A year ago, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore noted in his Pentecost homily that, at this moment in history, it can feel like we’re hunkered down in the upper room, like the disciples, confused and fearful. But he said:
“Above all, we remember that the Risen Jesus does not leave us behind locked doors. He enters, even now, with a word of peace and a command to go out.”
And, when we go out into the turbulent world — “filled with the Holy Spirit” — we find, like the disciples, a marvelous diversity of people, hungry for good news.
Photo: PPD
Those who heard the disciples preach asked themselves:
“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 of the mighty acts of God.”
This weekend, on Pentecost, as we go out, “bold in hope,” as Archbishop Lori says, we find people…
…from Nicaragua and Venezuela,
from Iran and Nigeria,
from Poland and China and Israel and Saudi Arabia and both Koreas,
Black and White and Brown, straight and gay,
people from every corner of the political spectrum
and every corner of the nation.
And we, coming out of the upper room, are marked by tongues of fire, and each of us is called to bring the Holy Spirit to the world in our own individual way for, as Paul writes,
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.”
And Jesus says,
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
On this Pentecost, it is time to go out “bold in hope.”
Patrick T. Reardon
5.24.26
Written by : Patrick T. Reardon
For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.