THE ROOMS WE’RE IN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of Pentecost is, “The Rooms We’re In”.

Since today’s first reading and today’s gospel both take place in a room – actually the same room – but at different times – it hit me to wonder about the rooms we spend much of our lives in.

What are the main rooms in our life – and how are we in these rooms?

Living room, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, the room with the TV we watch, the room with the computer, or at work, the office, the main office, our car, the bar, the coffee break space, church, a meeting room in an organization we belong to.

Are there others? Of course.

Take a few moments and wonder about all these different rooms we spend our lives in. Make a list!

THE UPPER ROOM

If you take a trip or make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, one of the regular spots for Christian tourists is “The Upper Room” in Old City Jerusalem.

It’s not the original Upper Room – but the tour guides will say – it was here in Old Jerusalem – and it would have been something like this.

When I went there with a group of priests in the year 2000, we spent a good hour in this room. The tour leader, Father Stephen Doyle, a Franciscan, read a reading – maybe even today’s first reading. I don’t remember. There are many New Testament texts that take place in the Upper Room. And then we became quiet and reflected on the importance of the Upper Room.

I remember writing an article on the Upper Room years ago and I don’t know if anyone read it – got an insight or two from it – but in writing it, it gave me several insights. I came up with 5 things that the Upper Room was: a place to eat, a place of fear, a place of prayer, a place of decision making, a place where our Spirit is renewed.

We too have these places – and we go to them from time to time.

Where do you go when you have fears? Where do you hide? I remember hearing about a mom of 4 boys who used to hide in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. How did she ever fit in there? My sister-in-law, when her daughters were small, said she had to lock herself in the bathroom for some moments of peace and she could hear her 7 daughters finger nails scraping the bathroom door. Where’s your man cave or woman’s space? Where is your place of decision making? Where do you like to pray? Where is your Spirit renewed? Where do you enjoy eating?

PENTECOST

Pentecost means 50 days after Easter.

It’s called the Birthday of the Church. It’s called the moment when the Holy Spirit rocked the room where the disciples were – filled with fear – and they were given new gifts – that would fill them – fire them up – emblazon them – and get them to open those doors and face the challenge of building a better world – as the disciples of Jesus.

The title of my homily is, “The Rooms We’re In?”

The hope of my homily is that each of us will look at the places and spaces of our life and have a rebirth in one of them – or all of them.

Let me just pick out three rooms – three spaces. I came up with 7 - but let me just give 3 - otherwise we'll be here forever.

FIRST ROOM: MEALS AT THE FAMILY TABLE

When we see pictures of the Upper Room we usually see Jesus at a table with his disciples surrounding him.

As kids we ate 90 % of our meals at our green and white metal kitchen table. We had a dining room – but that became our parent’s bed room when the four of us got bigger and they needed two bedrooms for the 4 of us kids in the back of our small house.

I remember that table with fond memories. I don’t know how we all fit in that tiny kitchen, but we did – inches away from the stove and sink and refrigerator – and each other.

Sunday afternoon meals were the best – 3 PM and then my dad would give us a dollar to go up and buy a gallon of ice cream at the drug store – which was open on Sunday afternoon and bring it back for the 6 of us.

How are we all doing with family meals?

I was just on a 3 day retreat with our junior h.s. kids and Ginny Dauses, our youth minister, had the movie, “The Blind Side” for the second night. I had seen it last Thanksgiving week with my sister-in-law and 6 of her daughters – and some of their kids – at Rehoboth Beach.

There is a scene in it where Michael Oher – now of the Ravens – sees the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. It’s a Norman Rockwell scene of a family all together enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner. He never had such an experience – finding food in Dumpsters or in the stands after a volley ball game in a gym. He’s invited into the Tuohy Home and it’s Thanksgiving and it’s dinner time and the two kids and dad take their turkey and stuff onto their plates and head for the couches and a football game on TV. Sandra Bullock as mother, Leigh Ann Touhy, sees Michael load up his plate and he’s not at the TV – she sees him sitting at their dining room table all alone. She gets the message – goes over – picks up the clicker and shuts off the TV and there are screams and yells but the next scene has them all at that dining room table – saying grace and enjoying a family meal together.

