Thursday After Pentecost 2021
It has been said, probably ever since humans walked the face of earth, that the “winners write the history.” The winners also endeavor to craft the culture that they live in. So, for example, after the Norman invasion of England in 1066, the Norman princes built castles all over their English territory, dispossessed the Anglo-Saxons and reproduced what they could of French culture in England. Earlier, the Saxons had replaced Roman culture, and even paganized southern England after the Christian Roman legions withdrew from the island in the year of our Lord 410.
But God desires all human beings to be saved, and saved through Jesus Christ in His Church. A king of Kent, Æthelberht, had a Catholic wife from Paris, who had brought her own bishop with her when she came to England. In the year 595, Pope Gregory the Great, seeing fertile ground in England, sent today’s saint, Augustine, a Roman monk, to see if the Lord would work through him and his monastic companions to convert the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Augustine had been a prior, so he was a good administrator, and he was well-schooled in the Scriptures. They landed in Kent in the year 597, and set to work. It’s probable that Bertha, Æthelberht’s wife, had done a bit of evangelizing of her husband, because he accepted Christ in the Church in that same year, being baptized in Canterbury. Their daughter, Alburga, is even venerated as a saint, so well was the family attuned to the Gospel. Soon, thousands of the people accepted the sweet yoke of Jesus and were baptized. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of England. It took years for the island’s other bishops to be united under that see, but until the revolution of Henry VIII, all of England was one in the Faith. After Augustine’s death, his successors actively worked to spread the faith to all the pagan areas of the south, and were successful.
The purpose of Pentecost was not to make the apostles feel good and pray in tongues. The reason for the descent of the Holy Spirit was and is to remake us in the image and likeness of God, to enable us to image Our Lord in our lives, and use the gifts of the Spirit to bring others to Christ. Our first reading proclaims, “As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the LORD fills all his works; Yet even God’s holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the LORD.” Pagan religion assigns multiple deities as creators or governors of the Lord’s many works–a god of thunder and lightning, a god of rain, a god of the soil and harvest, and so forth. Each must be appeased so everything works right. It’s easy to confuse the good creatures of Our God with true happiness, because they are so beautiful, and many show tremendous glory and power. But they are mere creatures. Their existence and work point to the powerful and beautiful one Who made them and set them in motion, who not only does that but “plumbs the depths and penetrates the heart.” He knows you and me better than we know ourselves.
But He did more, much more. At a moment in time He sent His angel to announce to the virgin Mary that she had found favor with God by His awesome grace, and she accepted the task of becoming the mother of the Messiah and, by extension, the Queen Mother of Israel. Her Son, Jesus, was thus both human and divine, and Savior. Today we see Him on His way to Jerusalem where He will achieve His goal and our salvation. He’s with His disciples and a sizable crowd. As He walks out of Jericho, a piteous wail comes up from the roadside, “Son of David, have pity on me.” That’s something new. He is being recognized as not just any old prophet, but THE prophet-king, son of King David, and therefore Messiah. It’s uttered by the blind son of Timaeus, who everyone thought cursed because of some sin of his or his parents because he was blind. The crowd has no interest in this cursed fellow and tell him to shut up. But he called out with the Messianic title over and over and louder and louder. Jesus halted. “Call him over.” Bartimaeus came. “What do you want me to do for you?” “Master, I want vision.” Jesus speaks the creative word, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” And he receives his vision.
All of us need clear vision, and not just of material things. In fact, don’t they get in the way of seeing truly important things? I see that as we come out of this pandemic, there’s a huge demand for boats. There should be a huge demand for Jesus Christ, for His Eucharistic presence, for the food that lasts. Share the word with others–He is here, He is accessible, and He is love. God wants all to be saved, because God is good. ..all the time, and all the time, God is good.
