and the symbol of the Spirit was poured out, but we wait until Pentecost to recognize that the Spirit, now being sent forth from Jesus, is active and shows His presence in the Church.

A comparison can be made between an event of the Old Testament and Pentecost, which perhaps gives us real insight into some of the phenomena that accompanied the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  How can the phenomenon of tongues be understood, a gift of speaking in unknown languages during the preaching of the Gospel?  If we look back to the Old Testament, we see the antithesis of the Pentecost event in the Book of Genesis, chapter 11, which tells us that every people of nation spoke the same language, and in Acts we hear that each person hears the Apostles speaking in his own language  (Acts 2:6).  It is a complete parallel to what happened at the beginnings of the earth, however, we see that Babel, which was a symbol of human unity, became a word that now signifies for us disunity.  The people came together to build themselves a city and a tower with its top being the sky.  They said let us make a name for ourselves and not let us make a name for God.  It was a project of unity borne out of a desire for power, fame and arrogance. 

In Pentecost, on the contrary, everyone understands the language of the Apostles because they hear them speaking in their own tongues of the mighty acts of God (Acts 2:11).  They are not raising a monument to themselves, but to God.  Stressing this contrast, we rightly say that the Church is the anti-Babel; the Church is the reversal of Babel itself.  The teaching of the scripture comes from pairing Babel and Pentecost and gives us two possible types of unity, a unity according to the flesh and one according to the spirit.  The difference comes in the motivation.  In other words it is a question of knowing what is at the center of unity, the point around it is built; is our unity built around God or man?

The universality of the Church was also born on the Feast of Pentecost.  At that feast day there were Jews from all over the known world, each with their own particular culture, yet sharing a common faith.  When Peter preached, each understood in their own language the marvels that God had wrought.  The Apostles themselves were the best demonstration of what the Pentecost event was about.  Before Pentecost each one of them was seeking his own personal advancement.  They were forever arguing who was greatest among them, but after Pentecost, after the Spirit comes upon them, they see themselves forming their community of one mind and one heart (Acts 4:32) among themselves and with the other disciples.  The new language they have learned and everyone understands is the language of Christian ability and love.

The lessons of the scriptures now must be something we put into practice in our own day and age.  The Church must be in our day a new Pentecost, overturning the confusion and disunity of Babel.  How important that the Church must be an example of unity among peoples, understanding the common elements between culture and languages.

If I were to apply the situation to our own day and age, the current discussion over immigration reform is a perfect example of the type of unity to which our Church and our country are called.  It is an opportunity for us today to look at our nation, one of whose mottos is E Pluribus Unum – one out of many.  But what is the center of our unity?  What makes us one, is it common language, or rather common values?  Is it adherence to man-made laws or observance of God’s law of love and unity?  The debate over immigration is far from concluded and as the political process of framing laws is a complex one, I cannot predict that immigration reform will take place.  It is my hope, however, that we apply principles of justice to the current situation of chaos.  We truly live in a situation within which Babel reigns.  The term Babel itself means confusion.  There is confusion in the minds of the public concerning the status, especially, of the undocumented among us.  Are they workers or invaders?  Do they come to contribute to our economy or somehow benefit from it without paying Social Security or income taxes?  We find the answers to these questions when one would approach the questions with an open mind based on the facts, but not with misconceptions, which today are fueled by certain media hosts who thrive on enunciating half truths and playing on people’s prejudices.

Pentecost is the time we can reflect on the mission of the Church to be a source of unity wherever it finds itself.  Certainly, if the Church lives up to its mission, it is necessary to “put out into the deep” where misunderstanding can thrive.  Many accuse the Church of being pro-immigrant and wishing to increase its numbers by bringing new Catholics into the country.  This is hardly the case since we advocate not only for our own, but for anyone who can contribute to the vitality of this nation built on the labor of immigrants.  Join me in praying to the Holy Spirit that we can overturn Babel and become an example of the New Pentecost in our Church and in our nation.