I was wondering if it hit those junior high school kids. It certainly reminded me once more of the importance of family meals together. “The family that eats together stays together!”

What about couples, marriages? I’ve run into couples who are married 18 or 38 years – who still try to go out at least once a month – for a meal together – a date night – sacred moments together. We priests here in our community try to go out on Sunday night for a meal together. We better practice what we preach. It’s different than weekday nights.

SECOND: PRAYER ROOMS

Where do we pray? My dad prayed in the cellar. I often saw him with his prayer book – the one with the rubber band – sitting there in a fold up beach chair – saying his prayers. My mom used the green marbled vinyl chair in the sun porch or on the edge of the big couch in our living room.

Where is your prayer room? Prayer space? Prayer moments?

When people tell me they want to pray more, I tell them to name some chair in their home as their prayer chair. Baptize it that with a prayer or hit it with some holy water if you have any. For the first three months I say only sit in it for 5 minutes at a time for prayer. Do not go longer than 5 minutes. 5 minutes. Next when is a good time for you to grab 5 minutes in your prayer chair. Discover that. Then just sit there and listen to the sounds in your home or where you are. Or have a Bible with a few of your favorite prayers in it. Read a psalm or if you don’t know where to begin in the Bible, go to the Letter of James. If you don’t get James, you’re hopeless. Pray for hope. Then get out of that chair after 5 minutes. You’ll soon find yourself liking that moment of renewal and refreshment. If you want, go to ten minutes after those 4 months. If ten minutes works, continue for 4 months more – if not, go back to 5 minutes. Then jump to 15 minutes for the last 4 months – but don’t go more than 15 minutes. Otherwise prayer will become a burden – rather than a delight.

THIRD ROOM: CAR TALK

One of the best rooms for many people is the space in their car – long peaceful escapes – sometimes in the worst of traffic.

Some people get refreshed with quiet time – just no nothing – peace and silence in a car.

Some enjoy music or CD’s of books or NPR or what have you.

My niece Patty discovered that picking up the kids at Catholic School – Maryland doesn’t allow school busing – like some states – has its advantages. She said just sitting there silently – her sons and two other kids she would pick up at school up in Glyndon and then Calvert Hall – they would talk to each other and she would pick up all they needed to know – without them knowing she was taking it all in.

I also discovered that some of the most memorable conversations I have had in my life – were in long car rides with just one person. So when I was a novice master in charge of future Redemptorists, if someone had to take a long trip somewhere I always suggested going with someone else. There was a kid whose mom was dying in Baltimore and we were in upstate New York, near Kingston, and I told him to go see his mom every other week – but take one other guy with you on Saturday morning for the long 6 hour drive there and 6 hours back on Sunday evening.

CONCLUSION

Come Holy Spirit – fill the rooms – the spaces and places – we spend our lives in. Breathe into us fresh air, so we can be fresh air, present new ideas, insights, wisdom to each other. Amen.

THE PEACEFUL ROOM

Once upon a time a woman who worked at the United Nations had a dream. She went to bed around 11 o’clock at night after a long day of work at the United Nations. All day long people were going to the microphone and yelling at other people. Nobody was getting along with anybody. It was a very frustrating day at work.

However, there was one peaceful moment during the day. It was around 12 noon - when she went down to the Day Care Center at the United Nations 1st floor – in the back – which lead out to a neat garden and a small park with swings and see saws and slides – a sand box and even a skate board section, etc. etc. etc. It was raining outside so all these kids of all kinds of colors and looks and languages – had to be indoors in the big Day Care Center Room and they were all getting along with each other. It was a moment of peace for this lady – and she had lunch with her 4 year old daughter, Maria.

Then she had to go back up stairs – to all the arguing and yelling and word fighting about what’s going wrong all around our world. It reminded her of family fights in the van when she was a kid.

So that night she had her dream – and dreams after long days of stress or long worries about stress for the next day – sometimes pull together hopes for what might be. Sometimes they are worse nightmares.

