Have you ever wondered about the shape of the bishop’s
mitre? Why should he wear such an odd headdress when he leads us in worship?
This, and many other things, go to making up and reflecting the meaning of the
Solemnity of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit descended, two tongues of
flames descended upon the head of each Apostle. The two points and red lining
of the mitre remind us of this. They also remind us (and the bishops!) that
they are the successors of the Apostles, tasked in the world with being first
and foremost, witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in all times and
places.
The events of Pentecost also bring to mind those of the
Tower of Babel. There, human beings tried to climb to heaven without God. They
were so affected that each group or tribe spoke a different language and could
not understand the others. They scattered over the earth in order to avoid
warring against each other. This great parable from Genesis reminds us in
unequivocal terms that without God as the centre of all things, there can never
be unity or peace amongst men. Pentecost, when all those present heard the
Apostles as though they were speaking their own language (with Galilean
accents!) is a reversal of Babel. By destroying sin and restoring life, Jesus
destroys the separation of Babel and restores that peace and unity –
something that He alone can do.
The Preface for Pentecost, which we hear at Mass today,
expresses it like this: “…you bestowed the Holy Spirit today on those you made
your adopted children by uniting them to your Only Begotten Son. This same
Spirit, as the Church came to birth, opened to all peoples the knowledge of God
and brought together the many languages
of the earth in profession of the one faith.” Could it be any clearer that
real unity comes through the work of the Holy Trinity, not that of the United
Nations or the scattering of modern secular “peacemakers.”
But perhaps the most miraculous event of Pentecost was the
crowds themselves, who listened to Peter. They were Jews from every corner of
the Roman Empire, who had come to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. For many
of them, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Passover was a celebration
that lasted “a week of weeks” or fifty days. This was, literally, the last day
of the feast, and no doubt many who heard Peter’s sermon were having a final look around at all the famous sights of Jerusalem. If you were to draw arrows
on a map from Jerusalem to the places from which they came which are listed in Acts 2, those arrows would
point away in every direction. And we are told that on that day, two thousand
were added to the number of Christians, mostly people who would be returning to
their widespread, far-flung homes.
Two thousand baptised Christians moving out into the known
world in every direction, within twenty-four hours of the coming of the Holy
Spirit, many of whom had seen the
death of the Saviour! One cannot but
think of Jesus’ words to his apostles, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim
the Good News…” and of the words of the prophet Malachi, that “…in every time
and in every place, incense may be offered up unto my Name, says the Lord.” The
proclamation of the Good News by Peter, and thus by those two thousand
converts, that “He is risen…He is Lord…He has ascended…He will return…repent and
be baptised,” is still Jesus’ commission to us today. It is through us that Jesus must be made known. As the
Holy Spirit sent those first converts and Apostles out in every direction, so
may he send us out today to proclaim the same Good News “to the whole world.”
Fr Phillip
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