When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4

Henry appeared to have everything. Born into wealth, he had expensive taste, was good-looking and always kept company with people who were just like him. He had one major concern. He wanted things to remain as they were. To ensure this, he needed money, more than what he had. It was no surprise that when he discovered a curious book in his friend’s library his thoughts immediately began conjecturing all possible means of earning countless cash. The book was a scientific document of a bizarre kind entitled, “A Report on a man who can see without using his eyes.” It was a testimony of an English doctor who encountered a circus performer in India who was able to see while securely blindfolded. This man learned this skill from a Hindu sage. It occurred as an accident. He was trying to gain some spiritual enlightenment through meditation. He was supposed to spend hours just focusing on one thing. After years of doing this, he unexpectedly discovered that his mind could see beyond the object of his focus, or rather see through it. Unfortunately, greed made him dispense his spiritual quest and he used this skill to earn a living for himself. Henry was not interested in any spirituality. He just wanted to make millions at the Black Jack table. Now, if he had this capability, he would able to see the numbers of the cards before they are turned over. He would make a killing. That was it. His greed convinced him that this was the way to go.

It took longer than he expected; ten years to be precise. With trained concentration, he was to see the numbers of the cards face down with his mind. He did not waste any time. He went immediately to the black jack table at the local casino. He was careful. He intentionally lost the first few hands in order not to arouse any suspicion. Then he employed his newly gained talent. He saw the numbers clearly. He took risks which no one would ever dare because they did not his posses his skill. There was no stopping him. He made thousands of dollars that night. No doubt he had to discipline himself to stop in order not to arouse any suspicion. He collected all his winnings in a large bag and went back to his apartment. He sat on his bed and looked at all the cash. Strangely, he felt empty. It was not what he expected. He was a little disappointed actually. He felt absolutely nothing. No joy, no peace.

He went out to the balcony to smoke. It was early in the morning and the streets were filled with people scurrying along about their business. He took a hundred dollar note and released it. It floated gently down and landed on the sidewalk. No one noticed it. Everyone was too busy to notice anything peculiar except for an older man out for a stroll. He picked it and looked around to see if he could find its rightful owner. Then Henry yelled out to him, “Its mine! You can have it!” “You’re sure?” “Yes! Enjoy!” “Well, thank you very much!” The old man went on his way. Then Henry took the whole bag and tossed all the money. All the hundred dollar bills floated down as if they came from the heavens. This time everyone noticed. They were running after the bills, some laughing and some pushing others away to grab hold as many bills as they could get their hands on. Henry enjoyed watching the whole scene. There was a strange feeling of relief and maybe a slight sensation of joy. Then, there was a knock. He opened it and there was a policeman who obviously annoyed. “Are you the one who threw out all the money?” “Yes. It is my money and I don’t believe that I committed a crime.” “Well, it’s a shame that you are so frivolous with your money. I grew in an orphanage. There were days we wished that someone could have helped us with the kind of money you just dispatched out of your window.” The policeman turned and walked away. Henry was changed forever. He knew what he needed to do. He finally found a way to be a wealthy man without any need of money. He died as one without a single cent to his name.

Roald Dahl wrote this story. It is called “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”. This week I went to bed thinking about the biblical text for the day of Pentecost and I woke up remembering this story. I never realized it. This is a story of the Pentecost because it is a story of Hope.

Henry put all his eggs in one basket just like us. Reasoning from his life experiences, he came to the conclusion of what he believed to be a happy and fulfilling life. It is what we all do. We can only use the resources available to us to decide what is the best possible life for us. Henry was one of the privileged ones. He chose according to his exclusive lifestyle. Our children and teens come from the other extreme. They chose accordingly to what was available to them. Most of us reading this did exactly the same. We decide what we believe to be the best life and we put all our efforts into achieving it. The problem is that we are all sinful people. It doesn’t mean that we are wicked people. Being sinful means we don’t see things clearly. We only have a blurred vision of what is good and right for us. We have a deficient view of happiness. We see everything according to our limited resources, but life is much greater than what is before us. Henry, in the story, was able to see with his eyes but yet he was still blind to what was important to him. Many of us can’t say that we have this skill but we may say that we are brought up in the faith or we have been lifelong church people. We might even say that we have some religious experience that makes see beyond what is represented before us. All these things might be good. St Paul tells us that he had all these things and yet he was still blind, He was still driven by hatred. In the end, we find ourselves in the same place as Henry and perhaps like the apostles in the day of Pentecost as they waited in the upper room. We end up in a place where we confront all our achievements and realize that they do not bring the peace and happiness we expected. We sit there wondering, “Is there something more to this?” The best we could do is submit ourselves to superficial acts which might bring some brief relief to our souls. However, we need something more than this. We need to hear a voice that would lift us above the present and help us transcend the situation we find ourselves. We need the Holy Spirit.