Her good dream was about the Day Care Center at the United Nations Building. She saw all the kids there all understanding each other – even though all the kids were speaking different languages. She didn’t understand them – but these little kids all understood each other as they were playing their games and eating lunch and snacks together.

Now remember this was just a dream – one of those interesting movies in our mind that play in the middle of some nights.

In her dream every kid in the room was getting along with every other kid in the room – when suddenly all the kids could hear screaming upstairs in the big General Assembly Room.

So in her dream all the kids made a long chain of hands – and they marched out of the Day Care room in the back of the first floor of the big United Nations Building and were heading upstairs.

The teachers and guardians who were there to supervise this big room full of kids were dumbfounded – but they didn’t stop the kids. They had never experienced anything like this before.

The kids continued on their way to the big hall filled with their parents and people from every country in the world – and they marched into the hall – a big long chain of kids holding hands.

The adults were still yelling and fighting till suddenly everyone caught sight of the human chain of kids.

The kids then made a circle around all the adults and then they let go of each other’s hands – all at once – as if they had practiced this for days – and then every kid put a finger to their lips as if they practiced this till they got it perfect. Then they all went “Shush!” and then each said the word, “Peace” in their own language.

Paz, Rahu, Nabada, Rafi, Taika, Paci, Samaya, Santi, Mir, Beki, Nagaya, Lumana, and on and on and on – till every kid finished saying, “Peace” in his or her own language.

And the adults began to cry. Then they smiled. Then they clapped their hands. Then all the adults said in their own language to the kids, their word for “Thanks!” Spasibo, Rumba, Danke, Asante, Otetela, Sha Sha, Tiki Hoki, Dalu, Tak, Toda, Salamot, Tau, Arigato, Gracias, Merci, Dzieki, Fo Fo, obrigadu or obrigada and on and on and on – till every adult said, “Thank you” in their own language.

And then the all the kids clapped for the adults.

At that the Lady woke up from her dream – crying tears of joy – with a great smile on her face. She got out of bed and went to her daughters room. Her little girl was asleep – so she went over to her daughter – and put a big kiss on the top of her head and said, “Paz y gracias”. “Peace” and “Thanks”.

The next day when she went to the United Nations for her job there – after dropping off her kid in the Day Care Center in the back on the first floor – she sat there wondering about her dream. She knew that dreams often are puzzles of pieces of things that happened to us.

That afternoon it was her turn to go to the microphone. Once more everyone was fighting about this and fighting about that.

It was her turn to give a speech and she said the following, “Last night I had a wonderful dream” and she described her dream – and told the whole story about the little kids coming up from downstairs all holding hands in a human chain and then telling us to “Shush” and stop the fighting and bring “Peace” to each other.

Then she said, “There was one piece of the puzzle, one piece of the dream, that was missing – that I was trying to figure out as I sat here today.

“Suddenly it hit me. It was the reading I heard at our church the other day – a dream that someone in the early Christian church had – so I went on line and found the reading from last Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, in so many of our churches. It went like this and I’d like to close with this:

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11

On the day of Pentecost
all the Lord's followers
were together in one place.
Suddenly there was a noise from heaven
like the sound of a mighty wind!
It filled the house where they were meeting.
Then they saw what looked like
fiery tongues moving in all directions,
and a tongue came
and settled on each person there.

The Holy Spirit took control of everyone,
and they began speaking
whatever languages the Spirit let them speak.

Many religious Jews
from every country in the world
were living in Jerusalem.

And when they heard this noise,
a crowd gathered.

But they were surprised,
because they were hearing everything
in their own languages.

They were excited and amazed, and said:
“Don't all these who are speaking come from Galilee?
Then why do we each hear them speaking
our very own languages?
Some of us are from Parthia, Media, and Elam.

“Others are from Mesopotamia,
Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt,
parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia.

“Some of us were born Jews,
and others of us have chosen to be Jews.
Yet we all hear them using our own languages
to tell the wonderful things God has done.”

Amen!




