Now that we have celebrated the Ascension, our focus shifts towards the
coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. I mentioned during the notices last
weekend that the very first novena was when the apostles gathered together in
prayer with Our Lady and some of the other disciples for nine days between the
Ascension and Pentecost, praying as Jesus had instructed them to (see Acts
1:12-14 and Luke 24:49). They were not to go out immediately, but to wait for
the coming of the Holy Spirit. As it says in the psalms, “If the Lord does not
build the house, in vain do its builders labour” (Ps 126(127):1). It is the Holy
Spirit who builds up the Church.
The Holy Spirit is also the spirit of truth and unity. Division and disunity are
not the work of God, but of the evil one. Our readings today speak both about
the Holy Spirit, and also the fate of Judas, the “one who chose to be lost”. The
danger is always there; we have never got it made. We would like life to be
plain sailing, but there are challenges, and people change sides. In the Narnia
books, we discover in the final book that Susan has left them, although she’s no
Judas. I quote:
‘ “Sire,” said Tirian, when he had greeted all these, “If I have read the chronicle
aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is
Queen Susan?”
“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of
Narnia.” ’
Today in the first reading, we hear St Peter speaking about finding a
replacement for Judas, and under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy
Spirit, they choose Matthias. There were various times after the Ascension and
Pentecost when they had to rely on the Holy Spirit to show them the way
forward and also to sort out disputes and differences of opinion. The Church
today is no different, as the bishops still gather together with the Pope to
discuss matters affecting the Church and to discern the way forward.
There has always been disagreement between Christ and the world, and
therefore between the Church and the world. Today we listen to Christ’s prayer
to the Father as He says:
“I passed your word onto them,
and the world hated them,
because they belong to the world
no more than I belong to the world.
I am not asking you to remove them from the world,
but to protect them from the evil one.”
It was an uphill struggle being a Christian in the pagan Roman Empire. The
city of Corinth was a bit like the West today, with various different religions
and people deciding to choose a bit from one religion and a bit from the other.
If you were a Christian, you had to remove yourself from that and live by
Christ alone. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, and there is only one truth,
not many truths. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. There
can’t be both one God and many gods; Jesus can’t be both God and not God;
and there can be no false compromises. In the film The Most Reluctant
Convert, C S Lewis charts his conversion from being something of a lapsed
Anglican to atheism to then becoming a committed Anglican (I might add that
he had a few rather Catholic beliefs as well, such as concerning Purgatory). At
one point he is debating with friends, and one of them says to him that trying to
adopt a middle ground of saying Jesus was just a good man won’t work. He
claimed to be God. So either He is, or He was a madman. You can’t try and sit
on the fence.
It’s quite an interesting film, because his conversion happened in stages – it
wasn’t all at once. Sitting in his room, at one point God convinces Him that He
exists, and C S Lewis is dragged away from atheism, as the most reluctant
convert in the whole of England. But accepting that there is a God, he still
doesn’t accept all the rest yet, and J R R Tolkien and Lewis’ other friends still
have their work cut out.
We know how things end, and that, as a result of their belief in Christ, C S
Lewis produces the Narnia Chronicles, plus various other religious and
religion-themed books, and J R R Tolkien produces The Lord of the Rings,
which has the religious themes more deeply buried. We also know that the
Apostles went to spread the Gospel around the whole of the Roman Empire,
with every one of them being martyred apart from St John, who died of old age
after having written his Gospel and his three New Testament letters.
What lies ahead for us? That we do not know. But what we do know is our
need for the Holy Spirit, and to be faithful to the Lord and His Church. The
rest will have to simply unfold.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk