The Community at Prayer
Reflection by Father Paul M. Baca
Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 2011
Today is the 6th day of June and as I looked at the cover of Time for the 6th of June, I read, "Hope Isn't Rational," so why are humans wired for it? This led me to think, What would life be without hope? Perhaps we should define the term and realize that there is rational hope and off-the-wall dreaming of things to happen that seem impossible. For me to hope that by 
some miracle all our elected officials would become totally concerned about the common good is not very rational. To hope and pray for rain in New Mexico is rather far-fetched, but historically in the days of my parents and grandparents, the Rio Grande would flood practically every year. So I do have hope that soon we will get some rain, but really I can't do much about it.
In a way I feel that prayer and hope go hand in hand to a certain extent. To pray for good health without doing anything about it can seem rather ridiculous. So if I hope for something that is even remotely possible, I have to ask myself, What am I doing about it? Not too long ago I read an article by a respected economist who said that with all the wealth in the world used properly, you could eradicate hunger and poverty and all their effects. That's a nice thought, but then what do you do with greed when the mighty and the powerful never have enough?
We are preparing for the feast of Pentecost which we celebrate next Sunday and we reflect on the fact that the apostles were fearful of the authority who had actually assassinated Jesus. But if you re
member, Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit upon them and that is what we commemorate on Sunday. We read in the first reading from Acts, "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together and suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire which parted and came to rest on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim."
If you remember, as a result several thousand joined them and together some si
gnificant changes started to happen. They held all things in common and helped each other so that no one was hungry or in need among them. They brought hope to many who had given up hope by pointing out to them the teachings of Jesus. They spoke a language everyone could understand, that of kindness and loving concern. The words in the first reading tell us, "We are Parthians, Medes and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God." I believe that many great things could happen throughout the world if we could all learn and speak the language of kindness, loving concern, sacrifice, justice and peace as was spoken so beautifully by the acts of John XXIII, Mother Teresa and many like them.