This was a story I wrote last night for today's feast of Pentecost. It was for our 8 AM Kids' Mass - and the 4th grade was the class "in charge" for this Mass. I had different kids holding a colored piece of paper with one word on it - the word for "Peace" in the various languages as indicated above. They were to hold it up when I said that word. I had adults holding a white peace of paper with the word "Thanks" in various languages and they too were to wave that word when I said it. The story is total fiction. I assume there is a Day Care Center at the United Nations for employees - but I have not idea what it is like.


The photo on top was taken off the Internet.

COME HOLY SPIRIT,
COME, JOY OF MY HEART.

Quote for Pentecost - May 23, 2010


"The Holy Spirit rests only on the one who has a joyous heart."


Talmud, 5:1, c. 200-500

THE UPPER ROOM

A meditation on

Community Life 
for Religious
by Andrew Costello, C.SS.R.

Sister's Today Magazine

c. 1978?

It is not good for Adam to be alone ... nor Eve for that matter (Genesis 2: 18).

Most people get married. Some people become religious. Then both spend their lives hoping that the other(s) will take the aloneness away.

We hope that our homes will be homes. We hope our communities will be communities. We join a community because we are impressed by another who seems happy in that community. We leave home, mom and dad, brothers and sisters, hoping we have found a new home. We give up husband or wife, hoping we have found a family.

Then we begin the search. Then we begin our work. Then we come home every day to people who have the same address as us. Sometimes we become friends with a few of the people in the house. Often we spend our lives hoping that the next assignment will put us in a place, a house, a community, that is our dream house, a house of prayer, a house of affirmation.

Days come and days go when we get fed up with all these strangers we're living with -- dying with. The place is a motel for those with cars; it's a hotel for the others. It's a rooming house where people receive phone calls and mail from significant others at other addresses.

Is that too harsh a picture? Am I a pessimist and only seeing the mud and missing the stars? Maybe, but that's the picture that others have reported to me in the past 18 years in religious life.

But the times they are a-changing. Slowly, we too are getting back to our Roots. We are slowly letting the vision of that first Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles influence our lives.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. A reverent fear overtook them all, for many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles. Those who believed shared all things in common; they would sell their property and goods, dividing everything on the basis of each one's need. They went to the temple area together every day, while in their homes they broke bread. With exultant and sincere hearts they took their meals in common, praising God and winning the approval of all the people. Day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 42 - 47)

Looking back into the history of the Church we see that whenever she gets stagnant and stiff she cleans house. The Church is like an old woman who fills her end tables with wedding pictures, shells from Miami Beach, post cards, Christmas cards, and a thousand and one other souvenirs from the journey of life. Every once and a while we need a spring cleaning and start all over again. We need room for new souvenirs.

Whenever the Church does this she catches the Fire and new communities are born. The Spirit moves over the waters and new creations occur. And “God saw how good it was” (Genesis 1: 10). Broken men and women break away from their homes and break bread together in new families in the Church: Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Passionists, Redemptorists, Maryknoll, and so many other families in both the Protestant and Catholic traditions.

ROOTS
In the Acts of the Apostles we find mention of an upper room (Acts 1: 13). There we see the Apostles and Mary praying. Was this the same place where they had the Last Supper? Was this the room where the Risen Christ entered even though the doors were locked? Was this the place where they voted in Matthias? Was this the place where the ancient church of Sancta Sion stood -- the mother of all churches?

We can't say “yes” to the above questions. We only can say that some traditions hold that they are one and the same place. Yet, there are other theories and traditions, just as there are theories that the house belonged to either Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, or the mother of John Mark. Moreover, we know that the people of the early Church met in many homes (Cf. Acts 2: 46).

But to be poetic, to be reflective, to be inspirational, and also to be practical, let's make it all one and the same place. Let's make the upper room a symbol of that place, that center, that vision that we all need for understanding community. We all need a utopia, a mandala, that contains all the ingredients, all the necessary ideas we need to meditate upon, so that we'll have the energy to build better communities, better homes. Who wants to live alone? Who wants to die alone? Let us rise together and take the stairs to the upper room.

