This morning’s Gospel reading is John 14:15–16, 23b–26:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”
We come to Him in arrogance. He comes to us in humility.
And this is how we translate love.
Pentecost celebrates the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Lord, into the hearts of those in His Church. It is the final reversal of the path of salvation, the one that unlocks our hearts and our tongues so that we may not just hear the Gospel but speak it and put it into the true temple of the Lord: the hearts of His children.
We can speak today of the Tower of Babel, the fall of the Davidic kingdom, and more. But we can get to the true conflict within us and between humanity and our Father by considering the parable of the prodigal son. This parable does not just teach us about forgiveness; it reminds us of how we have treated our own King, and how He keeps calling us back and offering to celebrate every step we take back toward Him.
In the beginning, we dwelt with the Lord in the paradise He designed for us. We did not want His lordship over us, however, and we rebelled in precisely the same manner as the younger son in the parable. We ate from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge in order to exclude God from our lives and take over the wealth he provided on our own terms. We have spent the rest of our time dissipating ourselves in sinfulness, realizing at times the extent of our slavery to it, and lamenting our separation from the Father who loves us — but who will not force us to choose Him.
Ever since, though, the Lord has tried to call us back to Him. He rescued Noah from the flood; he saved Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; he came to Abraham and promised him a multitude of descendants for his faithfulness to the Lord. He called the Israelites out of Egypt to become a nation of priests and prophets as the Lord’s gift to the world, where all could come to hear His Word and be saved. That was the purpose of the Temple in Jerusalem — where all could come into the Lord’s presence and be united with him.
In all of these efforts, we failed the Father, through sinfulness and corruption. The first temple fell, thanks in large part of the same arrogance we exhibited in Eden and in the Tower of Babel episode (Genesis 11). Jeremiah warned the Judeans that the Lord was not their captive and that the Temple was not an idol, but their arrogance and appetites blinded them, and eventually led them into captivity. We consistently rejected the Father’s lordship and insisted on going our own way with His creation.
And yet, the Lord has never stopped yearning to bring us back to Him. That is exactly what happened in Pentecost, enabled by the final sacrifice for our sinfulness and rebellion by Jesus Christ. Rather than wait for His children to choose to come back to Him, the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to us as the connection to the Trinitarian life for which we yearn. He gave that gift to the Church which Christ established and made that a missionary church to spread the Good News of salvation and the Holy Spirit to all who turn their heart toward the Lord.
Sometimes, people read the Old Testament and choose to see an angry, vengeful God who only punishes His people. Like many parents, the Father has chastised His people, but mainly by withdrawing His protection of them and letting them suffer the consequences of their own choices and sins. He has not just been the king in the parable of the prodigal son, waiting in faith and hope for the younger son’s return, but has constantly called and sent emissaries (in the form of the prophets) to call His children back to His love. In the end, He sent His only Son, the Word Incarnate, who would have to be sacrificed to allow for Pentecost and the Great Reversal that sends the Lord to each and every one of those who wish to receive him.
A few years ago, I included the narration that comes at the end of the excellent 1981 film The Chosen, about the story of two Jewish teens in New York during the run-up and aftermath of the establishment of the modern state of Israel. The film quotes a story from the Talmud about a similar father-son parable that has significance for the film itself, but I believes gives us an insight into just how much our Father loves us and works to bring us home:
There is a story in the Talmud about a king who had a son who went astray. The son was told, ‘Return to your father.’ The son replied that he could not. The king then sent a messenger to the son with the message… ‘Come back to me as far as you can, and I will meet you the rest of the way.
Pentecost is the same call. Come back to me as far as you can, and I will meet you the rest of the way. The Holy Spirit comes to the apostles and transforms the path of salvation forever. We no longer need to come to the Temple; He comes to us where we are, condescending by setting aside His station to meet us in our language, translating His ever-burning love for us into the terms we can understand and embrace.
That is how much God loves us all. And that is how Pentecost translated that love forever.
Previous reflections on these readings:
The front page image is The Eye of God in a glass window at the Basilica de Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. From my own collection.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature that looks at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.
