With today being Pentecost, it seems like a good time
to share a little from St. Thomas Aquinas.
St. Thomas boiled down everything God is doing in his work
both of creating humanity and even more, in saving us:
into two words: exitus and reditus;
or, in English, “going out” and “coming back.”
And what Thomas meant was this: God “exits”
or goes out of himself in creating us;
the Father gives the Word, and everything comes into existence.
We exist – this universe exists –
solely because of this “going out” of God’s will, God’s power
and above all, God’s love.
But humanity turned away and that brings corruption and decay:
So there is another exitus, another “going out”:
God the Son enters and becomes part of Creation!
That leads to the Cross where God “empties” himself, as it were, surrendering to suffering and death.
But all this is about the reditus, the “going back”;
the bringing back of creation and specifically, US, to the life of God!
So when Jesus ascends – as we recalled last week – he doesn’t go alone.
Our human nature went with him to heaven.
Where Jesus the head goes, we are promised to follow.
Now we come to Pentecost:
the “going out” of the Holy Spirit, which also means a new creation;
we human beings are remade.
It the beginning, God breathed life into Adam.
On Pentecost, the Father “breathed” the Holy Spirit,
into those who have been redeemed by the Son:
these re-created people, together, are “the Church,”
the Body of Christ, who is the new Adam.
In one way, of course, Pentecost happened once in history;
but in another way, Pentecost happens over and over,
every time someone is baptized.
And then again, it happens in every Mass.
Do you see what’s up on the ceiling over the altar? A dove.
That signifies that only with an ongoing Pentecost
does anything really powerful or supernatural happen.
Only when the Holy Spirit goes out from God
does any sacrament do anything:
and only when the Holy Spirit comes down on this altar,
does bread and wine become the true and real presence of Jesus.
This is a good time to look at the Eucharist,
Because the Eucharist shows us what we are and what we will be.
Bread and wine come to the altar; ordinary bread and wine, not fancy.
At Father Puthoff’s first Mass last week,
Father Amberger explained that the bread and wine
we bring to the altar is rather poor, even embarrassing!
But that’s the point: the offering of our own selves is, honestly,
even more meagre and embarrassing.
You and I come to Mass, maybe we don’t really want to be here;
Maybe we are counting the minutes till we leave,
Just going through the motions – and yes, I include myself here!
That’s who we are as frail, sinful people: we’re a poor offering!
But God works with that: down comes the Holy Spirit!
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, after the consecration,
the Body and Blood still have every appearance of bread and wine;
and this can be a challenge to our faith.
What do newly baptized Christians look like?
What do people fresh out of confession act like?
We trust that despite appearances,
the bread and wine truly and really become Jesus.
It’s even harder to see, yet necessary to believe, that similarly,
baptism and absolution in confession and reception of the Eucharist
and the other sacraments truly make a real change in us.
We live in time and everything happens to us frame-by-frame;
God is eternal, and what seems to take forever to us
is a blink of the eye for the Holy Trinity.
Parents get an inkling of this when you look at your children and think,
oh, it was just the other day when they were babies –
except that “other day” was a year, ten years, 18 years ago!
The Eucharist shows us what you and I are destined to be:
We are brought back into the Holy Trinity;
You and I are transformed into the Body of Christ!
Saint Augustine said, regarding receiving Holy Communion:
“Become what you receive.”
So today we pause to contemplate the work of the Holy Spirit
as He goes out from the Trinity, and renews and recreates everything;
and we human beings are the primary recipient of this recreation.
No matter who you are, or where you are in your journey…
you may see your sins pile up to heaven;
or you look around at a world that seems spinning out of control…
you may think you haven’t got even a single clue on life or the future;
and you find it impossible to believe
God can make you into anything worthwhile…
No matter where you think you are, or how long a journey lies ahead,
the one place you know you are is in the loving gaze of your Father.
God created a beautiful world and put you into it;
then he put himself into you;
so that you will be brought completely and fully
into the fullness of God’s own life!
No comments:
Post a Comment