1) A PLACE TO EAT

The upper room was first of all a place to eat. Jesus told Peter and John to go into the city and follow the man carrying the water jar. He would lead them to the upstairs room where they would eat the Passover Meal (Luke 22: 7-13).

We all need a place to eat. It's no fun eating alone. Our lives center around food -- around the dinner table.

When we eat together, we meet together. We begin to share our thoughts, our feelings, our day. Some of the best conversations in our lives have taken place at breakfast over coffee or at supper over stew, or late at night over a drink and potato chips.

Unconsciously we know/feel the deep interconnection between eating and talking. We are oral people. We do both with our mouths. We can even talk with our mouths full. We know the connection between eating and getting along with each other. If we can't stand, can't stomach another, we watch to see where they sit, and we sit as far away as possible. When we are upset with another or even with ourselves we find it hard to eat. We skip supper and stay in our room. We don't go to communion.

We can gauge the condition of a family or a community by how often on and how they eat together. Teenagers begin skipping meals as they begin to break off on their own. A person who leaves religious life on June 30th, often began leaving the supper table back in January. Community means communion.

Who cooks, who does dishes, who buys the food, when do we have a big meal, when do we eat out, are all crucial, basic issues in our lives together. We celebrate anniversaries, feast days, every day, with food.

We can look to the Gospels for the best words written about community life -- especially those in John 13 - 17. They were words shared at a dinner table. If a religious “community” is simply a table of strangers, they will talk about the weather or life out there. But if they are friends they will begin talking the words we find in the Gospel of John: service, unity, love, forgiveness, work, truth, friendship, courage, the Father, the Spirit. It's all summed up in Jesus' formula for community: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

Gradually our Mass is moving in this direction as the Church realizes we need to get to know each other, trust each other, and hopefully love one another. Slowly, the Mass is looking more and more like a meal. Slowly, we are realizing the need to have coffee and buns after Mass downstairs. Slowly, we're getting back to the old idea of realizing the importance of parish suppers. They are all interconnected parts of the parish Mass.

Eating is the most basic need of people. Abraham Maslow puts it at the base of his scale of human needs. It's where we must begin. What better way of taking care of this than to do what Jesus did: to find a guest room to eat with each other (Luke 22:11).

2) A PLACE OF FEAR
The upper room was also a place of fear. The apostles were scared that week-end behind closed doors. Their Teacher was assassinated. That week-end was an agony -- not in a garden -- but behind locked doors.

All of us have experienced fears, terrors, shadows, loneliness. We're scared to be alone. We have anger about others (pastors, teachers, family). We have anxiety about the unknowns in our lives. We have sexual feelings that bother us. We can't sleep at times because it's getting too much. We feel like we're in a room -- all alone -- and it's locked. We need to come out and talk to others. We need people to hear us out. We need people with ears.

For years we were told to grin and bear it. For years then we thought we were the only ones who had these weird feelings.

Today community life is becoming more open, more trustful, more transparent, more thoughtful. What about the disciples? Did they trust each other enough to say what was on their minds? Were they like the disciples on the road to Emmaus who said bluntly, “We were hoping that he was the one who would set Israel free” (Luke 24: 21). Did Mary tell John about the sword piercing her hear -- “so the thoughts of many hears may be lay bare” (Luke 2:35).

Jesus often asked people about what they were harboring in their head, in their heart, in their inner room. In that upper room Jesus burst in even though the doors were locked and said, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19)

If we go to the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and pour out our inner passion we often experience the compassion of Jesus. We experience His peace. But if we go to the Body of Christ -- the community -- and say to an ear, “I need you,” will you say, “I do not need you” (1 Corinthians 12: 21). If we are community to each other, then we'll find brothers and sisters who will let us place our fears, our hopes, our plans, our thoughts about who Jesus is, and lots of other “stuff” out on the table.

And so to build a community we begin to eat with each other, we begin to eat each other, we begin to trust each other. That's where we start. Soon we begin to see friends around that table whom we can turn to in our moments of fear. We soon realize that the Body of Christ is here. We soon experience the peace of the Risen Christ as the Early Church experienced Him.

