Pentecost is one of my favorite feasts. Imagine the apostles huddled in that upstairs room, quaking in their sandals, afraid to leave lest they be stoned. Jesus had ascended into Heaven and without His physical presence they couldn’t figure out what to do next. The easiest thing might have been to part ways, return to their anonymous lives, and go on as they had before He called them…before He told them stories of sheep and shepherds and prodigals…before He explained who the “blessed” were…before He changed water to wine at Cana, fed five thousand, and cured sick kids…before He gave them His Body and Blood and commanded them to do likewise in His memory…before He put Peter in charge of the whole sorry lot of them. The problem was…Jesus changed them. They couldn’t go back…but they couldn’t go forward either. HOLY SPIRIT TO THE RESCUE…with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, fortitude, joy, kindness, faithfulness, peace…in tongues of fire even! How cool is that? Jesus calls and changes us, too, but the HOLY SPIRIT makes it possible for us to move from our comfort zones into the “mission field” where (as Pope Francis has reminded us) we are called to EVANGELIZE!
I’ll need to remember this in July, when I’ve left my own comfort zone and I’m quaking in my hiking boots at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree in the mountains of West Virginia with 30,000 other youth and adults. The Summit will have cell towers everywhere, but no hot water. Communication will be state of the art, but transportation will be “back to basics”… five to seven miles of hiking each day! I’ll be working in “Faith and Beliefs,” staffing the booth for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. Thousands of young people, Catholic and non-Catholic, will be stopping by to learn about religious emblems, make a rosary, earn a patch. I’m bringing a thousand Miraculous Medals to share. What an opportunity for evangelization!
Among Catholic youth, most will not be “active Catholics,” but they might attend daily Mass in their base camps, celebrated by Eagle Scout priests (using iMissals) who simply LOVE being there with them. A few Scouts might even discern a vocation to the priesthood themselves! Ten thousand people will attend Sunday Mass, concelebrated by 20 or more priests and bishops from all over the country! Many of those attending won’t even be Catholic (they’ll come for the patch), but they’ll see Christ in our celebration of the Eucharist, “Source and Summit” of the Catholic faith.
Inevitably, sometime during the course of the ten day Jamboree, there will be illness, injury, even death among the participants or their families back home. Catholic clergy and laity, physicians, nurses, Scout leaders, and Scouts will have opportunities to minister and evangelize, to bring Christ to those most in need of Him. Amidst it all, on mountain tops, inside caves, above the canopy, in the rapids, along the trails, among the Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, in the sunrises and sunsets, in the cool breezes, and in the hot campfire flames, the Holy Spirit will be there…inspiring us…inspiring me, just like the apostles long ago, to “Be Bold. Be Catholic.”
I’ll need to remember this in July, when I’ve left my own comfort zone and I’m quaking in my hiking boots at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree in the mountains of West Virginia with 30,000 other youth and adults. The Summit will have cell towers everywhere, but no hot water. Communication will be state of the art, but transportation will be “back to basics”… five to seven miles of hiking each day! I’ll be working in “Faith and Beliefs,” staffing the booth for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. Thousands of young people, Catholic and non-Catholic, will be stopping by to learn about religious emblems, make a rosary, earn a patch. I’m bringing a thousand Miraculous Medals to share. What an opportunity for evangelization!
Among Catholic youth, most will not be “active Catholics,” but they might attend daily Mass in their base camps, celebrated by Eagle Scout priests (using iMissals) who simply LOVE being there with them. A few Scouts might even discern a vocation to the priesthood themselves! Ten thousand people will attend Sunday Mass, concelebrated by 20 or more priests and bishops from all over the country! Many of those attending won’t even be Catholic (they’ll come for the patch), but they’ll see Christ in our celebration of the Eucharist, “Source and Summit” of the Catholic faith.
Inevitably, sometime during the course of the ten day Jamboree, there will be illness, injury, even death among the participants or their families back home. Catholic clergy and laity, physicians, nurses, Scout leaders, and Scouts will have opportunities to minister and evangelize, to bring Christ to those most in need of Him. Amidst it all, on mountain tops, inside caves, above the canopy, in the rapids, along the trails, among the Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, in the sunrises and sunsets, in the cool breezes, and in the hot campfire flames, the Holy Spirit will be there…inspiring us…inspiring me, just like the apostles long ago, to “Be Bold. Be Catholic.”