Pentecost and Faust

Most people have seen disruption to their normal lives since mid-March, when the world was turned upside down by the Covid-19 pandemic.  To a large degree we all gravitate to a normality, whether it be in our eating, in our chores, in our daily exercise or in our work.  That normality was shattered in mid-spring and our hopes for a return to what we knew as normal may no longer occur. We may see a new normal.  Since the outbreak of the Pandemic, in-attendance church has been canceled, so my wife and I have been watching the Sunday liturgy at St John's Abbey in Minnesota. We enjoy their liturgies, the organ music, and above all the quality of their homilies.  That leads me to Pentocost Sunday, on the last day of May 2020. 

St John Abbey and University Church Window

As if the pandemic was not sufficiently upsetting to society then came along the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis and the resulting protests and riots which have spread to many cities in the nation. Three parts of the St John's mass struck me as we grapple with the outfall of these two incidents, one world and one now national.  

Great Hall 

First, was the First reading and the Responsorial Psalm which follows the first reading.  The first reading, Acts 2:1-11, is about the Holy Spirit coming down to the Apostles and in which they speak in other tongues.  Yet, the reading goes on to talk about a whole host of persons from different areas and countries with different customs and languages hearing in their own language what the Apostles speak, and it was not the language of Aramaic, or perhaps Hebrew in which the Apostles would normally speak.  What was striking to me was how the Holy Spirit was speaking to more than just those from Galilee or Jerusalem, but to a broader humanity.  That seems to be a message that we have forgotten, or perhaps laid to the side, that we are all one humanity regardless of race, sex, or affiliations. But, that was not the end of the driving home of this message.

Second, at the time of the Responsorial Psalm, three monks came forward. The refrain was sung in English, but each of the three verses were sung in a different language:  A monk sang a verse in Spanish, a monk from Africa sang in Swahili, and a monk from Vietnam sang in Vietnamese.  In a sense all four corners of the earth were covered by the singing of the Psalm, once again showing that we are all one under God.  I found this quite powerful, given recent events.  This made me think that perhaps there is no other institution on earth, as flawed the as Church may be, that has such a global reach.

Then came the homily.  The celebrant, Fr Michael Patella, OSB related the reading from Acts and the portion of John's Gospel to Mahler's Symphony #8.  He relates Acts as the Holy Spirit coming like an earth shake, and the words of Gospel as a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit.  He then gets into the way the symphony describes the relationship of Faust and his bargain with the devil (and later his redemption by his lover Gretchen).  What Fr Patella had to say, is well beyond my capabilities.  He says that the pandemic shows cracks in "high relief the results of a world built on small Faustian bargains" from our streets to the highest office in the land.  He then relates that such fears have no place within the larger works of the Holy Spirit.  You can view the homily at this link, and it begins at about the 29:00 minute mark (Please note the recording, I believe, is up for one week, so it will expire next week Saturday).

Church Bell Banner

Yet, if the Holy Spirit is to either act like a earthquake or gentle nudge on each of us we have to be willing to discern what the Holy Spirit intended, and then look to act on that nudge or earth shake.  Small acts of kindness and realizing that we are more alike than different, may not help quell the violence at present, but it can also show the better "angles of our nature", such as those who come together to clean up following a night of violence.  It takes a change of hearts to change society and to change hearts requires us to listen and be aware. We have to realize that we are all together on one earth, just like those who sung verses to the Responsorial Psalm.  Personally, the mass was just what my soul required in this time of turmoil.  To that I am thankful to St John's.