Last week I told the story of my dad’ conversion. He grew up in a family that was not religiously observant. His sister Peggy was marrying Jack Flack, a Catholic, back in 1938 and dad escorted her to the local parish in East St. Louis to receive religious instruction from Fr. Weidermeyer He liked the idea that Jesus didn’t just throw the bible down in the middle of the street saying 'you people figure it out, I am ascending to heaven.' Instead, Jesus is still working in the world through the Church. For my dad, the Church, the Scriptures and the Sacraments were signs of God working in the world.
My dad did not grow up with that idea. His dad didn’t reject the Catholic faith, he just didn’t practice any religion. His mom was raised in a Congregational faith, but didn’t practice either. Grandpa and Grandma used to fight and not infrequently. Sometimes they were pretty bad; dad said when he was a kid that he would cover his head with a pillow. His Irish grandma, Nell, would pray the rosary in the room next to his. He could hear the buzzing of her prayer through the wall. That may have been the only religious influence in his home. That background makes my dad’s conversion to the Catholic faith and the devout way that he lived it all the more remarkable. It is a good story.
The story of Faith Faith is entering into the story about God and us. When Jesus became a human being, that is the Incarnation, he never left his Father. When Jesus Ascended to the Father, he didn’t leave us. God is among us. Our feasts tell a story, like remembering our family story. Today, as we celebrate Pentecost, we remember how we came to know the Holy Spirit, that is, the love shared between the Father and the Son. The scriptures tell us that the Spirit was present at Creation and throughout the Story of Israel. That is why the scriptures today remind us of the Tower of Babel and God descending in fire and cloud on the holy mountain, giving the Torah to Moses. In the Gospel Jesus breathed on his disciple and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In another story, he cried out while teaching in the Temple, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me." Jn. 7.
Faith is a Gift Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is moving in the world before anyone believes. The Spirit moves an old lady to pray the rosary and her grandson hears and remembers. The Spirit moves a young woman to convert to the Faith and begin her family and it touches her brother. The Spirit shows us how our story is part of other peoples storeis, joined to the Long Story of God and the people of Israel. Faith is seeing that the same Spirit that moved Abraham and Moses, the prophets, Jesus, the Apostles and my great-grandmother, moves me.
Faith needs an environment In order for the gifts of the Spirit to flourish, Faith needs an environment. Palms do not flourish in Greenland, whales do not multiply on glaciers, and blackberries do not grow in the desert. In the same way faith needs an environment and that environment must be Christian.
The example of others Faith may survive but has difficulty flourishing in a hostile environment. After his conversion, my dad joined the Army and soon was fighting in Europe as a bombardier. Dad said, that it was cradle Catholics serving with him that taught him to put down his rosary during mass and use the missal to follow the Latin. The rosary was always important to dad, but he learned also to be devoted to the Eucharist through the example of other Catholics.
Environment and Art No one can learn Christianity just from the catechism. We have to see it, experience it, take it into our self, taste it. Statues of saints, pictures of saints, crucifixes, my parents praying the rosary, prayers as we went to school or leave on vacation, prayers before meals and Sunday mass were all ways that my parents created an environment of prayer in our home.
The people we invite into our lives Dad stuck with the Catholic faith through two combat tours in Europe and St. Louis University on the GI bill. He was then recalled to Korea and B-29s. He saw the first attacks by jets. He also met my mom who was a civilian court reporter for the Air Force. Dad, who graduated from law school between the wars, served as a military lawyer between combat missions. Mom said she knew that something was up when he started showing up for mass in the Enlisted Man’s chapel where she went to mass. They dated for three months and were married for 62 years. She and dad supported each other to raise us as responsible Catholic adults. We are not defined by our parents. Less fighting and more rosaries in that marriage.
We are free to follow or fall away Faith never dies because it is challenged or tried. Faith dies when we allow it to erode, slowly, over time, by our indifference or lack of care. God never forces anything on us. We are free to choose. Prayers from the heart, even those that fight angrily with God or prayers that bring us happiness and peace, are a certain indication that our faith is alive. Our desire to pray, is itself the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we resist that gift, if we fail to pray, faith can fade away. If we live our faith, however, springs of living water will well up in us giving life to others in surprising ways. I think of Abraham Moses, St. Peter and the apostles, my great-grandmother Nell, my aunt Peggy, Uncle John Flack, my mom, my dad and the example of countless more who brought the Spirit and the Faith to me.