For many years, my reflection had been restricted to the gift of tongues. However, we live in a strange season where everything seems to be on the brink of collapse. Everything is changing including how we interact with our children and teens. Our teens are asking for our companionship because they want to talk. They want to know how to live their lives in this particular time where everything seems uncertain and chaotic. We don’t have the answers. This is new to us as well. However, we know that there is a voice that will come and give us the wisdom to transcend what we see with our eyes. We know this because it has happened once and it continues to occur wherever hopelessness seem to dominate.

The Holy Spirit will come to help us discover hope even in the worst possible situation and circumstance. This is the everlasting message of the Day of Pentecost.

When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. – Acts 1:9-11

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.- John 17:11

This world is broken. It has nothing to do with what is happening now. It has been this way for a long time; since the day when humanity took a bite of the forbidden fruit, they have never stopped trying to replace God. Ever since then, they followed the footsteps of Cain and have murdered their own mothers, sisters, brothers and fathers in many different ways. They continue to oppress each other with their imposing towers of power and authority. Nevertheless, they always come tumbling down. Maybe the towers we have constructed recently are being shaken and slowly bit by bit the pieces are inevitably falling down. We will never know until when it is all done. It is not something new. It has always been like this even when Jesus was walking among His disciples. Although, He brought something new and refreshing to those who despaired at the way things were. His followers knew this world was broken and they believed that perhaps Jesus would fix it. Instead, He died on the Cross, another victim of this broken world. The Resurrection ushered something new. It brought hope to their souls again. There was something beyond this broken world. However, His ascension must have been confusing to his disciples. After all, they barely recovered from the trauma of the Cross and now their Lord was ascending and leaving them. Once again they stood alone in this broken world. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit. Personally, I would have preferred if Jesus just remained with us. He was just like us; a material being and the Spirit is immaterial. It is hard to feel secure and safe with a presence that I cannot see. The disciples understood this. They stood there and watched the Lord ascend in the air and vanish into an immaterial world. I imagined that it was a little disappointing. Even Jesus understood this dilemma. He prayed for the Father to protect them. They are in the world but they do not belong to this world.

When I was first exposed to this ministry to the homeless, I was a very young man. I was prone to believe that everything could be solved with a simple solution. I was convinced that the problem of homelessness was solely addiction. I thought drugs were the demon destroying the lives of these people. I worked for five years with this mindset, refusing to listen or see what was before me. I was blinded by own convictions. Then I took a short break from the ministry and came back to it a few years later. I changed my outlook. I remained naive and stubborn. I just changed convictions. I thought the problem was social injustice coupled with addiction. Both times, I stood and studied the situation as an outsider. I needed to step back and return for the third time. This time I was a little older and maybe wise enough to know that life is too complex for simplistic solutions. Besides, I realized that I don’t have the answers. Then I heard the voices of despair. It wasn’t addiction or poverty that brought people young and old to the streets. If these were the only problems, then a clinical treatment and political activism could solve it. The problem is much more profound. This world is broken and doesn’t want to change. The solutions being offered are broken solutions, perpetuating the destructive pattern of this age. There are many who are perfectly content in this environment. They like to maintain things as they are. They become its servants and advocates. I count myself among them. I was content in my world and I shut my eyes to its brokenness. This time I was forced to open my eyes and understand why people turn to drugs and even crime. They don’t believe that the world has anything positive to offer to them anymore. They don’t believe in this broken world. However despite this, they refuse to choose death. Something in them has convinced them that there might still be hope, but not from this world. Perhaps in the One who ascended into sky. They are in the streets looking up and wondering if they will ever see Him again.

