An Identity Renewed: Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

Some time ago, while interacting with a group of seminarians I heard the following anecdote from their life in the seminary. The question was of identities, and they were taught that we are first human, then Indian (assuming the seminary is in India), and only then, in the third place, Christian.

My dear brothers and sisters, if what was reported to me is true, then it is not only a great shame, but a matter of great concern, that such unchristian knowledge is being propagated via seminaries.

It is not that this teaching is entirely untrue. Naturally, and chronologically, speaking, it is a fact that one is first born, and is hence human; that we are then registered in the State records, and receive our nationality and/or citizenship; and it is only then, after a period that in the old days was about 45 days, that one is baptized, and hence becomes Christian. 

But the life of Christians is not about the natural alone, but also about the supernatural! The feast of the Pentecost that we celebrate today, is indeed, all about the cooperation of the natural and the supernatural, and the priority of the supernatural over the natural. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the gift of His Holy Spirit, the supernatural has not only triumphed over the world and the natural, but indeed, remade it! As in the case we just heard from the Acts of the Apostles:

there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.

but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?

How else, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit, that remakes the world?

I would like to return to the anecdote from the seminary; the formator who filled the seminarians with this nonsense seems to have misunderstood the very nature of baptism. When we are baptized, we are – through the power of the Holy Spirit – claimed for Christ, the stain of original sin is removed, and we are made worthy of entering heaven.

Listen to the words of St. Peter in his first epistle (1: 18-19):

You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

The ways of our ancestors, those who belonged to the world, were – and remain – useless, and it was only with the gift of the Precious Blood of Christ and His Holy Spirit, that we are renewed, or made anew. As the response to the psalm says:

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

After Pentecost, and the sacraments of baptism and confirmation that flow from it, we are no longer anything first, other than Christian. If we are not Christian first, and we stress our natural identities rather than the supernatural then we have missed the point, and we are nothing. For, as St. Paul teaches, "the wisdom of the flesh is death" (Romans 8: 6).

This Christian identity, is not some mere social identity, that is, not a natural identity, but in fact, a supernatural identity. The Christian identity via baptism is something that changes the core of our being, an ontological change - to use a technical word - and is about acknowledging Christ as Lord. As Saint Paul says in the portion from his first letter to the Corinthians that we just read:

No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, which was poured on the world on Pentecost, continues to claim souls for Christ, and to guide these souls towards union with Him and the Father. More than this, as St. Paul continues to teach, it makes us one body. This is the body that we belong to, the mystical body of Christ, which is His Church. We are, through baptism, therefore, not Jews, or Greeks, or slaves or free persons, or Indians, or Pakistanis, or Portuguese, or anything else but Christians; which is to say, one body in Christ, who is our first identity.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.

(This homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on the 7 of June 2025, following the first vespers of the solemnity of Pentecost.)

(Image reference: Constantine the Great, accompanied by the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325), holding the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381, anonymous icon writer, via Wikipedia.)

Taking Human Nature to Heaven: Homily for the feast of the Ascension

Through most of the year the lectionary offers us the opportunities to reflect on the elements of the Christian life – the life of virtue, the imitation of Our Lord, Our Blessed Mother, the saints. On other occasions, such as today, when we celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord, we are afforded the opportunity to focus on the nature of Christ himself. In more complex terms, the feast of the Ascension offers us an opportunity for a Christological reflection.

In the Gospel today we read:

he led them out as far as Bethany,
raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them he parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.

He “was taken up to heaven;” to contemplate this mystery we can take the help of the words of St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians (4:9):

When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth

In this verse St Paul instructs us in an element that we affirm every Sunday when we recite the Creed, “he descended to the dead.” But this is not the only descent that Our Lord undertook, for, as St Paul once again teaches, in the letter to the Philippians (2: 6-8) Jesus Christ:

who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
     he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

Let us count the number of times that Our Lord descended, which St. Paul correctly points out, was an acceptance of humbling: He was coequal with God, and yet he consented to take human form, and the form of a slave. And as if this was not enough, he humbled himself further still, by accepting not just death, but a shameful death, crucified naked – like a criminal – on the cross.

At this point, my dear brothers and sisters, we can appreciate more fully the nature of Christ. From before time began, Our Lord was of nature divine. Yet, by consenting to take on human form, he also fully accepted our human nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, was, and remains, both divine and human. It was not that he was human and because he led a  beatific life became divine. Or that he was divine and did not become fully human, and therefore did not fully suffer temptation or indeed pain. Our Lord was fully human and fully divine.

And it was because he was of human nature, that when he suffered obediently on the cross, died, was resurrected, and then ascended into heaven, that he was able to restore our human nature that had been defiled by the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. After the Fall, we were unable to enter heaven, no matter how virtuous our lives. The Creed teaches us “He descended into hell.” The hell He descended into was the place that held all the virtuous, including St. Joseph, who had died before Our Lord. No matter how virtuous their lives, because of the stain of original sin, they could not enter the presence of God and awaited their deliverance through the Messiah. This Our Lord did with His resurrection and restored to us the possibility of entering heaven.

My dear brothers and sisters, Our Lord entered heaven, not in spirit alone, but in flesh! In so doing, He made it possible for us to enter heaven with our flesh. At the end of time, when we will be resurrected, it will not be a resurrection of our souls alone, but a resurrection of our whole selves, body and soul. It is because we know that we will be reunited with our bodies, and be able to live in the presence of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that we can spend our lives here on earth suffering for not following the rules of the wicked.

My dear brothers and sisters, we live in a time when to follow a virtuous Christian life is, very often, to be last in an earthly scheme of things. And while I am not saying that we should be last, I am also saying that if it is that we are last in the course of following a Christian life, then we should be sure that we will receive eternal reward for our troubles, while those who act as if Our Lord has not ascended into heaven, to prepare a place for us by His side, will repent (eternally) for their shortsightedness.

And so, my dear brothers and sisters, let us take to our hearts the assurance of Our Lord and His commandment that we heard in the acclamation of the Gospel today:

Go and teach all nations, …
I am with you always, until the end of the world.

May Our Lord bless you, and may you have a blessed feast of the Ascension.

(This homily was first preached to the faithful at the parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 1 June 2025.)

(Image reference: Prague – “The Ascension of the Lord”, František Sequens, second half of the 19^th cent., Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Prague.)