3) A PLACE OF PRAYER

The upper room was a place of prayer. The brothers with Mary and some women “devoted themselves to constant prayer” (Acts 1: 14)

What were their prayers like? Were they out loud? Did Mary pray out loud? What was she really like? Was she in the center or at the edge of the room? Was Peter brooding and hurt over his three denials of Christ the Friday before?

Questions, questions, questions .... Did these broken people break bread in memory of Jesus? Questions, questions, questions .... In our communities how often do we pray together, break words together, really pray together, knowing that Christ is in our midst? (Cf. Matthew 18:20.)

If we look to the life of Jesus we see the double tradition of prayer that we find in all the great religions, i.e., being alone and in a group.

There is the need for that special room we hear about in the sermon on the mount. “Whenever you pray, go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private” (Matthew 6: 6). To Christ it was the mountain or the desert. To Gotama, the Buddha, it was the forest. To many of us, it was those long moments alone in novitiate chapels or rooms or grounds. Today to many of us moving through mid-life crises, it's a thirty day directed retreat. But we all have that inner need for introversion -- to be still -- to be alone -- and to know that I am your God. (Cf. Psalm 46:11.)

But there is also that need for extroversion. We have a need to pray with others. Whenever the Church goes back to its roots, it comes up with this idea of shared prayer. We find it in the Acts of the Apostles and with Jesus in the upper room at the Last Supper in His great prayer for unity ( John 17: 9-19). We see Him inviting His disciples to pray with Him in the garden (Mark 14: 32 - 41).

Back in 1729 when John Wesley and his brother Charles saw the Church of their day getting too “stiff” and “formal”, they formed a small prayer group alone with Selina Hastings, George Whitefield and a few others. Their fellow students at Oxford made fun of them and called them the “Holy Club”. But they were simply doing what most reform movements in the history of the Church did. Two or three would gather together in His name and pray for directions. They began meeting for prayer in an “upper room” and then would go out and visit the prisons and help the poor. Their method (Methodists) of starting small groups spread throughout the working class and the poor of England and then to the men and women on the American frontier. John Wesley simply said he wanted to live “according to the method laid down in the Bible.”

If we eat together in community we better end up praying together in community. We share prayer not to show off, but to share our common faith, and our common need for the Lord, in good times and in bad, full of fears and full of joys. The early Christian community is a model. They gathered to take meals in common and to praise God (Acts 2: 46 - 47). After Peter and John were released from the Sanhedrin they went back to the community to tell what happened and to praise god. In fact, “the place where they gathered shook as they prayed” (Acts 4:31).

In our better moments we religious see the need to improve our prayer life. If we get back to our roots we see Mary and the early Church as a model of both private inner prayer and shared prayer. In the early scenes of Luke's Gospel we find Mary in prayer -- deep inner prayer -- turning things over in her heart (Luke 2:19). But we also see her in the upper room sharing prayer with the community (Acts 1:14). In Acts we see Peter going up on the room terrace for some private prayer (Acts 10:9) and also praying with the group (Acts 4:24, 31).

4) A PLACE OF DECISION MAKING
The early Church had to make some big decisions. They had to elect someone to take the place of Judas. Should we have deacons? What do we do with all the money people keep giving us? How do we deal with the Sanhedrin? What about Saul? What about the Gentiles?

They were pioneers in a new Way. In our day we are entering into a new era for religious life. We are slowly moving from a pyramid shaped community to a circular shaped community. Both have been traditional symbols of God: the triangle and the circle.

The pope was on the top layer of that pyramid called the Church. Provincials, bishops, mother superiors, and a host of other people in similar power structures sent their orders down to lower levels of the pyramid and that was that.

People in the Church often think that the changes in the Church came with Pope John the Twenty Third or the Vatican Council II. However, books like The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, show us that the overt changes that are in the Church and the world today began centuries ago. They slowly rise to the surface. He points out that there is obviously a crisis when people begin to see the visible signs that a paradigm is being switched. He points out that people change at different speeds and some don't change at all. In other words, people didn't get angry at the pyramid switching to the circle, but they got mad when communion rails started to be taken out and altars faced people.

