The Spirit of Truth will not be silenced

Pentecost Sunday – B

Last year on Pentecost, protests broke out in Minneapolis and around the world in response to the torturous eight minute and 46 second recorded murder of George Floyd by a police officer. We all heard the “noise like a strong driving wind” of hard conversations—ones that our Black sisters and brothers have been demanding for 400 years—in our churches, homes, and cities, looking at systemic racism and white privilege.

One by one, organizations began tearing down long-standing structures and symbols of injustice against the Black community. And a few weeks later, the same was happening to the systems that harbored sexual abuse and violence against women in the church as reports revealed multiple allegations against a beloved liturgical composer.

Every year, Catholics around the world pray these words in the Pentecost Sequence: “Bend the stubborn heart and will; / Melt the frozen, warm the chill.”

The Spirit of Truth will not be silenced by our complicity or cowardice. The Truth the Spirit reveals will not be confined to dogmas in a catechism but will expose the lies of injustice in all our relationships. For too long, as a church, we thought the Spirit was here to lull us with gentle breezes. We know better now to believe it when we ask the Spirit to come and renew the face of the earth.

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Photo by Peter John Maridable.

Read more reflections on the Sunday readings here:

• Restraint and Generosity
• Going Further
• Can we be salt and light?
• Who is advocating for those in need?
• Bonded to Christ’s Mission