Pentecost Sunday - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2010

I have the feeling that the Church is generally seen as more focussed on pointing out where people are wrong than in saying “Welcome aboard!”

Certainly, it is important to be clear about behaviour that is sinful, that is, that is ultimately destructive of the dignity either of others or of ourselves. But we are all involved in sin in one way or another.

There were a lot of people involved in the death of Jesus – from the Jewish leaders and Pilate, the Jewish crowd and the Roman military, down to Judas who betrayed him, Peter who publicly and repeatedly denied him and the other disciples who abandoned him to his brutal death. What motivated them all was self-interest – self-interest at the expense of another.

And we are all into that, and for a lot of the time. There lies the essence of sin. Sometimes we are aware of what we are doing and choose to act deliberately. Most times, we are so used to it that we do not even notice it.

The message of Jesus to those to the disciples, complicit in his murder by their plain absence, was: Peace be with you! The message to Jesus to everyone in our world who has sinned, who has put self-interest before others, whether spectacularly so or otherwise, whether fully aware or blissfully ignorant, is Peace be with you!

It is the offer of forgiveness, a call to wholeness – to peace and to a whole other way of living that puts care and respect for others above self-interest. It is this offer of certain, unconditional forgiveness that makes it possible for us to face up to the truth of what we do and that gives us the motivation  and the power to change. I think that it is only the certainty of forgiveness, along with the clear knowledge that, despite ourselves, we are radically loved, that enable us really to admit our sin and, at the same time, to find the power to be different.

The Jesus who said to his disciples: Peace be with you, then went on to say: As the Father sent me, I now send you. It is helpful to remember what had been made clear earlier in the Gospel: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.

This is the mission that Jesus now entrusts to all disciples: Show to the world that God loves it. Show to the sinful world that God loves us all, whatever we’re up to.

And we are as good as anyone else to announce this message because we know because we have heard and believed God’s message of forgiveness, and Jesus’ greeting of peace. More than that, Jesus has given to us what he calls the Holy Spirit, the irresistible power of love, the mysterious power that love has to change, to enthuse, and to energise us.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our self-destructing, our mutually destructing, our lost and wounded world could hear the Church, the community of disciples, not condemning it but saying: Come on board, and discover who you really are, where you are respected for who you really are, where you are welcome, where you can be one with us, helping each other to listen to, to believe and to respond wholeheartedly the God who loves us all.