Another Pentecost Moment

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I try to write something new in this space every week, but with Pentecost Sunday coming this weekend, I want to share something that I’ve said before.

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As much as I love our pastor and all of those who preach, pray, and lead us in worship on Sunday mornings, the priests at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris get extra credit for doing all of that while hundreds of tourists mill around looking, talking, and taking pictures. 

We were there on a Saturday morning just as the noon mass was starting, and the priest’s melodic French voice was ever present through the opening prayers and liturgy of the Word as we walked down the left wall aisle to explore the architecture and history. We stopped for a moment on his right to listen as he spoke in perfect English about the Gospel account of the death of John the Baptist, and then we continued our tour of the tombs and chapels behind the altar. 

By the time we came around to the priest’s left side, he had come to the Lord’s Prayer—the “Our Father,” as Catholics call it—and again he spoke in English and said, “This is the prayer that Christ gave to all of us, so please say it with me now in the language of your heart.” As he prayed in French, we prayed in English while others around us prayed in German, Spanish, and languages from Asia, Africa, and beyond. 

In that moment everyone was speaking in their own tongue, but everyone knew what everyone was saying. It was a Pentecost moment. 

Perhaps the takeaway from that visit isn’t the priest’s amazing concentration but rather his drawing us into the knowledge that God is there for all of us and is with us no matter who we are, where we go, or what we do—whether kneeling in the pews, milling down the aisles, or rushing down the streets outside. 

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I wrote that in 2014 after a trip with family to Paris. Since that time, Paris has endured terrorist attacks, the fire at Notre Dame and its share of turmoil. Here in the United States, there has been more upheaval and tragedy than we can count. It feels like we are in the throes of a societal reset if not a full rebirth, and there is no indication on the horizon of what is waiting for us on the other side.

The only hope I have is that the message of Pentecost remains unchanged: We all are imperfect, we all have potential, we all need help in one way or another. We all are children of the same God, we all are loved equally by that same God, and we’re all called to love each other as God loves each of us.

Published in Together, Thoughts and Stories About Living in Community