The quarantine has changed everything. We don’t know where the children and teens are anymore. They are not in one determined location like before. However, they know where we are. They call us and we meet them separately in an open area. All of us wear masks and we communicate our sentiments through our eyes. One of the girls, who decided to go home, told us that things were going from bad to worse. They went back to their home and initially everything seemed to be fine. For a brief moment, it appeared as if their escape to the streets was maybe an irrational mistake in the past. Unfortunately, everything is returning to the way it used to be and these girls are no longer safe in the place which should have been haven. They are looking for a small place to rent in the slums. We have promised them that we would help. They need to be safe from the pandemic as well as from abuse
. For a moment there, we wanted to believe that everything would work out for these young women. Regrettably, the world is still broken and the pandemic is not going to fix it. They returned to this unsafe environment because it is the only place for them now. The amazing thing is that they are not in despair. They have hope even if it appears like everything is falling apart.

The world is broken and everyone has known this for a long time. Buddha, Socrates, Plato and many great spiritual leaders and thinkers have warned us. They taught us to look beyond this broken world for hope and happiness. Some recommended that we retreat within ourselves to discover this hope. Jesus ascended for the whole world to see that the hope comes from beyond our reality and brokenness. He wanted us to look beyond ourselves for hope. His ascension was not an abandonment but an extension of His availability to all peoples. His Kingdom was not restricted to any geographic location nor any historic moment. His domain is the sky where everyone in every part of the world has access. However, only those who are discontent with this present world will be watching the skies to see an answer comes from it. It would have been great if Jesus remained with us in flesh and blood. However, this would have restricted Him. There are people all over the world in despair and pain, They sense the abandonment and loneliness that comes from this broken world. They are searching for an answer. Something that will help them make sense of their very own existence. When they look to the sky for a response, the Ascended Christ will be waiting for them.

Recently, Felipe started reading books. He felt moved to produce his own words. He wrote something simple and gave it to us as a gift. We want to share it with you.

“Brothers and sisters, know this one thing. If you decide to walk away from God, He will never walk away from you. If you decide not to believe in God, He will never decide to stop believing in you. If you feel yourself being dragged down into darkness, God’s angels will guide you back to His Light. Know that everything that happens to you, God uses them to draw you closer to Him. Never forget no matter happens, God’s angels never abandon you!”

He wrote this because this was his experience when he was homeless alone in the streets since the age of 8. He ran away to the streets because he suffered spiritual and physical abuse at home. He knew that this world was broken. However, when he looked up to the sky, he saw the Ascended Christ promising him that there is Hope regardless of the brokenness of this world. It is this hope that will sustain all those who are discontent with the false promises of this world.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”-John 14:1-5

My first parish came with a parsonage. It was a beautiful house, bigger than anywhere we had ever lived. It was also fully furnished. The living room came with everything that a couple would need to get started. Maybe there was some exaggeration as well. It shared the same compound as the church which we appreciated. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden and even came with two of the best natured dogs. We fell in love with the dogs immediately. As for the house, it never became our home. There was nothing wrong with it. We were never miserable in it. We enjoyed having our morning coffee sitting on the porch with our dogs. Besides all this, it never was our home. It did not belong to us. It was full of memories of past priests and maybe there wasn’t room for us. Sometimes one of the parishioner would drop for a visit, something we encouraged and enjoyed and she or he would say, “I remember this sofa. We had many good times with it when it was in my grandmother’s house.” Another would say, “That chair over there was my late father’s favorite chair.” Everyone had some emotional connection to this house except us. Needless to say, I did not stay long at the parish. Not because it was a difficult place. It was like any other parish. We made some good friends. Some were not too crazy about me. The dogs …they will always be our favorite dogs. We needed something else to make it our home. It helped us understand our children and teens. It takes more than comfort and luxury to make a home. Most of them would not be able to answer exactly what they needed. I wouldn’t have been able to say it too. I was only aware that I was not at home. Jesus tells us that there is a perfect home for us. He Himself prepared it. We just need to find it.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

I memorized this verse in my mid teens. I was taught that it was an excellent evangelistic tool to assert the exclusivity of Christ for the means of salvation, but I never really felt comfortable using it this way. Not because I don’t believe it. I do believe that Christ is our way of salvation. I wouldn’t be a Christian if I thought otherwise. However, this was answer Jesus gave to the apostle Thomas when he asked for the way to his eternal home. The apostle was a follower of Jesus. He left everything to be with his disciples. He did not need to be convinced of the exclusivity of Jesus. He lived it. However, he wanted to know if he could find what Jesus was proposing: a place where he could truly be at peace. Jesus gave this answer. Still it does not make it easy to find our eternal abode. Some have given up and settled for something less than perfect. They have postponed their occupancy of this house that Jesus promised for the afterlife. However, Thomas wanted to see in the here and now. The house that Jesus prepared for us is here in our eternal reality which includes our past, present and future.

