Pentecost | Un-Babel-ing Our Pride and Igniting Our Hearts

 

This is a fire 

that does not destroy ...

This fire consumes nothing good

but everything evil.

This is a fire that burns 

less and less

the nearer you get to it and

more and more

the farther you distance

yourself from it.

It is the fire that is

the Holy Spirit.

+ Dr. Peter Kreeft

Sometimes you hear or read a homily that packs a punch with its pithiness and power. Boston College Philosophy Professor Dr. Peter Kreeft's Pentecost Sunday reflection on the mass reading for Year B in Food for the Soul did that for me for Pentecost 2024. I hope you taste and find this reflection on the Lord who is the Spirit good for you, too.

The Coming of the Spirit

Acts 2:1-11

1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
2 And suddenly
there came from the sky a noise
like a strong driving wind, 
and it filled the entire house
in which they were.
3 Then there appeared to them
tongues as of fire, 
which parted and came to rest
on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in different tongues, 
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

5 Now there were devout Jews
from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.
6 At this sound,
they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them
speaking in his own language. 

7 They were astounded,
and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people
who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how does each of us
hear them in his own native language?
9 We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt
and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
11 both Jews and converts to Judaism,
Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking
in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”

Why did the fire at Pentecost take the shape of tongues? And why did it appear on their heads? Because it gave the Apostles power to speak not their own minds but the mind of God, not with their own tongues but with tongues — that is languages — that they had never learned from human beings. This was a miracle

from heaven.

In pagan Greek mythology,

Prometheus stole heavenly fire

to give it to mankind, and

Zeus was so angry at this act of charity

that he chained Prometheus to a rock.

But in Christianity, God is not jealousy

but love, and 

He Himself gives us fire from heaven,

the Holy Spirit,

who is the very life of God Himself.

John the Baptizer had prophesied this when he said, "I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11).

This is a fire that does not destroy. It is the fire Moses saw in the burning bush that was on fire but not consumed (Exodus 3:2-3). But the author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). Why is this not a contradiction? Because this fire consumes nothing good (as in Exodus 3:2) but everything evil (as in Hebrews 12:29). This is a fire that burns less and less the nearer you get to it and that burns more and more the farther you distance yourself from it. It is the fire that is the Holy Spirit of God, who is the very love between the Father and the Son that is the very life of God Himself.

Pentecost's miracle, where everyone understands each other's tongues, reverses the babble of the Tower of Babel, where language was confused. Mankind in its pride had built a great tower to storm heaven itself, saying, "Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). But the foundation of that tower was only human pride and human cleverness, and that tower collapsed when language itself collapsed into many languages so that they could no longer understand each other. Pentecost reversed that confusion of languages and restored unity to humanity, as a foretaste of heaven, where we will all understand each other and speak the same language.

What language will that be? I think the closest approximation to it on earth is music, the universal language. There is an old Jewish and Christian story that God created the world by singing it into existence. Both C.S. Lewis, in his Chronicles of Narnia, and J.R.R. Tolkien, in his Silmarillion, used that tradition in their stories of creation.

Pentecost "worked" because

it did not proudly try to rise

from earth to heaven,

like the Tower of Babel,

but humbly descended 

from heaven to earth,

like Christ — 

the Christ who said,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls

to the ground and dies,

it remains just a grain of wheat;

but if it dies,

it produces much fruit.

Whoever loses his life

(that is, greedily grasps his life)

loses it,

and whoever hates his life 

in this world

(that is, gives it up, gives it away in love)

will preserve it for eternal life"
(John 12:24-25).

Mary understood that that was the way God worked when in her "Magnificat" she said, "He has shown the strength of His arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty" (Luke 1:51-53). As Christ said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12). 

Love gives itself away and thus saves itself.

It dies and resurrects.

Nothing that has not given itself away

and died to itself will be resurrected.

C.S. Lewis, who had thousands of books and loved them deeply, was once asked whether he thought he would have his books in heaven, and he answered, "Probably only the ones I gave away on earth." We don't know whether or not that applies to books, but we do know that that applies to life. Give your life to God and others, and you will save it eternally. Hug it to yourself and you will lose it eternally.

At Pentecost, God gave Himself

away to mankind a second time.

He had given mankind His Son;

now He gives us His Spirit.

Living in the Holy Spirit

means living in what the Holy Spirit is,

which is the life of self-donation,

making a gift of yourself.

And that life is not dull and dead

like ashes but glorious and alive

like fire.

It's also catching;

we "catch fire" from those

who give that kind of love to us,

and then we pass it on to others.

+ Peter Kreeft

Food for the Soul, 

+ pgs. 395-397

Bonus Quote:

Without the Holy Spirit ...
God is far away,
Christ stays in the past,
the Gospel is a dead letter,
the Church is simply an organization,
authority a matter of propaganda,
liturgy is only nostalgia, and
Christian living a slave of morality.

But with the Holy Spirit ...
God is with us,
the universe is resurrected and
groans with the birth pangs of the Kingdom,
the risen Christ is here,
the Gospel is a living force,
the Church is a community
in the life of the Trinity,
the body of the Living Christ,
authority is a service that liberates people,
mission is Pentecost,
the liturgy is memory and anticipation,
and human action is God’s work in the world.

+ Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV,
Address to the World Council of Churches
1968 A.D.

Bonus Post:

+ Sacramental & Pentecostal

May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.

Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇

With anticipation and joy,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

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