On Pentecost day, apart from the tongue of fire that came upon the apostles, the most striking experience of that day was when the people, mesmerized by what they were seeing and experiencing, declared: “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues” (Acts 2:9-11). What an experience in unity in diversity! When it comes to God and His message of salvation, we all come under one umbrella no matter what our gender, color, race, culture, ethnicity, origin, and nationality may be. It is still one baptism, one God, one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, one creator, with justice and equality for all because at the foot of the Cross, there are no hills and valleys, no upstairs and basements, and no Jews and Gentiles.
How unfortunate it is that, in one of the darkest moments in our Church’s history, the Church taught that slavery was a natural deterrent and a Christianizing influence on the people of SubSaharan Africa, and therefore encouraged the Europeans nations “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, subdue, and reduce their persons [i.e. Sub-Sahara Africans] to perpetual slavery.” To date, the Church has not recanted this pronouncement, and its effects have continued to endure over the ages.
On this Pentecost Day, the Psalmist prays, “Lord send forth your spirit, and renew the face of the Msgr. Anselm earth”; a call for all of us to help create “the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). As Christians, it is important that we start giving utmost importance to this Pentecost call. We need an inner conversion; a personal conviction that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain inalienable rights; a personal resolve to respect all peoples as children of God most high. We need to pray that the good Lord will give us the courage to bear witness to the dignity of every human being, to heal the pain of discrimination and prejudice; to uproot the destructive power of systemic racism and bigotry; to raise those who because of their background have their backs on the ground; those whose zip codes, color, race, and gender, inhibit opportunities and possibilities for the development of their God-given talents and abilities.
My friends, only Jesus Christ can save! No act of man’s inhumanity to man can save. The privileges we seek in acts of discrimination, bigotry, racism, isolationism, nationalism, homophobic, and xenophobic tendencies cannot save. We really need to focus on Jesus Christ because He is the author and finisher of our lives. Pentecost is about hearing the same message; the message that all men are created equal and that Jesus Christ is the only one Lord, no matter who we are, how we are, where we are, and what we are. Let us reach out and touch somebody with love, with care, with attention, with hope, and with welcome, doing all because we are all children of the same Creator and Father, God Almighty.
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