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.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to ‘click’ the note App on my Facebook
Profile- I have posted lots.
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