In the Old Testament there is a story called the Tower of Babel. This story tells us of a time when all the nations of the earth spoke the same language. With time these nations planned to build a city and a tower whose top would reach into the heavens so as to make a name for themselves. The all-knowing God however was aware of their wicked plans and so he confounded the nations thereby dividing their one language into many. Without the unity of language these nations went their separate ways leaving behind them their city and its tower.
> In a certain sense this story speaks about the height that sin can reach in human history, a height which seeks to establish itself against the sovereignty of God. This story is one of the clearest accounts found in scripture of the extremes that the human family weighed down by sin can reach. Sin ultimately will lead to man exalting himself over and above God his Creator if man’s heart is not first changed.
> Pentecost is a reversal of what happens at the Tower of Babel. The nations of the world are called together in unity by the Holy Spirit to once again speak one language, the language of praise for the many wondrous deeds that God has worked for the good of the human family. Pentecost is also an invitation to build the city of God where the only name we will seek is the one that God so chooses to give us. Really, what better a name can human beings receive than to be called sons and daughters of the living God?
> Pentecost is not a one-time event. It is the eternal waterfall that continually beats down upon the Church’s calloused hands softening them for the task of handling the Sacred Mysteries of God’s life which is contained in the vessel known as the human heart.
> Pentecost is also a time for getting the kinks out of the hose of salvation so that all the peoples of the earth may come to know that the Church is the well spring of salvation established by Jesus Christ in order to satisfy the deepest yearnings of every human heart.
> Pentecost is a time of contagious joy, a time of exuberant gladness. It is a sign of God’s victory taking on concrete form in human history. The victory of the Resurrection has been sealed by the coming of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost. It is one thing to hear a message and accept it, but to live it is another thing. That is why the Church was not ready for its mission of worldwide evangelization until it received the gift of the Holy Spirit who enables us to live out our exalted call to holiness.
> We all know what its like to fill out a resume and the purpose of doing such. In writing a resume a person tries to sell them self. If such a person is to be taken seriously and considered for a specific job or task they usually need a few references who are capable of testifying to the authenticity of that person’s claim about them self and their resume. The more important the reference the greater the chances they have of selling them self. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s reference and the Gospel is her Resume. The Spirit testifies that who the Church claims herself to be in the Gospel is authentically accurate.
> In Pentecost we celebrate our divine inheritance. As adopted sons and daughters of God we are heirs to the innumerable riches gained for us by Christ’s complete surrender to His Father.
> St. Paul says: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of Adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father.” The Church is God’s response to sin in the human family. We are blest, gifted and yet at the same time we are sinners. We are members of a family where something has gone wrong. We are affected by our surroundings and in our own ways we also contribute to the dysfunctional nature of the human family.
> The evil one seeks to pull the wool over our eyes so as to convince us that we are useless, inadequate and unlovable. When we allow this kind of garbage to settle in our souls, we slowly lose sight of our beauty as individuals and as a people. By the wounds of Christ we have been made whole, why then do we allow ourselves to wallow in the misery of the evil one. Jesus Christ has defeated the world. How many of us are still in chains? We are the people of God and yet many of us still find ourselves held back by many fears and insecurities. These chains hold us back from the freedom that the Holy Spirit seeks to give the Church.
> The devil has convinced us however that we are not good enough, that we will never measure up. The devil has pulled the wool over our eyes and when this happens he makes sure to feed us with his lies which with time we will find ourselves convinced of. We must realize that it is God who defines who we are in truth. The devil is afraid of us, he is afraid of our giftedness, he is afraid that we will use our blessedness for the construction of the city of God. The devil is always preaching that we must earn God’s love and that when we stumble and fall in sin that God couldn’t possibly love us.
> Furthermore, as we struggle with sin, sometimes we find ourselves enslaved to a particular sin which becomes a habit in our lives. The devil is quick to give a sequel to his first sermon by saying to us: ‘Look at yourselves, your slaves to sin, who would possibly love the likes of you. Certainly God won’t.’ The evil one says this to lead us into despair, hoping that we will give up hope and turn away from God for according to the evil one God is only a hard task master who is impossible to please. This perception of God however is false and it is a work of the evil one.
> God’s love is forever strong. It is powerful, passionate and patient. His love for us is unconditional, meaning that regardless of what we do His love for us does not change. We cannot gain his love. His love for us is non-negotiable. He loves us, no questions asked. This doesn’t mean however that God doesn’t judge sin because he does, he hates sin with a divine hatred but at the same time he loves us sinners with an inexhaustible and applause worthy love.
> Pentecost is a reminder that human history is going somewhere, that it is being guided by the all-loving hand of God. By virtue of the Spirit’s presence in us, the Church, the window blinds of human history are progressively being opened allowing light to flood the areas of darkness that haunt humanity. It is with our hands that these blinds are continually being opened to the world around us. Each generation of the Church has been commissioned to help shed the light of Christ upon the world until that day when Jesus Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, will return upon the clouds of heaven to clothe all his faithful ones with garments of light that no darkness can approach or overcome.
> We are the Church and today is our feast day, a feast which calls us to be a community of unity which seeks to lift high the mighty name of God by esteeming our own worth and the worth of all God’s adopted children as we cry out in faith: “Abba, Father”.
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