Welcome back to the live-stream of the Mass here at Resurrection Parish in Delran, NJ. Of course we are all wishing we could be worshipping together, in-person, but with the current health crisis that is not possible right now. We are working on having things ready for when we can re-enter the church. Notice I called it “re-entry” and not “re-open” because the Church has never been closed. Sure the buildings have been closed, but the Church – which we celebrate in a special way on Pentecost – is made up of all the followers of Jesus Christ, united together in the Holy Spirit, which came upon the first disciples on that first Pentecost.

This is also the third week in our message series, “More Than Words.” We have used that title because often we devalue the power of words. We say things like sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me. The reality is that words have incredible power and God’s word have God’s power.

Two weeks ago we looked at some of the sins of the tongue. Those sins come from our heart. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We looked at how our words reveal our heart and reveal what we have to work on in our heart. 

Last week we looked at finding words in Scripture to bring clarity and direction to our life. We don’t want to let the words of others define our direction. We want to let the word of God set the direction to our lives. And so we asked everyone to begin looking for a verse or story of Scripture to claim as your own. 

Today we want to look at overcoming those communication breakdowns. Communication Breakdown, it is always the same. There are those times where there is confusion and communication is strained. There are some people we love or have to work with and we can never seem to get over the confusion in communication. 

The Bible has a lot to teach us about communication breakdowns. In fact we are going to look at a famous one, that if we were doing the Pentecost Vigil Mass, it would have been our first reading. It is from the Book of Genesis, chapter 11, the story of the Tower of Babel. At Babel, God confused the speech of humanity and brought about different languages because the hearts of people were wicked. People were working to build a tower to heaven as an affront to God and his power. They said, “Let us build ourselves a city, and let us make a name for ourselves.” 

In a sense it was declaring war on God and his will. And so God has to come down and look at the tower which the builders at Babel were building to in a way to force their way into heaven. God then confuses the speech so as to limit the evil and harm they can do. So it was pride and self-centeredness which lead to this communication breakdown.

Now we are going to look towards a solution. To do so we are looking at a passage from Acts of the Apostles and Pentecost. Acts tells us: “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were” (Acts 2: 1-2). 

Pentecost took place 50 days after the feast of Passover. It was a Jewish feast that celebrated the harvest. Jewish people would bring to Jerusalem their first fruits and offer them at the Temple. On this particular year, Pentecost happened 50 days after Jesus had risen from the dead. One hundred and twenty disciples were in Jerusalem praying because this is what Jesus had instructed them to do. As they were praying a strong driving wind came and filled the entire house. It would have felt like a hurricane. And then as the wind died down, we are told: “Then there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2: 3-4).

Fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit because fire purifies. Fire gets rid of impurities. The Holy Spirit purifies our hearts. He purifies our souls.

The speaking in different tongues, as the Holy Spirit enabled them, is understood to be a reversal of what happened at the tower of Babel. Now with the birth of the Church, the birth of a community of believers, God is bringing unity to speech, he is making it so that everyone can hear the same words. And this comes from a humility of the believers. 

God was giving the disciples an ability to speak in different languages and bring unity of speech because they were filled with God’s spirit and unified with the desire to bring the Gospel to the world.

“Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each 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 one of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. Yet we hear them speaking in our tongues of the mighty acts of God’” (Acts 2: 5-11).

Even though they spoke a different language, even though there was a language gap, because they were speaking about the mighty acts of God, all these different nationalities were able to make sense and understand what the disciples were saying. And after this Peter preaches and many people come back to God. 

Confusion in our words and speaking comes from sin. Confusion leads to frustration and the breaking down of our relationships. Clarity and clear communication are a mark of the Holy Spirit. So how do you get on the same page or cut through that confusion? The feast of Pentecost gives us insight and some steps to take. 

First, purify your heart. Are you speaking because you want to prove yourself right? Are you speaking so the person will truly understand you or because you just want to bludgeon them with arguments? Are you trying to be helpful with your words? Are you really speaking because you want to help bring the person to a better place or because you just want to hear yourself speak. So many times people talk because they want to hear themselves talk or because it makes them feel better to get it off their chest. And there is a place for that.

Imagine if before every time we spoke, we asked the question: Is this helpful? Am I saying this to help the other person? We can ask the Spirit to purify our hearts that we only speak with the desire to be helpful and not prove ourselves right. The best way to be helpful is to understand where people come from. When we understand their position and their situation we can better communicate to them.

Second, invite the Holy Spirit into that next conversation you have. If you are struggling to speak with your spouse, your teenager, your parent in a way that you understand, ask the Holy Spirit to help you communicate in a way they can hear. I believe whatever the struggle you have in communication, the Holy Spirit, who wants to unify people who are working towards good can help you. And if the Holy Spirit helps you then God will get the glory and you will have a stronger relationship. 

So your homework this week is to identify one communication breakdown in your life. Maybe write down who it is with, over what issues, and what you have done to try to fix it. Then ask the Holy Spirit to purify your heart, to help you understand things from the other person’s perspective. Finally ask the Holy Spirit to help you find a way to bring greater unity between you and the other person, all for the greater glory of God.