In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, Paul asked some of the new disciples in Ephesus if they received the Holy Spirit when they became believers? It seemed to be an important thing to find out, because Paul kept questioning them about their baptism and how it was conducted. He wanted to make sure it was valid. This is true with the Catholic church today as well. We recognize the baptism of all the Protestant churches, if the person was baptized in the Trinitarian form. There are very few christian churches who do not baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. However, there are a few, like the Jesus only Pentecostals and the Jehovah Witnesses that do not baptize in the Trinitarian form. We do not consider these baptisms to be valid. Both of these denominations do not believe in the Trinity, but most other Protestant churches do. We respect the baptism of all christian churches who use the Trinitarian form and do not re-baptize those who enter the Catholic church for this reason. We share this common belief with our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are not members of our church.
Speaking of the Pentecostal denomination, the main thing most of us know about them, is that they speak in tongues during their worship services. This seems so foreign to our conservative Catholic way of worshiping during Mass that we can’t picture it, and many people doubt it is even genuine. However, according to today’s reading from the book of Acts, speaking in tongues can be a genuine occurrence, even if it goes against the grain of our view of the traditional Catholic way of worshiping at mass.
If you think about it, one of the valid indicators of demonic possession, is the fact that the person speaks in a language unknown to them. You can ask any official exorcist about this. So, it makes sense, that if a demon can possess a person and cause them to speak in an unknown language, then the Holy Spirit can too.
People have actually taped some of the voices of Charismatic Catholics who speak in tongues, and had the tapes studied by linguistic experts, who identified that the person was speaking a specific, recognizable language from a country they have never been exposed to. There are probably some occurrences of speaking in tongues that are not genuine, but we shouldn’t just disregard the entire phenomena as not being genuine.
The same is true with prophecy. Many of the saints had gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongues, which are recognized as valid gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic church. Saint Anthony, Saint Dominic and St. Paul of the Cross are three of the more well known saints with the gift of speaking in tongues.
The gospel today talks about confusing speech as well. The disciples were grateful to hear Jesus speak in a manner that they could clearly understand. They came to understand that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, because of the plain, clear explanations that he gave them.
Jesus knew their belief in him was ambiguous at best. That sounds a lot like the way we view speaking in tongues and the gift of prophecy too! But, Jesus understands our human doubts and weaknesses and they do not diminish his love for us in the least, according to today’s gospel, because he went on to say:
“Behold the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
Wasn’t the gospel reading beautiful today? Jesus understands our human weaknesses, but he loves us anyway and wants us to be at peace. But, our peace is in Christ alone, rather than other people and other things in the world. Everything and everyone else in the world may aggravate us, cause us many problems and suffering, but things may be that way for a reason. Why else would we turn to Jesus in prayer? We would be perfectly happy without him.
So, the next time we experience a lot of aggravations, problems, heartaches or suffering, we should look at these things as a call to prayer, a call to regain our center in Christ, rather than the things going on around us. Ultimately, our peace comes from Jesus and not the world around us.
Daily Mass Readings:
Acts 1: 1-11 / Psalm 47 / Ephesians 1: 17-23
