May 5, 2024
Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 5, 2024 - Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17
So, did you find what was out of order in the First Reading? We were taught, since we were little children, that when you’re baptized, you receive the Holy Spirit, and when we receive Confirmation, we receive the Holy Spirit again, and you go from being a mere member of the Church to being an active member of the church. But, in today’s First Reading, the Holy Spirit is given first to Cornelius’ family and then St. Peter sort of shrugs his shoulders, “Well I guess we should baptize them then.” That sequence happens two or three times in the Book of Acts. That’s what happened on the day of Pentecost, the original Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended upon the eleven faithful Apostles, their spouses, if they had any in that room, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and some other disciples. And, immediately, Peter rushed out and began to preach to the crowd that had gathered because of all the noise, and all of those people then were baptized. And, one other time in the Book of Acts, something similar happens. The Holy Spirit first shows his presence to a group of people, and then they are baptized. So, how come? Because sometimes the Holy Spirit moves in the church before the official church can move with it. I’m going to tell you two stories to give you examples of it.
The first story starts back in the nineteenth century, when Pope Pius IX condemned modernism. He made a whole list of things that were popular in his day, ways of thinking in history, and in science, and in religion, and said that all these things were forbidden to Catholics. Pope Leo XIII, who wrote an encyclical championing the rights of laborers - the very first Pope ever to do that - and flying in the face of the large corporations. Nevertheless, that same Leo XIII condemned Americanism, by which he meant the concept that there should be freedom of religion. The Church’s teaching was that, in countries where the Catholic Church was in the minority, they must be allowed freedom of worship. But, in countries where the Catholic Church was in the majority, they should control the civic life of the country. Wow!
That teaching continued, through the first half of the twentieth century, to be the official teaching of the church. But what happened during the first half of the twentieth century? Two World Wars and the Spanish Revolution shifted the understanding of what constituted a true democracy. During that time, a young man was ordained a Jesuit. His name was John Courtney Murray. After World War II, he found himself on several committees dealing with fairness and justice in the public square. And, because of that, he began to write about the rightness of the American view of freedom of religion and the way in which Church and State exist in separate but equal spheres. And he got a lot of press attention for what he was doing. Not all of it good. Many, many of the most prominent churchmen in America condemned the writings of John Courtney Murray.
Fortunately for him, he had some friends in high places. He was a personal friend of Clare Booth Luce, who was, at that time, the United States Ambassador to Italy. She was married to Henry Luce, who owned and published Time magazine. And so, a couple of times John Courtney Murray was featured prominently in, and once on the cover of, Time magazine. But Henry Luce was friends with John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. And John Foster Dulles’ son, Avery Dulles, converted to Catholicism and became what? A Jesuit priest and a friend of John Courtney Murray. And so, for a long while, John Courtney Murray floated above the fray. But finally, Rome condemned the writings of John Courtney Murray, and he was silenced.
Then came the Second Vatican Council. And all of the Bishops and Cardinals that went to the Council needed to have an advisor with them. Now, at that time, our Bishop was Francis Cardinal Spellman, one of the most conservative theological thinkers in the Church at that time. But Francis Cardinal Spellman was also the Bishop in charge of all of the military services in the United States. - we’re talking millions of people, service people and their spouses and their children. And, as such, Francis Spellman was a very outspoken American, in favor of the very things that John Courtney Murray was writing about, even though he never said so. But he invited John Courtney Murray to come to Rome as his only theological advisor. And although, on most issues that the Council talked about, Cardinal Spellman would have been on the same side as Cardinal Ottaviani, when it came to the Declaration on Religious Freedom, Francis Spellman got John Courtney Murray to write the document. And even though it went through five separate documents, Father Murray was in charge of each revision, so that, what came out of the Council was basically a statement very much in line with the American view of freedom of religion and separation of Church and State. It doesn’t end there. Several years after the Council, Pope Paul VI said publicly, on several occasions, that he felt that one of the most important documents to come out of the Second Vatican Council was the Declaration on Religious Freedom. So, the Holy Spirit, which guided the Council, ran before the official Church and the official Church breathlessly caught up to what the Spirit wanted at the Second Vatican Council.
Another story. A man -- I believe his name was Ralph Kiefer, I might have the first name wrong - was a graduate student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the late 1960’s. Duquesne is a Catholic university, even though the name doesn't resonate as something Catholic. One night, he was invited to go to a prayer service at the local Episcopal Church outside of Duquesne University. And there he had a tremendous experience of the laying on of hands. The Spirit was active in that community. And he came home so excited. He had heard people speak in tongues. And he had seen people healed. He went to his Professor, the one who was guiding his dissertation, who was also a Catholic, and told him the situation. And, a couple of weeks later, the two of them went together to another such gathering. And the Professor came back equally impressed and told most of the faculty. One night, the faculty had its own gathering and, lo and behold, some of the faculty members spoke in tongues, and the Catholic Charismatic movement was born. It finally found a permanent home in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Many Catholic people, including the Catholic hierarchy in the United States, were very wary of the Charismatic movement, pointing out some major concerns. First of all, it seemed to call into question the once-and-for-all nature of Baptism. Secondly, when these people gathered for Mass, their behavior took the focus away from the Eucharistic to something else, and challenged what we thought we were doing in the Sacrament of Confirmation. And they asked the Vatican to condemn the Catholic Charismatic movement. Instead of condemning it, Pope Paul VI said, “No, this is a good thing to happen to the Church. We see, in the Acts of the Apostles, how these gifts of the Spirit were so important to the early Church. It is good that we have these gifts among us again.” And he appointed Cardinal Suenens, from France, to be the worldwide moderator of all Catholic Charismatics. Once again, the Spirit was rushing ahead of official Catholicism and the Church was breathlessly rushing to catch up to what the Spirit was doing.
I believe this has happened many times in the history of the Church. And I, personally, just as your Pastor, without any official designation, believe that we are on the cusp of such a time again. I believe that that time began with the pontificate of Benedict the XVI in the most unlikely way. People think of Benedict as reactionary because he was Pope John Paul’s watchdog for doctrine. But, what Benedict did was, he tightened up a couple of nuts and bolts here and there, where things were a little bit cloudy or fuzzy. And then, he did the most extraordinary thing, he retired, which changed the whole view of the papacy. And that movement continues in Pope Francis - a very different kind of Pope - but a good friend of Benedict all throughout their time together as Cardinals.
Where it leads, we cannot know. And most of us will not live long enough to see where it leads. But I believe that we are on the cusp of a new outpouring of the Spirit in the church.