Pentecost: The Birth of the Church

" When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. Suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then, there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim." -- [Acts 2: 1-11].


The Feast of Pentecost occurs on the Seventh Sunday after Easter.

Pentecost is generally considered to be the birthday of the Church. In Matthew 28:19, after Jesus' Death and Resurrection, Jesus appears to the eleven disciples (all but Judas) and commissions them. Jesus tells them, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the Nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commended you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

At Pentecost, all of US become disciples of Jesus, when Peter makes his speech to all staying in Jerusalem, at Pentecost. Peter addresses "Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism (Gentiles), Cretans and Arabs."  Peter's sweeping welcome encompassed just about all of the known world of the time.

And yet, today, Christianity is shrinking. Rather than the birth of a Church, are we witnessing the death of Christianity?

An article in The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2015, entitled "Mideast Christians on the Brink", declares, "The numbers are stark. Almost 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Between the U.S.-led invasion that toppled his regime in 2003 and the rise of Islamic State, three-fourths of the country's Christians are believed to have fled Iraq or died in sectarian conflict. The carnage continues. Of the 300,000 Christians remaining in 2014, some 125,000 have been driven from their homes within the past year."

Meanwhile, in the Western world, more and more often, we are choosing to abandon our attachment to any religion or denomination.

We very rightly mourn the loss, or potential loss, of priceless artifacts in Nimrud, Ramadi and Palmyra. There is a heavy cultural loss in the advancement of ISIS and Al Qaeda. But do we not also mourn the loss of Christianity itself?

When I was a child, I was regularly taken to church. But when I turned 14, my family took church away. Faith and church were forbidden. If I asked to go to church, I was mocked, flatly refused, and given cold stares.

It has taken decades to get my Faith back. I had hidden my Faith so deep inside me that I have been terrified to show it. When I was called to convert a few years ago, I wanted to tell God to go away and leave me alone! Before I could show up for Communion at Sunday Mass after my conversion, I had to practice walking down that long aisle, at several 6:30 a.m. weekday Masses.

Do not tell me that there is no persecution in America. Persecution lies in the cold face of those who hate you because you desire to attend church. Persecution lies in a family's refusal to stand in the receiving line at your wedding, when you marry a Christian man. Persecution lies in a family cutting your Christian spouse out of family vacations and holidays- - and demanding that you choose between your beloved, and your family of origin. Persecution lies in a father, red-faced in anger, poking his finger in his daughter's face and hissing that the Immaculate Conception is a bald lie. Persecution lies in a boss telling a Catholic employee, "YOU are too intelligent to be Catholic!"

We all may cluck our tongues, and wag our index fingers, and wring our hands at the beheadings of Christians in Iraq; at the kidnapping of innocent school girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram; and the bulldozing of Christian villages by the Muslim Brotherhood in South Sudan. I do applaud the passion of our global Christian sympathy.

BUT what are WE doing about fanning the flames of Faith here at home? What is worse than someone fighting you over your religion? Someone being proud of their indifference at religion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "In the end, we will remember not the word of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

I have had a rough road, in recovering from the cruelty of my childhood, from every kind of abuse imaginable. Today, I have no nuclear family. Come to think of it, I was always alone, taking care of myself.

I honestly do not know what I would do without my "church family". They have watched me mourn, cry, grieve, then come to God and Jesus, then come to action. They have told me that they have watched me transform before their very eyes. The agent of my rebirth has been --- LOVE.

When we give up our religion and our Faith, we give up on Love. We give up on each other!

WE are the church! Church is not just a building, a Rosary, a Mary Statue, a beautiful hymn, a Rectory garden. Faith and church are US.

We have not only the Right, but the obligation, to speak the Word, to love other Christians. And, I truly believe, to attend Mass in the stead of those who cannot.

We need to ask : Is the Church failing us? Or are WE failing the Church--- when we cannot even stand up, come to Mass, and be counted?

[Related Postings: "Pentecost", June 13, 2011; "He Calls Me Friend", May 10, 2015; "The 'Lost Shepherd' ", April 25, 2105.]

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