The Mass for the Vigil of the Solemnity of Pentecost was held Saturday, June 7 at 8 p.m. at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral. Bishop Earl Fernandes celebrated the Mass along with Bishop Antonysamy Savarimuthu of the Diocese of Palayamkottai in India, and more than 20 priests from the Diocese of Columbus.
The congregation and participants in the Mass represented the growing ethnic diversity in the diocese and, as the Bishop stated in his homily reflects the “catholicity and universal nature of the Church.”
The liturgy is structured like that of the Easter Vigil and the five readings and psalms prior to the Gospel were proclaimed and sung in Spanish, French, a Ghanaian dialect, Portuguese, and Tamil, while the Gospel was chanted in English. The Bishop offered the Mass in Latin, while the different ethnic groups, joined with members of the cathedral choir to provide music in diverse languages; for example, the French-speaking choir sang the Kyrie using the setting from the Missa Luba, which was composed in the mid-1960s in the Congo.
“When you look around this Cathedral, what you see is the face of the Catholic Church,” the bishop said in his homily. “Each one of us drawn out of our homes, out of our nations to be together in the power of the Holy Spirit as the Church, as the bride of Christ.”
Contrasting the first reading, which referred to the story of the Tower of Babel and the confusion that followed from diverse languages, Bishop Fernandes emphasized the Pentecost-event as the anti-thesis of the Babel-event: “Today, we all speak diverse languages, but everyone here, we believe and confess one true faith in the one true God who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and has gathered us into His one family, which is the Church.”
Pentecost, also known as the birthday of the Church, occurs 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus and 10 days after His ascension into heaven. Pentecost can fall any day between May 10 and June 13 in a year depending on Easter Sunday, which is a moveable feast.
“What we need in this diocese is a new Pentecost,” the bishop said. “The world around us is burning. We, on the other hand, must purify society with the Holy Spirit — ourselves having first been purified — and set the world on fire.”
Bishop Fernandes, referring to the second reading which recalled the covenant God made with Moses on Mount Sinai, pointed out to the new covenant, sealed in Christ’s Blood, and the fulfillment of the prophecy foretold by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who foretold the new covenant. The third reading (Ezekiel’s prophecy of the dry bones) was a foreshadowing of the Resurrection, and the Bishop pointed out that the bones cried out that their hope was drying up, but the Spirit invigorated them. The theme of hope that the Spirit gives was most appropriate for the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Addressing today’s culture which is so divided, Bishop Fernandes said, “We call ourselves the United States of America, but ask yourselves, are we united? We are divided along political lines, linguistic lines, racial lines, economic classes.”
Bishop Fernandes cautioned that those same divisions can be found in families.
“Do we refuse to ask forgiveness or forgive others?” he asked. “Do we remain set in our ways, waiting to make a name for ourselves on the backs of others?
“Or can we be humble enough to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ or gracious enough to say ‘I forgive you.’? Everyone says we want unity, we want peace, but if you want peace, you have to work for justice.”
Referring to the anniversary of the famous D-Day invasion during World War in 1944 and the united cause for peace in Europe, the bishop said, “But what could we not do if we came together in the power of the Spirit as a Church to again confront evil, the killing of a child in the womb, to confront the evil of absolute racism … the poor?
“But sometimes we are afraid to speak, to make our faith known. The Holy Spirit is our strength. He is the soul of our souls. He gives us the power to do things we could never do.”
In contrast, to the division in society, there is the Spirit of God who is a force for unity, who knows how to harmonize the gifts of different peoples and cultures, and who gathers God’s children into the Church. Much of the division in society, the Bishop pointed out is because we put ourselves at the center rather than God.
Bishop Fernandes concluded his homily inviting the people to pray for an outpouring of the Spirit with the words: Veni sancte spiritus. Veni per Mariam.
Following the homily, the Creed was sung and three people made their profession of faith and were received into full Communion with the Catholic Church, receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation during the Mass. These same three also made their First Communion at the liturgy.
The prayers of the faithful were offered in many languages including Vietnamese, Polish, Creole, and Gaelic. During the offertory, hymns were sung in diverse languages, reflective of the different cultures, and an elaborate offertory procession took place in which individuals brought, not only the bread and wine forward, but also offerings for the poor of the community.
The packed-cathedral, the music and the liturgy was reminiscent of a Mass that one might experience in Rome. Asians from the Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino and Indian communities were present. Spanish and Portuguese-speakers, including those from Brazil, were also there, along with French-speakers from Africa and Haiti, and Anglophones from Africa, Asia, and those of European-descent.
At the end of the Mass, the Bishop remarked how blessed he was to be the Bishop of such a diverse Diocese and how beautiful it was to be Catholic. His remarks were greeted by cheers. The assembly concluded singing “Holy God, we praise thy Name” in unison, which was followed by ululations from the Eritrean Catholics, which was their way of saying, “God be praised.”
