Reflection on the Readings

“If you love me, let me know” is the cry of each person in most forms of relationship. Lovers want to know that, as do parents and children, siblings, friends—even pastors and assemblies. We want to be assured that this relationship we’re in is for real. The only way to know for sure is to see it proven in signs of love.

While I’m not too familiar with the show, there’s an episode of the children’s show Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, where a father and son have trouble communicating. The fisherman father can’t express his love for his geeky inventor son and so resorts to a fishing metaphor in each fumbling encounter rather than saying what he means. Finally, the son grabs a device he’s invented that operates as a universal translator and slaps it on his father’s chest. Suddenly, the man is able to boom out all the tender feelings he has for his boy that he’s been unable to share till now.

Some of our most important relationships might be saved if such a device were available! Happily, our primary relationship with our God is not imperiled in its absence. God is very good at declaring passion for us. God proves the divine love is real in signs everywhere we look. There’s Creation itself, the beautiful, wonderful world in which humanity is set like a pearl encased in velvet. There’s the story of salvation recorded in the Bible, a litany of extraordinary measures God takes to ensure our happiness and freedom. There’s the Incarnate Word, Jesus, who moved among us teaching, healing, liberating, dying, and rising. And in every sacramental hour we receive another sign that God is with us, and divine love isn’t going anywhere without us.

And then there’s the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. This brings me to today’s feast – Pentecost. Perhaps the most profound measure of devotion is faithful presence: the one who stays is in a relationship for the long haul. God’s devotion to us is no one-night stand, no empty promise. God is no fair-weather friend or conditional lover. We don’t have to do the right thing to merit God’s love. But once we’re convinced of that, there is something we can do (and are morally obliged to do!): We can demonstrate our love in return. Jesus tells us how. He says the sign God is looking for is our fidelity to the primary commandments: Love God, love one another.

Fr. David C. Santos, Pastor