To me it looks like we are coming to the end of that particular crisis right now. We are rebuilding the Church with everyone having a piece of the pie. This includes the Pope, bishops, superiors, the laity, and all the people around the circle. Hopefully, the circle will move better than the pyramid. We have seen dramatic change from the Church as an “already there” to a “not yet”. We have changed from seeing the Church as a “being” to a “becoming”. The Church of 1563 is different from the Church of 1965 and 325. The Church is people and people are evolving towards the Father in Christ. These words are cliches and to some they might sound nice, but the implications behind them must be spoken of in community. They are dynamite because of their implications in specific situations.

For example, some people in community, think that the changes in the Church will come to a stand still one of these days and we'll be all set like cement once again. We'll have our new pyramid that will last for a thousand years. Then there are others who want to keep moving, keeping rolling ahead, keep evolving, revolving, spinning forwards. Both have to learn to live in community: the high changers and the low changers. They have to talk about it.

People make jokes about all this dialogue. They are sick of meetings. They are sick of discussions. My impressions are that when real dialogue takes place people rejoice because they finally are listened to and heard after all these years. My impression is that people are against monologue disguised as dialogue. People are sick of meetings for the sake of meetings. They are sick of poorly prepared agendas and poorly thought out proposals. They are against manipulation and hidden agendas where they really are not being asked their opinion and vote. People are against meetings where there is a no win situation and compromise and consensus are impossible.

In the Acts of the Apostles we see a newly formed group struggling with the question of tradition versus innovation. We see a healthy and human struggle in Peter dealing with the Gentile question. It seems that issues were out in the open. Letters and delegates had to go back and forth for meetings (Acts 15:30). We see that open disagreements are normal and are listed in the minutes of the meetings of the early Church (Acts 15:19).

If our communities want to improve the quality of their life we all have to sit down and openly let each other know who we are and where we stand. We must learn to admit that we really don't know what we want at times. We are weak. We don't know it all. We have doubts. We have different priorities. We must openly admit that we like change or don't like change. We have to help people who never speak out to speak out, or at least have lots of coffee breaks to find out that way. We must learn to confront each other in charity (Ephesians 4:15, 25). We must learn to be understanding of those in community who long for the good old days, or for those on welfare in our houses, or who have psychological problems.

In other words we must as a community take the time out to go to an upper room and decide who we are and what we want to be for each other.

5) A PLACE OF THE SPIRIT

Lastly, the upper room is the place where the early Church received the Spirit.

When the day of Pentecost came it found them gathered in one place. Suddenly from up in the sky there came a noise like a strong, driving wind which was heard all through the house where they were seated. Tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to rest on each one. All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them (Acts 2:1-4).

If a community eats, talks, prays, cares and listens to each other then that community will have spirit. If they don't, then we're back to the hotel of strangers.

We use that word “spirit” in everyday language. We talk about “team spirit” or “school spirit”. It's also used in negative ways. “The spirit in this house is crummy!” Spirit meals “life”, “mood”, “atmosphere”. It usually refers to how people work or don't work or interact with each other.

The Spirit of God is also hard to define or pin down. It's like the wind (RUAH). We see only its effects. We find it easier to picture God the Father, because we all know what a dad is. We have images of Jesus from all the crucifixes and pictures around our houses. But how do we picture the Spirit?

The Bible speaks of the Spirit as wind, fire, breath or the dove. People who have spirit are lit up. We say, “Who lit the fire under you?” A team with spirit is “hot”. A team with individuals not working together is cold or cool. Love is “hot stuff”. A team with spirit moves “like the wind” or is “flying high” like a bird.

These are only impressions of the Spirit. However, the way we know the Spirit is in its effects, just as we know it's windy when we see the trees moving. If we see people moving, creating, loving, caring, we say to ourselves that they have spirit. We see the people we live with. We know when they are hot and cold. We know when their spirit is up or down.