It seems like we are going to stuck in our apartment for another month, maybe even longer. I can’t complain. Everything in this apartment is full of memories that belong only to us. Thankfully, there is still room for many. However, the empty chairs at the dining table where our friends used to talk with us over coffee remind me that there is still something missing. We are at home but at the same time, we are learning that our home has nothing to do with our apartment. It has to do with the relationships that we have constructed in this place. We feel at home but right now, something is missing.
Then the phone rang. It was Erica. She and Kwanna came to the center of the city to get some groceries that a church was giving away. Now they don’t have money to take the bus back to their mother’s house. We arranged to meet them at our usual place.

It was nice to see them again. They looked well. Kwanna had asked me to bring a book for her. She has started to read again which is a good thing. She is an intelligent young woman who was never given the opportunity to develop herself. This quarantine is giving her back the desire to read again. Their home life is far from ideal. In fact, it could be dangerous. She came from a complicated past and her home was the source of her problems. Erica and Kwanna are not sisters. Erica was given up to the orphanage as a young child. Her mother is currently in prison. They met in the streets and now they are together as soul mates. They don’t have home and Kwanna’s mother’s house is their only choice until the pandemic gets under control. Her mother recently lost her job which hardly paid for anything. The family was involved in crime but now I believe that they are trying to take a different road. Getting food is a challenge. We help them whenever they are in center of the city where we live.

Our time together was brief. It was hard to have any profound conversation while wearing a mask. As we were talking, a homeless man came to us. Initially, I thought that he wanted some money. I was wrong. He told us that he had just received a donation of canned food. Apparently, it was too much for him and he wanted to know if we can use it. The girls accepted it and he was overjoyed. He came back with a bag full of canned food and even had some packed lunches he received as a donation. The girls refused the lunch as they had already eaten. Even though the man insisted, the girls refused because they thought that the food would not eaten right away and someone else might need it more.

The girls told us that they were keeping safe and that they will call us again next week. Our time together did not last more than half hour. However, it was enough to know this was the place that Jesus had prepared for us. We went back to talk to the homeless man for a few minutes. I asked him if he needed anything else besides food. He smiled and said, “I just need a strong drink.” Then he noticed our accent and asked us where we were from. I wasn’t in the mood to get into where we were from, besides he was way more interesting than our past travels. I told him that this city is our home and that’s why we are here. He really wanted to try out his broken Spanish. He made a faulty but yet powerful attempt to speak Spanish because he assumed that we were from the neighboring Spanish speaking countries. He said, “I am glad that someone like you has come to live in this place with us.”

This is how I am reassured again that the homeless children, teens, and adults of this city are the mansion that Jesus has prepared for us. This is where we feel at peace regardless of the chaos that ensues around us. This is where we discover what the Father’s mansion looks like.

When the Good Shepherd has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. John 10:4-5

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10

We were able to meet some of the teens this last week albeit for a short period. Wallace needed his documents. We have some of their documents for safekeeping. As you can imagine, it is easy to lose these things in the streets. However, now the State is giving some financial assistance and Wallace needs his documents to get access to some aid during this quarantine. It was good to see Wallace again. It has been more than a month. His first reaction was to give us a hug. We had to refrain. It wasn’t easy. Expressing our affection is part and parcel of our relationship. It is hard to have this essential element of our relationship stripped away from us even though it is just temporary. At least, we hope that this is the case. Many things have changed. Wallace has realized this. Nevertheless, he hasn’t quite grasped everything. Most likely, he never will. He is a young adult but he has the simplicity and innocence of a young child. He just turned 22 recently. We had plans to celebrate his birthday in a nice bakery where he could order his favorite dessert. He was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, everything has changed since then.

With Wallace came Gabriel who is not much different from him. They share a simple way of looking at life. Initially, he wanted to hug us too but we told him that we need to be careful. He understood. We were getting ready to go home and Gabriel asked if he could walk with us for part of the way. I asked him what he thought about all the changes taking place. He did not know what to make of it. However, he said that he missed the days when we were all together….when everything was “normal… We missed these days too. We looked forward to being with the children and teens everyday. Meeting them brought joy and meaning to our life. Now, it is gone. We know that it is temporary and necessary. It feels like something permanent has taken place. Our foundations are shaken. Things that used to bring fulfillment and significance to our lives are suddenly no longer there. And what about abundant life? Can we find it in the midst of this?

