Friday, June 01, 2012


1844- POPES HOMILY

Got with the homeless brothers yesterday- found out Football Jim died a few months ago.

Sad to see him go- will write more on Jim another time.

Spent another few hours with Mike [few posts back- Scapegoat].

Mike shared more of his story with me- serious [bad] stuff- he knows I’m chronicling it on the site- he’s fine with it.

I will tell more about this also- but not today.

What I want to do today is a post for my Catholic friends.

Note- I have Protestant friends who get offended when I use examples from the church- or when I watch [or every so often attend] the Mass.

There are reasons they get upset- and it takes time to explain why I think it’s important for me to keep in touch with ‘the ancient church’.

For the most part- I have been a student of church history [and the early church fathers] for the past 25 years.

It’s impossible to read deeply into church history without having an appreciation for the older more traditional churches.

Over time you begin to view these churches [Catholic, Orthodox] as sort of older relatives- like an uncle or grandpa- maybe they don’t know all the current techniques and all [like using computers!]

But over time you realize they know more [or are right more often] then you thought when you were younger.

So this has been my experience on the journey.

Okay- this past Sunday I watched the Mass on TV.

Every so often if the church is celebrating a special memorial they will broadcast the service from Rome.

This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday- so I watched the Pope give the homily from Rome.

Let’s cover the main verses he used.

The homily was good- but you have to pay attention to the verses/chapters to get a full understanding.

The chapters quoted from were Genesis 11, Psalms 103, Acts 2, John 16, and Galatians 5.

Because it was Pentecost Sunday the message was on the story we find in Acts chapter 2- when the Holy Spirit came to the church.

We read that the believers were gathered at Jerusalem- waiting for the ‘promise of Jesus’ that he would send them the Spirit [John 16].

When the Spirit came- all the disciples in the upper room began speaking Gods word to the multitudes that were gathered at Jerusalem for the special holiday.

They spoke ‘in tongues’ [unknown languages] and the people were amazed because they all heard the message in their own native tongue.

This was a Divine miracle that enabled the message to spread to all the different ethnic groups that were at the city.

After Peter preaches the gospel to them they repent and believe and are baptized- and the ‘Lord added 3,000 SOULS’ to the church that day.

 The Pope contrasted this with the story in Genesis 11- The famous Tower of Babel.

This records the time when God divided the people by giving them different languages.

The people were building a tower and city that would reach ‘unto heaven’ [a symbol of mans efforts to reach God- or be like God- on his own- Humanism].

The bible says they ‘wanted to make a name for themselves’.

They were more interested in ‘leaving a legacy’ then in glorifying God.

God looked down and realized they were going to unite- in a wrong way- to build this city of man.

The bible says he came down and divided their languages in that day.

They were unable to communicate with each other and left off ‘building the city’.

This is where we get the term ‘babble ’ from- when you can’t understand what a person’s saying- he’s ‘babbling’.

In Galatians 5 we read about the fruit of the Spirit- and how we ‘thru the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness which comes by faith’ [a main theme of the Apostle Paul’s writings].

And in John 16 we read the promise Jesus made- that he would leave them and send ‘the comforter’- the Spirit- and he would guide them into all truth.

So we see the contrast of the biblical stories about language.

In Genesis 11 God divides the languages of men because they are rebelling against him.

In Acts 2 God ‘reverses’ this division by allowing them all to hear again in ‘one language’.

The Cross allows humanity to be united again.

The apostle Paul writes the Ephesians and says Jesus reconciled both groups [Jew and Gentile- which represented the major division of the time] by dying on the Cross for all men.

And that all men [who believe] now have ‘access to God by one Spirit’.

All in all- it was a good message.

The purpose of the gospel is to unite men- not divide them [I know Jesus said he came to bring division- families would be divided- mother- father against child. In context he was saying there was a reaction to being a follower of him. Sometimes families will even reject a child because they choose the Christian faith. We see this today among various religious groups.]

But the overall work of the Cross unities men- in Christ [2 become one- Ephesians- One New Man].

And we once again can share ‘a common language’.

The language of the Cross.








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