PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to
listen
Feast of
Pentecost, Cycle A
June 4, 2017
Our Lady of
Grace (10:30 Mass)
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
The Icon
There
is a fifteenth century Russian icon in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin
entitled, The Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Like all icons, it contains many layers of meaning and it’s almost like
going on a treasure hunt to better understand the message it is conveying.
As
I describe the icon, I’d invite you to imagine it along with me.
To begin with, this icon – The Descent of the Holy Spirit – depicts the event of Pentecost as
completely quiet and calm. It’s a
picture very different from the strong wind, the fiery tongues, and the fearful
disciples that we hear about in today’s readings.
The
icon portrays Mary and the Apostles sitting in a semi-circle in complete
serenity and peace. Their eyes and hands
(position hands in different ways) convey
an openness to receiving and listening to the Spirit whom Jesus has promised.
All
this serenity and openness are saying that the coming of the Holy Spirit is an
inner event, not an outer or visible event.
The connection is that through the birth of Jesus, God becomes God-with-us, as within here (hands into chest), not out here (circle arm).
Secondly, and here is another little surprise. The
figures in the icon are not looking at or talking with one another. Instead, they are all listening intently to the
God-within-themselves.
And
each of the persons is portrayed differently.
They have different complexions, different hair styles, different ways
of sitting and even their individual tunics are different in style and color.
And
yet, despite all of these differences, the icon portrays a complete and
extraordinary harmony.
The
hidden message? That the God-within-us makes many individuals into a single
unified, though diverse, community.
The Holy Spirit and Oneness
These are the great lessons from this fifteenth
century Russian icon. It’s beautiful, just Google “Icon: The Descent of the Holy Spirit.”
The presence of God-within-us is the common ground among
us and with God. And because of that, it
is what makes us one.
So, what we need to do is quicken or stir up our
awareness of the Spirit’s presence as that which grounds us, much as the Apostles
do in the icon.
This awareness leads us to realize God’s presence as
our common grounding with all people and is the most solid and lasting basis of
community that we could ever hope for.
Communion, Community, Unity
The well-known Trappist monk and spiritual
writer Thomas Merton brings an excellent insight this idea of community.
I will read his words slowly so you can let
them just sink in.
Thomas Merton writes: “The deepest level of communication is not communication, but
communion. It is wordless.
“It is beyond words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond
concept. Not that we discover a new
unity – we discover an older unity.
“My dear Brothers and Sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not.
“And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
Don’t Make Differences into Obstacles
Merton’s thoughts are simple and yet quite
profound.
Unlike the Apostles in the icon who is each
very different, we sometimes make the differences between us into obstacles to
communion, community, or unity.
I am thinking of differences like:
Ø Skin that is black, white, brown, and yellow
Ø Genders of male and female
Ø People in Northern Baltimore County and people in Baltimore City
Ø Christians and Jews
Ø Christians and Muslims
Ø Jews and Muslims
Ø Catholics and those who are not Catholic
Ø American citizens and immigrants who long to be citizens
Ø Political liberals and conservatives
Ø Catholic progressive and Catholic traditionalist
And there are a thousand others.
We allow these differences to obscure the
communion, community, and unity that is there.
As Merton writes, “We are already
one. What we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we [already] are.”
This is the effort, the presence of the Holy
Spirit, God-within-us and it is what today’s Feast of Pentecost celebrates.
No comments:
Post a Comment