Feast of Pentecost

Sunday May 27, 2007

“Agere Sequitur Esse”

Agere sequitur esse. Ergo, age quod age!

For those who favor a return to the Latin Mass, this should keep the franchise.
Those who do not favor a return to the Latin might reconsider if all my homilies were this brief!

No, I’m not in favor of a return to the Latin Mass!

The readings on the feast of Pentecost are a kaleidoscope of images and metaphors depicting a new creation—not unlike the two descriptions of the first creation in Genesis but perhaps a bit more dramatic. There were no eye witnesses to the first creation event but there were many to the second—people of every race and nation. Confused at first, they caught the spirit and got the message that something new was taking place. Jesus was not dead but still very much alive in their midst—really and truly.

Of a sudden the words Jesus spoke, the stories he told, the signs he performed all came together—they kicked in as it were. It was the great ‘aha’ moment of all time. The human nature of believers was turned inside out. They were reborn in the spirit and everyone knew it. The tongues of fire came from one source but landed on people of different people, descendants of the twelve tribes of Abraham. They were changed radically but the gifts of the Spirit—knowledge, understanding, wisdom, counsel, courage, piety, and deep reverence for God—were not given to them for their own enrichment or enjoyment. They were imparted to them “for the sake of God’s dominion,” for the sake of humanity—regardless of heritage or nationality and they were recognized as “people of God” by the fruits of the Holy Spirit—charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self control and chastity. “By their fruits you will know them.”

There is an expression in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, “Agere sequitur esse.” It means action follows being—i.e., acting according to nature. To act in accord with our human nature is one thing and it is more or less instinctive. Our human instincts are not bad. In fact, St. Thomas said “grace builds on nature.” We breathe by instinct; we fulfill our physical and emotional needs by instinct; we avoid danger by instinct. However, our human instincts can be deceptive and lead us into danger as well as out of danger. Despite our drive for independence and our human will to control, we still need something more. Is it possible that this need is also instinctive? In the words of Saint Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts will not rest until they rest in you.” Perhaps this is the key to our understanding and appreciation of the Pentecost event.

The three readings form a triptych, a panoply of metaphors, similes and literary forms to explain the inexplicable. In the same way that we become the bread we eat in Eucharist, so too the Holy Spirit touches the core of our human nature transforming us at the level of the soul wherein our spiritual instincts reside. No, we are not yet fully ‘divinized’ but over time the Spirit empowers us to think like God and act in a God-like manner in a human way. Jesus remains the paradigm.

Indeed, this is an awesome thought that almost exceeds human understanding or explanation but it is the very reason for our existence. Recall the now ancient but still not archaic catechism question, “Why did God make me?” the answer to which we put to memory, “God made me to know him, to love him, and to show forth his goodness in this life and to be happy with him in the next.” This definition hearkens back to the words of Genesis, “God made them, male and female, in his image.” The sin of Adam and Eve was not that they wanted to be like God but that they failed to recognize that they were already like God.

The description of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles by Luke reverses the mythical story of Babel in the Old Testament. God confused those who would challenge God’s power and God’s rule over creation. There are no towers built by human hands that can reach heaven or bring about heavenly rule. It is God’s initiative and God’s generosity that generates goodness within us. This is what it means to live in grace or better, to swim in the sea of God’s grace.

Carl Jung speaks of the collective unconscious, the mix of dreams and fears that we inherit from our ancestors. However, he makes the point that we are not predestined to cave into evil but destined to realize our full potential. As Christians, we believe this takes place as we identify with Christ who is the epitome or exemplar of what we are destined to become.

In the Evangelical tradition, it is customary to ask, “Are you a born-again Christian?” Catholics are usually reluctant to answer in the affirmative but also hesitate to deny it. So, they remain silent. The answer of course is an emphatic “yes!” But in our tradition, divinization is a process. We are born again whenever we become more aware of the presence of God within us and around us. We are surrounded by God’s presence but not always aware of it.

Pentecost still has the potential to unlock hearts and effect miracles as we come to a greater awareness of our power as conduits of divine grace for others. Imbued with the spirit of Jesus, we do indeed learn to think like and act like Christ.

I have witnessed it in the healing of memories in victims of abuse, in the healing of seeming irreconcilable differences in marriage, and we have seen it in the dramatic changes in the reconciliation of a divided Northern Ireland. We hear it in the words of peacemakers searching for common ground in the Kuran and Bible.

Is it too much to expect that miracles can still happen even in the face of terrorist threats? I’m not referring to a miracle of Islamic conversion but of Christians becoming true disciples of Christ. There must be a better way than war.

“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God.” A mighty wind is still blowing and the fire of God’s love is still burning brightly.

Agere sequitur esse. Ergo age quod age!—Be who you are and do what you have been called to do in Christ.

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