Homily for the Mass of the Holy Spirit
Mission Church
27 September 2017
For today, I have wondered what to say. After all, you are the ones who listen to a range of artists, from Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Drake, to Kendrick Lamar and Luke Bryan. Many of you track social media people like Steph Curry, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Oliver, Kevin Hart, the Rock, and Marshawn Lynch. Others of you are watching the Game of Thrones, Vampire Diaries, This is Us, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, and Grey’s Anatomy. And many have gone to see the movies Wonder Woman, Star Wars, or La La Land. With such diverse interests, how do the Scripture readings speak to us today?
Believe it or not, the First Reading speaks to us and provides the theme for our celebration today. The text sums up in a few words a description of earlier followers of Jesus. These first followers were nervous, isolated fearful, feeling lost, and lacking self-confidence. Perhaps you have had similar feelings in your life. So how did the first followers respond to the absence of Jesus? They gathered “All in One Place Together.” So in these few words from Scripture we hear the characteristics of the Spirit of God, the Spirit that unites us and includes all of us, when we are ALL – In ONE PLACE – TOGETHER. Let me offer a comment on these three points.
1. All: Who are we? Every segment of the SCU community
- Students from every RLC; commuters, Honors Students, LEAD Scholars; Athletes, of all teams and Intramurals, students from ROTC, MCC, CFs, SFs,
- Faculty, Staff, Administrators, Alumni, Benefactors
- Catholics and Jews, Muslims and Hindus,
- Christians of all denominations, seekers and the curious
- Gay and Straight and all genders
All are members of the SCU Family. Just as the Bronco Spirit includes us all, so does God’s Spirit. All are welcome because all belong as children of God
2. In One Place: Look where we are gathered
When people ask where SCU is located, all I have to do is say “Silicon Valley.” Then they recognize the spirit of where we live and where you study: The Valley thrives on innovation, risk taking, creativity, blue-sky thinking. That is the spirit of Silicon Valley.
God’s Spirit moves through this church, on this campus, in this country, on this planet. Because of this Spirit, in this Church, we gather in a holy space, a safe place, the ultimate safe place. Here it does not matter what your religious belief might be, what your immigration status is. In God’s House, your economic background or your home address do not matter. You are not excluded because of your GPA, your immigration status, your sexuality or your gender.
All are welcome in this space, so we can bring our fears, anxieties, our worries, our uncertainties about the direction of our lives, our cynicism or our lack of self-confidence, our questions. God’s Spirit accepts it all, bag and baggage, dreams and hopes.
In one place – this place - we all belong. We leave no one out.
3. Together.
In recent days, the blogosphere lit up when Steph Currie said he did not wish to go to the White House. President Trump tweeted several messages that provoked a number of professional athletes who had exercised their 1st Amendment Rights. This flare up has further divided our country and aroused passions from various segments of our population.
The first words of Jesus in our Gospel today offers a dramatic contrast. Jesus greeted his nervous and scared followers with one word: “Peace.” He then breathed on them and offered Go’s Spirit, spirit of unity, of people standing side by side, not divided by politics or religious doctrine. For us that Spirit of unity means no matter who are what brought you here today, however you find yourself at this moment – that is the how you should be here. As you are.
You come as you are and meet others who came here in the same Spirit. In this Spirit of mutual acceptance we live into and through our differences and anything that divides us. We work hard to listen and to understand, to dialogue.
I could ask Coach Sendek or Coach Jerry Smith how a group of athletes becomes a team. I believe that they would say that a winning team pulls together, puts self aside and thinks of the team. That Spirit is what we seek today and for this year. Together.
Conclusion
In Spanish there is a perfect word: Acompanimiento: traveling the path together, side by side, Acompanimiento. That term sums up God’s promise through Jesus to walk alongside each of us and all of us, in this place, Santa Clara, in this academic year. God is present even if not apparent. God thrives in each of our hearts in our friendships, in our late-night conversations in the residence halls, in Malley on Bellomy field, in the Mayer Theater, in our classrooms, in our labs.
All In One Place Together