20240519 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AS OUR WITNESS
19 May 2024, Pentecost Sunday
First reading | Genesis 11:1-9 © |
The tower of Babel
Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ (For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.’
Now the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built. ‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.’ The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth.
Psalm |
Psalm 32(33):10-15 © |
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
He frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
From the place where he dwells he gazes
on all the dwellers on the earth;
he who shapes the hearts of them all;
and considers all their deeds.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
Second reading |
Exodus 19:3-8,16-20 © |
Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God
Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel:
‘“You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.”
‘Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’
So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do.’
Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.
Canticle | Daniel 3:52-56 © |
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest, Lord God of our fathers.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
Blest your glorious holy name.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest in the temple of your glory.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest on the throne of your kingdom.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest who gaze into the depths.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest in the firmament of heaven.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
Third reading | Ezekiel 37:1-14 © |
A vision of Israel's death and resurrection
The hand of the Lord was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the Lord.”’ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.
Then he said, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead.” So prophesy. Say to them, “The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AS OUR WITNESS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 2:1-11; PS 104; GAL 5:16-25; JN 15:26-27,16:12-15]
The world is so divided and fragmented today. Mass communication and improved technology have brought the peoples in the world closer on one hand, but it also divides. There is so much information and disinformation, so much so we can no longer agree on anything. Then of course, we have the geopolitics and rivalry between and among world powers. This world is no longer safe and the dream of a united world order, collaboration in technology and economics are shattered because of distrust and fear.
How, then, can we dream of a humanity united in truth and in love? If humanity is divided, we will eventually destroy ourselves. It will not be climate warming that will destroy this planet; it will be the ignorance, selfishness and evil ambitions of man. For this reason, we need to enlighten the mind and heart of every human person. The natural light of reason alone is not sufficient to bring humanity together, even though it is the starting point for dialogue and mutual understanding. We will need the light of faith, the light of grace, and the light of glory to enable us to understand the truth of who we are, what we are called to, and how we should live our life in authentic love.
How can this be possible? Today, as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we are reminded of what the Spirit seeks to do for humanity. At the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles “like tongues of fire, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.” We further read that “there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language.” Indeed, the first Pentecost was the fulfilment of the prophecy that God would reunite humanity, reversing the division caused by technological advancement in the days of the Tower of Babel. Unity was achieved because they all heard in their own language about the marvels of God.
How does the Spirit lead us to Jesus? What do we need to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit? The human faculty is natural light. The light of faith is necessary for us to know things beyond the scope of reason. This is particularly true for those who are theologically uneducated, but we see the essentials of truth of life and love. We see the world and its realities at the root of its origin, and goal and the revealed truths. This is called knowledge and wisdom. We also need the light of grace, that supernatural light, to be able to see and understand from the depth of our hearts. It is an infusion of grace or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that gives us a capacity to penetrate deeper into the mysteries of life and faith, the depths of God and His secrets, and to be so taken up by its beauty and goodness. St Paul says that the Holy Spirit enables us to see the “depths of God,” the “secrets of God,” and teaches us to “understand the gifts that he has given us.” (1 Cor 2:10-12). In a nutshell, the Spirit as the light of truth enables us to be touched by the truth, not just in our mind, but in our hearts as well. This entails us receiving both the light of faith and the light of grace.
The Holy Spirit shows us our destiny. St Paul prayed that the Father will enlighten the eyes of our mind with a spirit of perception of what is revealed, so that we may “see what hope his call holds” for us and “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.” (Eph 1:17-18). We will receive the light of glory when we die, so that we can see God “face to face” – that beatific vision promised to all the saints – and be transformed from glory to glory. When we are convinced that we are called to eternal life, then we will begin to seek to live the life of Christ authentically here and now. Those who have no hope after death, tend to live their life recklessly because there is no life beyond this one.
But the truth is ultimately an event, a person, not a word, as Pope Benedict taught us. “We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deus Caritas Est, 1) So the truth is the person of Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. All that He teaches comes from the Father. He is the revealer of the Father.
The Holy Spirit will lead us to discover that Jesus is Lord when we are baptized in the Spirit. He will reveal Christ to us in a personal way so that we can proclaim Him as Lord, not just doctrinally, but subjectively. He gives us the conviction that He is truly our Saviour and the Son of God, and leads us to a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. He brings us into intimacy with Him. As the Lord said, “He will glorify me, since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: All he tells you will be taken from what is mine.” It is our encounter with Jesus, falling in love with Him, that makes us able to accept Him as the Word of God – all that is taught in the scriptures – in person. The Holy Spirit leads us to know Jesus in prayer and worship.
Consequently, for us to be led to the truth – especially Christians who already have the scriptures given to us – we need to find unity by sincerely asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and hearts so that we read the scriptures not just intellectually, but with our hearts open to hear the Word of God. We need the infusion of grace from the Holy Spirit to appreciate how to interpret and apply the Word of God in our lives today. In an atmosphere of prayer, silence, and faith, the grace of God will lead us to see the deeper truth of what we can rationally understand when we read the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will light up our lives, and enable us to see and read the text in a new light so that we can discern His will for us today in our present circumstances. He will lead us to read the bible in a spiritual manner. The scripture will then come alive, and we will begin to experience in our being that “the Word of God is alive and active.” (Heb 4:12) This explains why we can read the same text for years and then one day, find something so enlightening, and we are touched in a powerful way. This is what the Holy Father is inviting the synodal Church to do – walk with each other in a spirit of contemplative prayerful reading of the scriptures as we reflect on how we, as Church, should respond to the different trends, changing circumstances, needs, aspiration and struggles in our history.
For this to be a real possibility, in arriving at the truth, we must remove the obstacles that prevent us from allowing the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. St Paul wrote, “Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14) When we are driven by our animal instincts, desires and thoughts, we will not be able to grasp the realities that the Spirit wants to reveal to us because it is beyond our reach and understanding. As Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8f)
We must, therefore, cleanse ourselves from the filth of sin and our bodily passions. We need to overcome the desires of the flesh and be purified by the divine light of truth. Unless we seek what is true, pure and holy, we cannot arrive at the truth that sets us free. Indeed, our human nature is a fallen nature and therefore enslaved to sin. (Rom 7:14-22) We must seek for the Spirit of truth in our lives. We must pray for a deeper encounter of the love of God so that we will fall in love with Him more and more. When we encounter His love and mercy, we will be made clean to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Once the Holy Spirit is in us, we will be able to see the beauty of God in everything because our heart and mind is pure. Let us, therefore, consecrate ourselves to the Holy Spirit by entrusting our mind, our will, and heart to Him. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the flame of your love. Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and we will renew the face of the earth. Amen.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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