Pentecost: A Job Description
Pentecost seems not to get its due when compared with Christmas and Easter. Certainly the latter two deserve their rank at the top of the liturgical calendar, and not just because they’ve achieved a level of commercial success. Rather, they are important because they embody two fundamental planks of the Christian creed. Christians believe that the Son of God shared in our humanity, and that Jesus died and rose for our salvation. But where do we go from there? That’s what Pentecost seeks to answer.
Tradition speaks of Pentecost as the birthday of the Church. It’s the day on which we ponder how Christmas and Easter translate into the reality of our daily routine. Do they make any difference at all? Or do they matter fundamentally to us?
On the eve of Pentecost we monks observed our monthly day of reflection, and this time around it was Brother Jacob who delivered the conference. Of course there is much to chew on in the Pentecost event, but Jacob chose to focus on the significance of language. It was at the Tower of Babel that the confusion of languages tore apart the human community; and at Pentecost the disciples preached in such a way that everyone in the crowd understood — in their individual languages.
Not for a moment do I believe that Jesus intended that we all gravitate toward one exclusive language that would unite the world. I’m no fool, because we would soon find other excuses to separate ourselves from one another. Rather, Jesus intended that we strive to transcend language and all the other things that can divide us. Only then will it be possible to understand the stranger, to reach out to those who have fallen into the ditch, and to build a Church and a community that is a reflection of the Spirit working among us.
These challenges we will always have with us, as Brother Jacob reminded us. In our own case at Saint John’s, our first monks eventually came to terms with the thought that monks of Irish descent would eventually join them in the search for God. Fast forward, the opportunity to learn from one another has scarcely faded away. Today our community embraces monks born in eight different countries, and we count among our confreres many who are bilingual. Does this force us to stretch and grow? Absolutely. But only if we work at mutual love and respect each and every day.
That is just one aspect of what Pentecost demands of us. But it’s not an impossible task. In fact, with the gift of the Holy Spirit in our midst, we can accomplish something together that we could never do alone. To borrow the words of Mother Theresa, “we do something beautiful for Jesus.” That, I would submit, is the job description of both a monastery and the Church.
NOTES
+In last week’s post I neglected to note that I read at table at the evening meal in the monastery. I was rather surprised when I picked up the book to prepare for reading, because it was a work I had intended to buy. I never guessed that we would schedule it for table reading, and yet it has been a success for us. “They Flew: A History of the Impossible” recounts the phenomenon of levitation in the Christian spiritual tradition. The author, Carlos Eire, is a professor of history at Yale, and he and I were classmates there more than a few years ago.
+On 18 May we monks of Saint John’s Abbey observed our monthly day of reflection, and Brother Jacob delivered the conference that guided our thoughts as we prepared for Pentecost.
+On 19 May I and three other monks concelebrated at the morning Mass at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis. The occasion was the presentation of the Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible. Anyone who has ever attended liturgies at the Basilica knows that they are stupendous events, and this one did not disappoint. It lasted all of an hour and a half. The pastor reminded first-time visitors that the thirty-minute liturgy that they might have been looking for was to be found at a particular parish in St. Paul.
+Christian and monastic communities come in all shapes and sizes. Among my favorite monastic communities is San Pau del Camp, an early medieval Benedictine community near the center of Barcelona. It was designed to house five or six monks.