Is this “spirit” within us the Holy Spirit? The answer is “yes” and “no”. The answer is found in one of the most important statements in the Bible.

"The wind blows where it will.

You hear the sound it makes

but you don't know where it comes from,

or where it goes.

So it is with everyone begotten of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

This text says that we can't pin God down. This text means that we cannot control God's presence or make God happen. A person's spirit can marry the Holy Spirit and the two can become one spirit. John once tried to control the spirit and power of Jesus, and went to Jesus and complained,

“Master, we saw a man using your name to expel demons, and we tried to stop him because he is not of our company.” Jesus told him in reply, “Do not stop him, for any man who is not against you is on your side” (Luke 9:49).

In our communities we have all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts. Often people have had to hide their lights under bushel baskets and bury their talents in the field. It's much easier to keep control of things when everyone must conform. When the windows are closed everything sits comfortably on one's desk. But open the windows and things might start blowing around.

“The Spirit is moving all over this land.” The wind blows where it wills. Jokes were made about the windows of the Vatican that John the Twenty Third opened up. The fresh air is giving us parishes where the talents of more than the priests are being called forth.

In the religious communities we have mixed reactions to all this as people are learning more and more how to breathe the new air. Situations are much harder to control when people can express their gifts much more openly. Members complain that so and so is never home. Obviously, the problem is not the new air in the Church. The problem is the home and the people in it. If people look to the symbol of the upper room as a model for the need to eat together, talk to each other, express their fears and complaints together, and then decide together, then the community should not get in the way of the Spirit of God.

We need communities then where people will be at home with God and neighbor. An example that impresses me deeply is the fellowship in Charismatic meetings. There people pray in varieties of ways and it doesn't seem to bother the people around them. I've noticed that at every meeting there are usually a few “odd characters” -- sometimes unbalanced. Yet there is a deep bond of charity and unity present. I'm not impressed by the gift of tongues. Like Paul, I'm not that crazy about its use (1 Corinthians 14: 2, 5). But I am impressed by some of the other gifts -- especially love. I am impressed by the fruits of the Spirit that I've seen in the Charismatic Renewal: “joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Galatians 5: 22-23)

If there is any one word other than love that weaves its way through the pages of both the Old and the New Testaments it's that word “spirit”. In the Book of Ezekiel we have that powerful vision of the field of dead bones. Ezekiel stood there in that valley surrounded by skeletons and heard the Lord say,

Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: O My People, I will openyour graves and have you rise from them, and bring them back to the land of Israel (Ezekiel 37: 9 - 12)

The Son of Man came. He rose from the dead. He promised the Spirit. The New Israel, a new hope, began in the upper room. They rose from their chairs and brought the good news of Jesus into the whole world.

CONCLUSION

These ideas hopefully will help Christians pull together the reality of what a community, especially a religious community, is. This is one person's vision. By putting it in writing it helped me attempt to clarify what I'm beginning to understand. Hopefully, many more people will express their's and together we'll build the house of God, upper room and all. Thank you for listening.

Picture on top is of The Cenacle or Last Supper Room. It's located on the second floor of the Tomb of David building in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is described as "the traditional site that commemorates Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples."

MEN
AND WOMEN

Quote for the Day - May 22, 2010


"Men look at themselves in mirrors. Women look for themselves."


Elissa Melamed, in Mirror, Mirror: The Terror of Not Being Young, Linden Press 1983


Is that true? Any comments?

THE LONGEST JOURNEY  
IS THE JOURNEY WITHIN....

Quote for the Day - May 21, 2010


"There is a great deal of unmapped country within us."


George Eliot (Marian Evans Cross) [1819-1880]

HOW MUCH WAS 
THE SERMON WORTH?

Quote for the Day - May 20, 2010


"A little boy watched his mother put a nickle in the collection basket at Sunday Mass. On the way home, she was criticizing the poor sermon they had heard. 'But mom,' the boy said, 'what do you expect for five cents.'"


Anon - and obviously not said on the way home from St. Mary's.