The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.

Pentecost, Cycle C

June 2001

Standing outside the fire, life isn’t tried it is merely survived when you’re standing outside the fire.

These extraordinary words by the America Country-Western singer Garth Brooks brings us to this very important celebration in the Church this week. All of Christianity marks the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is given by the Lord to the Church to empower, inspire, guide, challenge, judge and comfort the Church in prosecuting its mission in the world. This is great feast in the Church year that marks the arrival of the fire of the Holy Spirit that led frightened and disheartened men and women to become bold proclaimers of the gospel risking life and limb in the process of do so. These were and are people that are in the fire, trying and not simply surviving life.

Being in the fire is the Christian call for individuals and groups, communities and nations. Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit so that we can experience the freedom of real living, free from fear, free from obsessive preoccupation with rules and regulations, free to love and to express the very compassion of God, free to participate in the transforming power of God in the Spirit that bring unity amidst diversity. This is the Spirit that is transforming the face of the earth and the face of human destiny. This is the Spirit that is overcoming and will overcome the notion that history is, in the words of the great philosopher Hegel, "the butcher’s chopping block", with the realization of real freedom, peace and justice. Paul in his letter to the Romans reminds us of this and so the Spirit is one that inspires hope amidst the often boring and tragic experiences of history.

In the Tower of Babel story everyone ends up confused and life is incoherent. There is conflict, separation and fear. All are speaking their own language that comes from their own ego needs and so cut themselves off from the power of the Spirit. The result of all this is mindless babble-blah, blah, blah. These human beings presumed they could get to God, indeed be God, on their own power. All were marching to their own selfish beat, building their own empires against the others. What else could there be but division?

Paul and our Lord remind us that the Spirit is working to bring things to unity. This will require one important thing from us—our "yes" to the Spirit’s activity in our lives. Our cooperation with grace in our lives is critical for our experiencing of the real life in the fire. Somewhere is our life we said "yes", and we are called to this each day. Yet, hope comes from the fact that even if we do not consciously do this each day the Spirit of Jesus is working behind the scenes to encourage us to accept the Spirit’s activity in our lives. And when we say yeas, when we allow the Spirit to move in our lives the possibilities are endless. We will experience healing, courage we never thought we had, wisdom about life and people, a gentler heart and patient demeanor, and impatience with injustice and patience with the sinner in the other and the self, a compassion that embraces the world and one’s own pain in love.

The Spirit of God does this is unique ways in each of us, in communities and nations if we remain true to our "yes". And it is here that the Church is most important. Its mission to preach the gospel is to make Jesus visible, to make his love known before all things else that we are concerned about as a Church. If this be so then our activity will truly be reflective of the Spirit; if not we can expect to experience division, separation and confusion. The Spirit is working to bring all to unity but not uniformity. We are not meant to be carbon copies of each other but to bring the Lord’s diverse gifts to the world.

The words of the religious writer Shirley Guthrie:

The Holy Spirit brings new creaturely life that is stronger than sickness and even death itself: gives new beginnings to people whose lives seem at a dead end…When the Spirit breaks in, old ways of thinking and living are left behind and new ways of thinking and living begin to take over. Old, boring and oppressive social structures and institutions are transformed into exciting new, liberating ones. It may not happen all at once, but when the Holy Spirit comes there is the dawn of a new day, hope for a new and different future, and courage and strength to move toward it.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created October 6, 2001