Factus est repente de caelo sono

“Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven, the sound of a mighty wind approaching.” (Acts 2:2,4)

+

One of the great privileges that I have as a student of chant is that I am often given a glimpse through the window of time that connects me in a very special way to other members of the Church, that is, the communion of saints, those who have gone before me by many centuries. The music of what we call Gregorian chant was largely settled by the eighth and ninth centuries, the texts of these chants had already been codified by Gregory the Great at the end of the sixth century, and certainly forms of these chants were an intrinsic part of the Liturgy shortly after the conversion of Constantine and his subsequent edict legalizing Christianity in 313. So, while it may not be exactly a glimpse at the Apostolic Church, it’s pretty close. Certainly, chant embodies the prayers and musical meditations on Scripture of millions of souls who have gone before us.

We generally think of chant as a rather cerebral music with a somewhat restricted range of emotion. Whether or not that is true depends somewhat on one’s perspective, but if, for the sake of discussion, we were to take such a claim at face value, then those moments of vividly expressed emotion become most striking.

There is one such moment in the Mass of Pentecost – today. It is in the communion chant, in which the story recounted in the Acts of the Apostles is echoed.

“Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven: the sound of a mighty wind approaching.” It’s a very different description of the movement and the power of the Spirit from that which we hear in the very first verses of Scripture that tell us, “In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.” (Gen 1:1-2) Here, in this Pentecost chant, we experience the movement of the Spirit in music that is almost like a trumpet fanfare. Perhaps it is the final blast of the Ascension trumpets, as we conclude the nine-day observance of Ascension-tide. Remember on Ascension, and all through these last days, the verse that appears in the Liturgy and the Divine Office: “God is ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with the sound of trumpet.” (Ps 46:6) Perhaps it is another veiled reference to the coming of the Lord at the end of time and to our own rising on that day. St. Paul tells us that, “the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven with commandment and with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God.” (1 Th 4:16)

Regardless, as the Apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit, and begin to speak of the wonders of God, it is a moment that can only be described with unbridled emotion – even in the chant.

We consider this to be the birthday of the Church, for even though Christ had earlier established Peter as the head of the Church that He would build, (Matt 16:18) it was today that Christ’s great commission to “go forth, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matt 28:19) was first taken up by the Apostles.

This birthday, then, is a day we celebrate with great festivity, and through our history there have particularly festive practices in certain places. For example, In Italy, it was customary to scatter rose petals from the ceiling of the churches to recall the miracle of the fiery tongues. In fact, in Italy this day is often called Pascha rosatum, signifying not only the roses dropped from the ceiling, but also the red colors of the vestments worn on this day. In France it was customary to blow trumpets during Holy Mass, to recall the sound of the mighty wind which accompanied the Descent of the Holy Spirit – in much the same way we heard the trumpets echoed in the Latin communion chant. (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1917 ed, s.v. “Pentecost (WhitSunday)”)

We, as baptized with one faith and one Lord, Jesus Christ, (Eph 4:5) are members of this Church. We should, then reflect for a few moments on what it means to be a member of Christ’s Church.

Too often, we think of Church membership in social terms, as if it is nothing more than a gathering of friends or a club of some sort. In fact, I hear that, under the guise of promoting this sense of social community, there are actually some places where the priest says Mass facing the people.

Now don’t be scandalized. I am sure that it only happens rarely and in remote places where the bishop is probably not aware of what’s going on.

Nevertheless, it’s sad. Certainly, there is a social dimension to the Church, the Ecclesia. Church is where we see our friends. Sunday Mass is often the center of family events. Sometimes these friendships and family events span generations in a parish. Yes, there is certainly a social dimension to Church. But to leave our understanding of Church there is too shallow a notion of what it means to be a member of the Church, a member of the Communion of Saints. The Church is not just a social community. It is first and foremost a community of faith, drawn together by and commissioned by that same command given to the Apostles, “go forth, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” which is far more profound than whether or not we have social connections to each other. To be a member of the Church is to be not on a path to earthly happiness, earthly friendship, but to be on the path to eternal happiness, to eternal union with God in heaven.

Therefore, to be a member of the Church is to be a recipient of the greatest gift of God, after the death and Resurrection of His Son.

“In the spiritual warfare that besets all of us, nearly all the time, there are no greater assists than the sacraments established by Our Lord Jesus Christ and continued through the ministry of His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church. Only the Catholic Church is with a person sacramentaly from birth to death, and even beyond. From your baptism to when you receive the last rites, and all those thousands of confessions and Holy Communions in between, God never fails to provide for you, for us, His Church, wandering through the desert of this temporary world.

It is as members of the Church established by Jesus Christ that we have access to God Himself. The Church is His Holy Bride. It is for Her He died. It is She Who flowed from His pierced side on the Cross. She came forth from His side like Eve came forth from the side of Adam — bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. She is His Bride, and since She is His bride, She is our Mother.

The Church continues not just the work of Christ, but Christ Himself, throughout all time. Only the Catholic Church — the Church established by Jesus Christ Himself — has the ability to fight and to defeat evil – because Evil is more powerful than mere man or any religion established by a mere man. No matter how much of a defense anyone of us may put up against evil and resist it, in the end, left to our own devices, we will give in, because Evil is more powerful than we are.

Evil and sin look attractive to us because we have a disposition toward, an appetite for, wickedness, because of Original Sin. The source of this inclination toward evil is spiritual, not temporal. And therefore, the remedy against it must be spiritual, and not just spiritual, but a more powerful spiritual "force" than the power of Evil. And that “more powerful spiritual force” is the life of God Himself, which is the gift that we receive as members of His Church.” (Michael Voris, The Vortex: https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vortex-best-gift-ever)

We have heard several times during the final days of this Easter season, that Christ promised His Apostles – and us – that he would not leave us orphans. And He has not. He has sent His Spirit, and through the Spirit, through the Church that was born on this day, He has effected His continued presence among us, who hear and believe.

Today, then, is a day of great rejoicing, with the voice of the trumpets, for this great gift of the Church, and with such a great gift, it is also a day to reflect on the particular responsibility that such a gift lays at our feet. The Great Commission, “go forth, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” was not meant for the Apostles only. It was meant for every one of us who enjoys the blessings of membership in Christ’s Church.

To be fair, not every one of us is called to a kind of overt evangelization that we see, for example, in the work of missionaries. For most of us, evangelization, that is, bringing people to the Church is a quieter affair. Some of us prefer to think of the Catholic Church as a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous in that we grow by attraction rather than by promotion.

But if that is true, then we must ask ourselves, “Would my life attract someone to the Church?” Would my prayers, my penances, my sacrifices be such that – even if they are very private – God would have enough from me to help someone who has fallen away from the Church to return or to help someone who does not know the faith to find it?

There is a story about a man who is having a little difficulty deciding what to order for dinner in a restaurant. As the server is waiting for him to order and the gentleman is looking at his menu, another man a couple of tables over begins to exclaim loudly about his meal, “Oh, this is magnificent. I have never experienced anything like this in my whole life! Bring me more of this!” The man looking at his menu closes it quietly, looks up at the server, and says, “I’ll have whatever he’s having.”

If someone were to meet you, would they experience you as a member of the Church – even if quietly – in such a way that they would say, “I want whatever it is that he has.”

+

#Pentecost