My friends, as I said in the bulletin, this Sunday gives us the opportunity to truly come to know our God if we carefully study the messages within the Scriptures today. 

   Let’s begin with the reading from Exodus.  The 1^st thing we should notice is that God initiates the encounter with Moses, not the other way around.  This is important!  This truth reminds me of the 23^rd Psalm in the biblical translation, The Message. The writer of this translation opens up the traditional line, “Only goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,” to “Your beauty and love chase after me, every day of my life.”  I don’t know about you, but I rather like the idea that God is, “chasing after me” through the ups and downs of my life.  It speaks to the intimacy of our God and that wanted relationship with us. 

   If we look at God’s words to Moses, we can see this most clearly.  “I am…a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in kindness and faithfulness.”  This is really such a beautiful and telling reading and one unfortunately, that I have heard far too many homilists get stuck on—the beginning that is, which is apparently God’s answer to Moses’ question of, “Who are you?”  God says, “I am who I am,” or some form of that.  This again, is an example of “staying” on the top level of a message and failing to go deeper to truly understand what is being said. 

   It doesn’t matter what we call God, as much as who God is and we learn that going deeper— “I am a God of tenderness and compassion…”

   This reminds me of a young man who was interviewed on public radio, MPR, this past week.  He is the valedictorian of his high school graduating class and will, as a result, be giving the commencement address to them.  The interviewer was interested in knowing what he might speak to them about. 

   He was quite clear that he didn’t want it to be about him alone, what he had done and so on, but he wanted it to be about all of them.  He wanted them to know that just because his grades allowed him to have the highest place in their class, academically, he had the same worries and struggles that they all had and that they were all in this together.  He realized that he hadn’t gotten to where he was alone, and that he had much to be thankful for.  He saw himself as no better than anyone else and he wanted his classmates to know that. 

   The interviewer had also invited several adults to be on the show who had given commencement addresses in the past to learn what they had imparted to the newly graduating students.  One man said it best I think when he shared a general list of good things, he had heard other speakers remind graduates of as they look at their lives ahead of them.  Some of the things that we would expect to be on the list, included, work hard, when you don’t quite make it, pick yourself up and try again, and so on.  He ended his comments sharing an idea he had heard along the way that he found very compelling, in making your way in the world— “be kind.” 

   This notion seems to be in sync with what Moses heard from God on Mount Sinai—his, and our God said that we all could expect, “tenderness and compassion, one, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness. 

   So, if we were merely to stop in the Exodus reading with, “what should we call God?” we would miss the deep relational response that God offers here. The valedictorian that I mentioned above ended his comments by saying to his peers, “It is my hope that each of us will make our own particular way.” A “kind” response, I would say. 

   Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians says as much; “Encourage one another –live in harmony and peace.” 

   And John’s gospel today confirms this idea through Jesus’ words: [God does not] “condemn, but through Christ, the world may be saved.”  Once again, we must get beyond the surface meaning.  The “saving” that our brother Jesus came to do was in showing us—each of us, through the justice, mercy, understanding, and kindness, that he showed in his own life, how in fact to do the same in our lives. 

   And as always, we must take the Scriptures and apply them to our own lives.  To read about Jesus but fail to do the same in our own lives, or to at least try, seems to miss the point of Christian living. 

   If we were truly, each of us, following Jesus, there could not be two tiers in our society in so many ways—the rich and the poor, white and black—we call that, “racism,” by the way, something our country is far from getting its arms around. We call this, “white privilege,” –another concept to take to our prayer. We might be closer to a resolution if we laid our “hearts” and not just our “heads” on these issues. 

   If we were truly following Jesus, gender issues—sexism, which really is about patriarchy—who has the “right to speak and act,” would also, not be an issue.   This is true in state, country and Church. Again, we must look back to our brother Jesus and what he had to say about these issues.  He was crucified in the time he lived, “not for our sins,” but because he was speaking, in his time, against inequality, patriarchy, and more, and the powers that existed then, needed to silence him. Pure and simple. Makes me think of women today following our God-given calls to be ordained. We have been told that this will immediately excommunicate us if we do, as they wish to silence us too.  So, if we get caught up in that old theology of “reparation for our sins” in the face of a tyrannical God, that takes us off the hook to really follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

   We would do better to look to the beautiful words of Psalm 8 today, and remember who God truly is, “Who are we that you should be mindful of us?”  Being “mindful” seems to me, a “relational” skill.  In this regard, this past week, I heard a news special on the social and political divide in our country.  All of those interviewed were asked to state their beliefs, and on the merit of what they said, were then paired with someone who held an opposite view.  They were asked to sit together and “truly listen” to each other. 

   The amazing thing that they discovered was, when you, “put a face” to the opinion, trying to see why each other felt as they did, it helped break down some of the animosity. Now, you might be thinking, and questioning as I have, “what do you do if you have someone in your life who has told you, they don’t want to hear your opposing view.” And my friends, this is precisely why being a Christian is not for wimps. 

   Our lives today in the midst of so many concerns, many of which I have mentioned here, call for what I will name, “eucharistic moments.”  If you think about it, you probably could all name for me a time when something truly wonderful and unexpected happened between you and another person, or group that was able to move you and them, beyond the things that divided you to a place where you could truly be one. Naming such times, “eucharist moments” where the “body and blood” of our Savior Jesus, was truly evident—not on the altar, but in the humanity of our every day lives seems to be most appropriate and what Jesus had intended the Eucharist to be. We will continue this conversation next week when we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi—the Body of Christ.  Amen? Amen!

   My friends, if we are simply checking a liturgical calendar today, we see that with the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, we come to the end of the Easter Season.  But we as our brother, Jesus’ followers, must go deeper.  If he taught us anything while with us, it was that we must, “always go deeper,” especially when we aren’t sure of the way to go.

   With this thought in mind then, Pentecost must be seen, not as an “ending” to one season, but truly, as a “beginning” to our life, walking in Jesus’ footsteps.  As I prepared for this homily, reading what theologians, prophets, and writers have had to say about Pentecost, I have come across many words to describe the feelings, the outlook—perhaps, that we should have coming into this feast. 

   Some of the words that I have encountered are: “passionate, alive—not simply breathing.”  Further on, from the section in Acts used for our 1^st reading today, Luke continues, [Pentecost is about] “seeing visions and dreaming dreams.” Acts 2: 17

   In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians for today, he tells the people of Corinth and ultimately us, that when we are under the influence of the Spirit, “only good” should be the fruits of that encounter with heaven.  That is why, as we discussed last week, it makes no sense to ever unite the words, “Christian” and “nationalism.”  United, they form the title used in our present day to describe a group of so-called, “religious” individuals (Christian Nationalists).

   Looking back once more to the 1^st reading from Acts, we see its author, Luke, speaking about the coming of the Spirit as, “wind from heaven,” thus our first hymn today, by Marty Haugen, Wind Upon the Water.  Additionally, he said the Spirit comes as “tongues of fire.”  Those who witnessed this first group of disciples afterward, were said to be, “amazed and astonished” at what they saw and heard.  Probably one of the best things that these people were “amazed and astonished” about, was the fact that “everyone hearing them that day was included,” even though they came from different places.  We might think about whether seeing us in action would cause anyone to be amazed or astonished!

   I would like to, just for a few minutes, pick up on the idea of the Spirit coming as, “tongues of fire.”  One of the wonderful things about the Catholic church that I have always appreciated, has been its sense of ritual—the use of appropriate colors for each liturgical season, and the signs and symbols used to enhance each season, each time of year. 

   You have no doubt noticed the color red in my vestments and the altar drapes.  Red picks up on the notion of “fire” and “passion” spoke of earlier that tells us in no uncertain terms how we should approach our mission as Jesus’ followers. 

   This reminds me of a mentor of mine who has gone home to God, but one, who, for many years was a most inspiring model of what it truly means to walk and to live as Jesus taught.  Jim Fitzpatrick, an active priest in the Winona diocese for 10 years during the 1960’s and 70’s, eventually left active priestly ministry because he was aware that some of his brother priests were sexually abusing children, and when he took what he knew to the bishop, rather than doing the right thing, this bishop chose to enable this grievous wrong in order “to protect the Church from scandal.”  In other words, for this bishop, the institution was more important than the people.

   When I first knew Father Fitzpatrick, I was a first-year student at Cotter High School in his Old Testament class.  He was an exciting and stimulating educator because he believed what he was teaching, was passionate about it, and wanted us to be as well. When he found us not being engaged enough, he would exclaim, “C’mon people, catch fire!” 

   My friends, as we now begin this new time of “calling” really, to be our best selves, attempting to live as Jesus did, we too must, “catch fire.”  Passionate people are not, “lukewarm,” just going with the flow.

   I am presently reading Senator Amy Klobuchar’s new book, The Joy of Politics.  As you all know, Amy is Minnesota’s senior senator in Washington, advocating for the needs of our state, but also for the needs of our entire country. When she was highlighted recently on the PBS Newshour and asked “why” the title of this book, she said, when you can get things done for people in need, it is truly a joyous thing!

   One of the most refreshing things she said in this new book, reflecting on the past several years that included a pandemic, a campaign for the presidency, a time of ever-increasing inability for Congress people to work together, and an insurrection, to name just a few things, was, and I paraphrase, why would anyone run for office except to make life better for the people they are serving? Why indeed?!

   So my friends, that brings us back once again to our lives, to the here and now and what we are called to do, because we are always called to do something!  There were several things this past week that came to my attention that I will just list here for us to consider, and perhaps get our “juices” going too as to ways that we each can live “passionately” in our world. 

• The people of Florida are now living under a dictum from their governor who has proclaimed, “Don’t say gay!”  There has been some blowback to this from groups who have canvassed the state with billboards proclaiming, “We say gay!”
• You all know of my love for Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister.  She offers a couple of things for us to ponder on this Pentecost Sunday:
• [Today] “is a time of holy hilarity when the Church points again and again to the empty tomb.”
• Joan additionally says, connecting our earthly world to our spiritual world, which, by the way, is as it should be, “Flowers confront us with our responsibility for beauty,” [in our world]. A question to perhaps ponder this week, “Do we bring beauty into our world?”
• A couple of thoughts from John’s gospel today:
• Speaking of being “passionate” followers of our brother Jesus, John fine-tunes how we might do that when he refers to the “fire” [of God’s love for us] saying that it [always] comes with “peace.”  “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

Our presence in this world must not only be “passionate” –that which is truly caring, but it must also be filled with “peace.”  Someone else said of this combination of passion and peace, [Come with the] “power of a tornado, and the gentleness of a whisper.” 

• Then finally, and this is especially for the times we may feel weak and not, up to the task, to remember Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “Receive the Spirit” –that which you forgive, is forgiven, that which you retain,

is retained.”  On the merit of the above words which do indeed give us license to object to statements from Rome that aren’t about, “including all,” but simply about “power over,” we should, and we must call for a Church that is passionate and on-fire with the Spirit—not through stipulations, rules and regulations, but with peace, understanding, mercy, and justice –in a word, love! Amen? Amen!