Pentecost Vigil Mass
June 4, 2022
Resurrection, Ellicott City
Building Together in Love
First, let me say how good it is to be here with all of you on this happy occasion when we have the joy of blessing an extension to the parish center that provides more adequate facilities for your St. Vincent de Paul Conference. I will also bless a new Rosary Garden and break ground for new construction. These are not only signs of growth and vitality but also of unity of purpose on the part of this entire parish family – for which I join you in giving thanks to God – and in giving thanks to your Pastor, Msgr. John Dietzenbach, for his leadership. In the same breath, I would like to thank Father Scott Kady, your parish deacons, and your lay staff and leadership – and I know that all of you will want to offer a warm welcome home to Fr. Tyler Kline!
All that said, we have to face facts. The first reading from the Book of Genesis tells the story of the tower of Babel. Not exactly an encouraging Scripture reading when it comes to building projects! It’s not that the tower collapsed – it was never finished – and not because the “County of Shinar” delayed in granting a building permit! No, the reason that project fell through was the arrogance of the builders. They built, not to glorify God or to meet human need, but rather, ‘to make a name for themselves.’ For that reason, the Lord threw the builders into confusion by making them incomprehensible to one another. No longer could they work together.
I don’t think that’s going to happen here! After all, you added an extension to the parish center that shows reverence for God by showing reverence for the poor and needy. You have created a space dedicated to works of love and mercy which the Holy Spirit inspires and sustains in us as living witnesses to Christ. And you are doing this project in a spirit of love and unity; it is something you decided upon after prayer, consultation, and discernment. Instead of becoming incomprehensible to one another, you reached a mutual understanding, rooted in the universal language of love – also the work of the Holy Spirit in your midst. We can say something similar of the Rosary Garden which will afford members of your parish family and visitors opportunities to contemplate the face of Christ through the eyes of Mary in a quiet, peaceful setting. And what can I say of the ground breaking that will signal at long last the renovation of your parish worship space – except that we are building it to glorify God and to build up your parish community, a community that looks to the future with hope and joy. So perhaps the reading about Babel wasn’t so bad after all!
Renewing the Face of the Earth in Love and Justice
But wait, there’s more! More that speaks about the life of your parish! The Responsorial Psalm is a hymn of praise to the Lord, the Lord who is cloaked in majesty and sheathed in light – the God who made the world in all its wonder, the God who provides for every living being, the God who “sends forth his Spirit to renew the face of the earth”.
As we praise the Lord for his manifold works, let us rejoice and take heart. Not only has the Lord poured forth his blessings upon us, he has entrusted us with being stewards of our common home, the earth which his good Spirit renews through our care and concern. The Holy Spirit poured forth upon us by the Father and the Son bids us to be his co-workers in renewing the face of the earth by works of justice and love for the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable, but not according to any human ideology, but rather according to his good and provident plan of creation and redemption. We absorb this plan in Scripture, Tradition, and the Church’s moral and social teaching. As we do so, the Spirit continually renews our hearts and deepens our unity so that we may build together, in love and hope.
“In Hope We Were Saved”
St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, opens the way to a confident hope that will outlast the challenges that all of us experience in our lives. In the midst of our daily joys and struggles, something deep within us groans for more… not more of the same, not more of what our culture serves up to us, but something better, something more profound, something that corresponds to the deepest desires of our hearts, namely, a love that is at once pure, selfless, passionate, and infinite.
Love alone can fill the void that exists in the core of our being – and until that void is filled, we “groan within ourselves” as St. Paul says. The good news, literally the Good News, is that this void begins to be filled even now when, through the Holy Spirit, we truly encounter Christ in the depth of our hearts, and in the core of this parish community, and in the core of the Church at large. This does not exempt us from whatever it is that might confront us in the future. It does mean that we have a future, a future that will not end in emptiness – for through the Spirit we have received a new life, a true participation in Christ’s life, not merely in our thoughts or imagination but in the depth of our souls. This is what Baptism, Eucharist, and the Church’s sacramental life is really all about. And because we participate in the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, “the dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open.” Whatever turbulence lies ahead, we face it as a people whose horizon is not the immediate future but a future of infinite love. This is what enables us to live differently – as a people of hope. This is what enables us to build up the Church, figuratively and literally – and what enables us to engage boldly in the mission of spreading the Gospel.
The Living Water of Faith
To build up the Church and to build up our spiritual lives, we surely need love for the Lord, for one another, and the poor; we surely need hope, for without hope we succumb to anger and discouragement; but we also need faith, for it is only in faith that we encounter the Lord, whether in Word and Sacrament, in private prayer, or in the Church’s ministries. Love, hope, and faith do not impose themselves upon us but rather correspond to our inward thirst for God, our longing to encounter him. In tonight’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink” and adds, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within those who believe in me.’ These rivers of living water Jesus spoke of is the Holy Spirit, … the Spirit who gave us the gift of faith at Baptism, the Spirit who flows through hearts of anyone who is not hardened by arrogance or presumption but remains humble and contrite. This is key to having a living faith that opens the door of our hearts to God.
On this Pentecost Eve, let us pray earnestly for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ourselves individually, upon our families, upon this parish family, upon the Archdiocesan family of faith, and upon the Church throughout the world. May we unite in love, in hope, and in faith in building up the Body of Christ, to the glory of God’s Name and for the world’s salvation! God bless you and keep you in his love!