The Day of Pentecost

May 27, 2007

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

 St. Thomas More Society

 Scranton, PA

John 20:19-23

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

St. Augustine once said that a man would rather spend the day with his dog than with someone with whom he did not share the same language.  When I read that statement I knew immediately what he was talking about.  The inability to communicate with others, or to understand what others are saying, is one of the most frustrating experiences imaginable.  On those rare occasions that I have found myself in such circumstances I have done all in my power to keep that frustration from showing through. 

How brilliant of the Lord, then, to give the Apostles the gift of speaking in foreign tongues, so that Jews from all over the world could understand the Gospel message.  From the Book of Acts today we heard the story of the Day of Pentecost, when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit, who gave them the ability to speak in languages they had no ability otherwise to speak or understand.  The frustration that we experience in trying to communicate an idea to people who don’t speak our language – this frustration was absent that day.  Not only could the Apostles speak, the target audience could understand.  The language barrier was no barrier at all, and the Church grew as a result.  St. Luke tells us later on in chapter two that the naysayers thought the Apostles were drunk, but nonetheless 3,000 people were converted that day.

People that share a common language can offer themselves to one another not only in deed but in word.  I can do a charitable act for someone, and his language has no bearing upon my ability to make this sacrifice.  But what if I must explain to him what that act means?  Only if he can speak my language, or I can speak his, will I be able to offer myself fully to him.  The stories of the saints of the church are replete with references to great men and women who labored to translate the Scriptures for those who had no other way to hear them.  Sts. Cyril and Methodius even came up with an alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, to bring the Gospel to the Slavic peoples.  Understanding the spoken word is the first step every time in beginning to understand the Gospel, the message of salvation.

What is true for the Scriptures is true for the Sacraments, as well.  As a priest of the Church I can validly administer the Sacraments wherever I go, but the people will benefit more if they can understand me.  For example, take the sacrament of Penance.  In the Gospel today Jesus gives the authority to grant absolution for the remission of sins, an authority our successor to the Apostles, Bishop Martino, has bestowed upon me.  Now I can grant absolution to people who make a valid confession, no matter what language they speak.  But what counsel can I reasonably offer if I don’t even know what each penitent has confessed.  I can perform the act, but I cannot offer myself fully unless we can communicate.

I was asked when I was out in California why in our Anglican Use Sacred Liturgy we use the translation that we do.  Being from the sixteenth century, it has words like vouchsafe, a word unfamiliar to most Americans.  I said quite simply that this is a language that we share with Anglicans, and we will have a better chance of reaching them with Catholic truth if we couch the truth in the words and phrases that Anglicans have grown accustomed to hearing when they go to church to offer thanks and praise to God.  Traditional Anglicans might be able to understand us otherwise, but we know for certain that they will understand us better if the translation of the Mass is one they recognize.

Therefore, the lesson from today’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles is not that we must use the lowest-common-denominator vernacular language in the Liturgy.  Rather it is that we use language that our target audience will recognize and will make them receptive to the Gospel.  Last week we visited a Maronite Church in El Cajon and had a long conversation with the Lebanese priest who is the pastor.  He told us that even when most of the Mass is in English, or Arabic, as the case may be, the Words of Institution at the consecration are always spoken in Aramaic.  Using this language, which no Lebanese actually speak, does not prevent recognition but actually enhances it:  it is the language that Jesus spoke at the very first Mass and thus draws participants deeper into the Liturgy.

I, too, found myself at home, but at a Roman Rite Church in Murrieta.  The Pastor there is a convert from Anglicanism, so although the church is new it in no way resembles some of the uglier examples of modern church architecture.  The casework around the organ pipes was enough to remind one of this former Anglican’s appreciation of the beautiful.  What had me giving thanks for Fr. Barker’s conversion to Catholicism, however, was the reredos – yes, there is a brand new Catholic church in California that has a reredos – which depicts Jesus being taken down from the cross as Adam rises from the grave and while the heavenly hosts cense  the Lamb of God.  In other words, what I recognized as a former Anglican was not limited to the words being spoken, but the environment in which those words are offered in praise to God.

Many of us who trace our patrimony through England have a sincere appreciation of the beautiful, an appreciation that runs so deep we recoil at the sight of the ugly and tasteless, particularly when such are found in the Church.  As part of my celebration of Pentecost I have reflected upon St. Paul’s words as he reminds us that there is one Spirit but there are varieties of gifts.  I am convinced that one of the reasons the Lord is calling so many Anglicans home to Rome at this time is that the Church needs this appreciation of beauty.  Moreover, this appreciation of beauty is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  The beautiful is not a waste of time which distracts our attention from doing what is really important, like feeding the hungry and saving the unborn.  Rather, just as the Jews in today’s lesson were able to recognize the Gospel because the Apostles spoke in their native language, so the beautiful helps us to recognize the face of Jesus.

Feeding the hungry and saving the unborn are beautiful acts.  How can we be expected to embrace any such acts of charity if we are never exposed to the beauty that inspires such acts?  Far from being a distraction, beauty is an attraction.  After all, we have been attracted to the Church because the Truth is so beautiful.  Imagine how many more conversions we will win when the beauty of the Truth is recognizable in the beauty of our worship and in the beauty of our Churches.  We must trust that the Spirit knows what he is doing.  May he grant us the courage to speak in the language our target audience understands, even when others don’t recognize that the Spirit has in fact given us a gift the Church requires.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.