Homily for Pentecost 2010

Each Sunday as I baptise infants and children I am struck by the import of what the Church is saying over a tiny child after it is baptised: The prayer for the anointing with Chrism says, "The God of Power and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin an brought you to new life through water and the Holy Spirit. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation, so that, united with his people, you may remain for ever a member of Christ who is Priest, Prophet, and King."

Those three words, priest, prophet, and king, describe Christ's mission in proclaiming the Kingdom of God. It is a mission he hands on to the Church. It is a mission to which each person is called to share through their baptism. In this Year of the Priest we could reflect on the priestly part of it. It is Christ, really, who is our only priest. We share it only because we are members of his body. This is the origin of the "common priesthood of the laity."

The term priesthood of the laity has not entered into our thinking much. Perhaps this is because some Catholics are uncomfortable with it thinking it diminishes the ordained priesthood. But it is this common priesthood which is the foundation of the ordained priesthood. Christ has made the Church "a kingdom of priests serving his God and Father" (Revelation 1:6). In this Church the ordained priesthood as the Catechism says "is at the service of the common priesthood" (CCC 1546-1547). We have been accustomed to place the ordained priesthood on a very high pedestal to emphasise the difference between the lay person and the ordained priest. In doing this we forgot the common priesthood. Pedestals are dangerous places. The higher the pedestal the more terrible the fall can be as we have witnessed. The ordained priesthood must always see itself in relationship to the priesthood of the Church.

Pentecost celebrates the amazing beginning of the mission of the Church by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. We speak of the various ministries that people have in the Church. We should try to think also in terms of these ministries being part of the exercise of our common priesthood with Christ to which we are called by baptism.

The care you show for a needy person, the love you show for your spouse and children in the hidden life of your family, the embracing of the sick and dying, the forgiveness you offer when you are offended, the care for the earth upon which we depend, the prayer you offer for others, each is a priestly act. We need to be more conscious of that reality. In all of these actions we are interceding to God on behalf of our world with Christ. That priestly activity of the whole Church is seen most clearly at the Eucharist. It is the royal priesthood of all the baptised that is celebrating the Eucharist presided over by the ordained priest. This is Christ, head and members offering worship to God and interceding for all human kind. In this week of prayer for Christian Unity that ends today we can also reflect that this common priesthood is something we share with all baptised Christians. There is much that divides the Christian Churches but what unites us is still profound

The picture of Pentecost most vivid to many of us from our childhood days is the descent of the Holy Spirit accompanied by "divided tongues, as of fire" that rested on each of the disciples in the upper room. Fire is a common image in the scriptures to indicate the presence of God. When Moses received the Torah from God we are told in Exodus, "Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire." Exodus 19:18).

One ancient Jewish tradition has it that the fire that descended on Mt Sinai when Moses received the Torah split up into seventy tongues corresponding to the seventy nations of the world as the Jews understood it. Jewish tradition saw the origins of the nations of the world in the 70 grandsons of Noah in Genesis. So even as God was creating his chosen people Israel, God's concern was for all the nations. (There is a similar tradition in the Dead Sea Scrolls. "And it (the cloud?) shall come forth with him, with tongues of fire" Dead Sea Scroll, 4Q376 )

The Holy Spirit came upon the whole infant Church at its beginning at Pentecost as the disciples gathered in the upper room waiting for the Advocate to come. Theirs was a mission to the whole world unhindered by language.

So imagine yourself in the upper room with the disciples and Mary. What would that experience be like? As you sit there in that room reflect on Jesus' words in the Gospel today. "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (John 14:23). Then you realise that this today is the upper room. This is where the promised Advocate, the Holy Spirit will come upon us. This is where we are commissioned by Jesus to continue his mission. Those first disciples were on fire with love of God. The fire of the Holy Spirit which gives life and burns away what is not needed. They had something wonderful to share.

What about us? What are we on fire with? Is our life in Christ so treasured by us that we want to offer it to others? I like to think that amongst all the varied motivations that parents have in bringing their child for baptism that somewhere there is an in-articulated belief that here in Christ is life and hope. The greatest gift they can offer a child.

Fr Graham