Pentecost Sunday

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, the feast that celebrates the birth of the Christian Church. Here’s my homily:

In 1887, Doctor Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof invented a new international language known as Esperanto. Zamenhof was a Jew who was born in Poland and brought up in Byalistok. As a young man in his native town, he noticed that the various ethnic groups who lived there always kept to themselves and didn’t mix, because they couldn’t understand one another. They spoke different languages: Russian, Yiddish, German, or Polish. This separation of people often led to suspicion and animosity. It was then that the young Ludwig though how good it would be if there was a common language that everyone could learn to speak. Not a language to replace their own native tongue, but a second language that could be a source of unity for all.

At first Ludwig thought Latin might serve as this international language, but he quickly realised that it would be too difficult for many people to learn. So, he conceived the idea of creating a new language.

In 1887 the new international language was published. Esperanto in the new language means “one who hopes”, and it was the good doctor’s hope that this new tongue would be a means for promoting unity and understanding throughout the world. The success of Esperanto may have been limited, but the inspiration behind it was noble and honourable. Ludwig Zamenhof knew that if people could speak freely with each other, they would begin to understand one another and would grow in mutual respect.

At the beginning of the Church’s life, on this feast of Pentecost, we are also celebrating the birth of a new language, the language of the Holy Spirit of God. This language, which is the Gospel, gives us a confidence about how we live our lives. Just as the apostles and disciples were emboldened to go out from the upper room and to teach all nations, so every generation of the Church’s children is given the same grace and the same mandate: “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News”. No need to be afraid of the powers of this world. Let your lives be a witness to the love of God.

The new language of the Holy Spirit is also a force for unity among the people of the world. This force was clearly demonstrated on Pentecost day when the crowds of people in Jerusalem heard the apostles speaking to them in their own language. It was a miracle of understanding. Not only did they understand what the words meant, but they understood the message for their own lives. For it is our daily life, our human behaviour, that is the most fundamental language of all. Our actions speak much louder than our words, and everything we say and do is an act of communication. Conversely, we also communicate by the things we don’t do, and the things we don’t say. If our lives are guided by the Spirit, then we are speaking the new language of God and that language will bring people unity and peace.

St Paul was at pains to stress this teaching to converts in Galatia. These new Christians had no familiarity with the Jewish Law and they were floundering in their attempts to understand what freedom means. So Paul spells out the way of life that the Holy Spirit inspires. It is the life of virtue, and it brings blessings on all. Virtue is an international language of unity, justice, and peace. It’s opposite — selfishness, apathy, and violence — is no language at all, for it doesn’t embrace people, but rather offends them. Virtue is a language we must learn and in which we must grow. There will be no peace in our world today if we’re not virtuous people.

When Ludwig Zamenhof died in 1917, the world was plunged in darkness and bitter strife. Millions were dying in the First World War and in the Russian revolution. And that was only the beginning of the troubles for the century that followed. Now, at the beginning of a new age, we stand in fear and trembling at the prospect of new dangers. Every war represents a failure to communicate, a failure to understand, a failure to reach out in hope to one another. It could well be that we, too, are part of that failure. Am I able to speak to my brothers and sisters in humanity? Am I able to speak to my enemies? Am I able to let them speak to me?

I’m disappointed in the number of people from our parish that were present at last Monday’s Ecumenical Prayer Service. And I wonder about those who weren’t present. Are they still suspicious of other Christians? Are they unable to understand the language of the Holy Spirit and of the Gospel and therefore can neither communicate with others nor allow others to communicate with them? Do they prefer to remain ignorant and stay comfortable in their own world?

These are not the ways of the Holy Spirit, nor the ways of the Gospel, nor the ways of virtue. And so we must continue to pray: “Come Holy Spirit! Renew the face of the earth!”