THE PHYSICS OF PENTECOST

This morning  our Father Maximilian at our community mass gave a homily that I found so interesting that I asked him if I might use it as my post for Pentecost. And so it is with gratitude that I present his words hoping that you will find them as moving as I did.

When I was working as an engineer at the Naval facility in White Oak, MD, a young man in his early 20’s came to work in my department for three months. I noticed not only how diligent he was at his work, but also how attentive he was to the needs of the other employees. He was always ready and willing to lend a helping hand and go the extra mile. He had genuine goodwill. I could tell that he was brought up well, and, of course, I assumed that he was a practicing Christian. 

One day, I met him at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He was

there for choir practice. He sang in the choir. It didn’t surprise me. But when I spoke to him, I was surprised by what he said. 

He told me that, although he sang in the church choir, he didn’t believe in God. 

When he said that, I immediately recalled something that my father said to me when I was a child, at a time when I was going through a period of doubt. I told my father that I didn’t think that I believed in God anymore. He said to me, “That’s OK. God believes in you.” 

That was one of the most powerful things that was ever said to me. From that, I learned that God works through our goodwill. We may have strong doubts about God, but our goodwill is proof that God’s Spirit is at work in us. Even when we are having difficulty giving assent with our minds, we give assent with our hearts through our goodwill. 

I shared this thought with that young man. I also shared a thought about fire and combustion, the two of us being engineers. I said that when we light a candle, we tend to think of the flame as being transferred from the lighter to the candle wick. But that is not what happens. 

The photons which make up the flame coming from the lighter provide heat to the

candle wick which triggers a combustion reaction from within the candle wick itself, and the flame that you see coming from the candle wick does not consist of photons transferred from the lighter, but photons that were already right within the wick bound up in the proton-electron bonds in the molecules of the wick, and which become released as the combustion proceeds. 

What has happened is that something which is already there is released not only to be seen but also, if allowed, to trigger combustion in other things around it. The presence of those spiritual photons within him has a divine origin. 

The photons of spiritual life - of spiritual light - were already there in him waiting for the fire of the Holy Spirit to trigger the combustion of religious fervor so that they could be released into the world to contribute to the divine light and divine life in the world. 

The divine life is already there in potency; it just has to be actualized. This divine light is hidden within every person; it just needs to be released by the combustion of faith activated by the Holy Spirit. Although we do not activate the combustion of faith in another person, our words of witness and our acts of loving service can be the occasion in which the Holy Spirit ignites the combustion of faith in another person.

I hope that my words served as such an occasion for that young man. After his three-month period in my department, I didn’t have any more contact with him, but I feel confident that the Lord had continued to work through his goodwill and that he eventually came to the point of assent with his mind as well. 

May the combustion of faith which burns in our hearts burn with ever greater intensity with the fire of love, so that, through the light that comes from the combustion of faith, hope, and love within each of us, help to serve daily as the occasion for the igniting of the combustion of faith, hope, and love in people around us!