Obviously, the appropriate answer to this question will be a resounding, “Yes!” However, we cannot accept this answer without careful reflection and honest questioning. Only then it can bring much needed comfort to our soul. We cannot resort to superficial optimism as well. Repeating mantras like all these things will pass soon. Well, nothing in this world whether good or bad is forever. To say that everything will eventually pass is stating the obvious. Saying everything will gradually go back to normal is also baseless and in some situations callous. Almost three thousand have died in the city of São Paulo from the virus and there is nothing to indicate that it will slow down. These people will be permanently missing in the lives of the relatives and friends. We desire that things to go back to normal because we, as human beings, don’t like changes. Nobody likes changes even a slight one means that we need to adjust ourselves to a new environment. We are right to dread changes. We cannot to go through something like a worldwide pandemic and expect everything to go back to normal. If anything, in order to move forward, we need to be courageous to face the truth. The life that we constructed and based our happiness upon is very fragile. It doesn’t take much to make everything come stumbling down.

We began this year hopeful. We were building new relationships and enjoying a deepening of our ministry. We never imagined that a microscopic organism was going to bring everything to a halt. This city has seen slavery, revolutions, civil and military dictatorship, gang violence, corrupt politicians and many atrocities. None of these things ever paralysed it. Despite all the immense social problems, people always had time to hug and kiss each other even a complete stranger, the way people shake hands in other countries. We thought that this year was going to be a year of stronger relationships with our children and teens. Now, we hardly see them. We sense an emptiness in our lives. They sense an emptiness in their lives. We are surrounded with people who are locked in their apartments with a sense of separation and anxiety. Everyday, we hear the news that tells us that this is not going to end soon. I know the appropriate answer to the previous question is, “Yes! There is abundant life in this absurd circumstance in which we find ourselves.” It is the Truth and does not change with situations. It is the one thing that remains. It is the one thing that is most difficult to see and grasp now. This is why we need to listen. It can be easy now because all the other voices that have been promising us the good and happy life seem to be weak and almost drowned in the silence of the quarantine. They are not the voice of the Good Shepherd. His voice always lingers on despite the chaos and hopelessness. Nothing silences His Voice.

Wallace wasn’t the only young adult we met this week. We still meet Felipe weekly. We help him with some of his groceries. He is having a hard time with the changes too. Like the rest, he always wants to hug us each time we meet. However, he knows that he has to think about the welfare of his infant son at home. He needs to be extra careful. I met Felipe by myself one day. I needed to go to the grocery store and I met him to give him some money for his necessities. Since I was going to go in a different direction, I said our goodbye almost immediately. However, he asked if he could walk with me part of the way. I can’t remember what we were talking about but it was interesting. We did not want our conversation to end. Then I spoke to him about “words”. To be precise, about reading. I am trying to get him into reading.

I told him that “words” have the power to make us create images in our minds and once we conjure up these images, the words become our very own. No one can steal this from us. I saw Felipe’s face lit up. He understood what I was saying. I shared my experience about reading the Bible or literary work and how it invite us to become part of new worlds through our imagination. It enables us put ourselves in the lives of others especially those who suffer and we can sense how they feel. I told him that watching a movie is different. We participate but only as spectators. We watch images conjured in someone else’s imagination. They don’t belong to us. We cannot own them. Then he wanted to share something that happened to him recently. On his way to his home after our last meeting, he saw a beggar and suddenly he felt in his heart something heavy and sad. He went into the grocery store and bought milk and sandwich for the man with the little money he had. He said when he gave the man these things, his heart was consumed by a sense of peace. As I listened to his story, I realized that abundant life is still here.

It wasn’t the action of Felipe that moved me. It was very loving and sensitive of him to share the little that he has with those who have less. This in itself is special. However, the Good Shepherd revealed something more profound at that precise moment to me. It is easy to confuse abundant life as amalgamation of functions or services but in reality, this is just an illusion. What we do does not constitute abundant life. It is about listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd. Felipe listened to the Shepherd’s voice and it brought him peace and life. Listening to the voice is not a single event in our lives. It is a daily practice. We can also drown His voice. It is still easy to do this. We can still try to seek voices which entice us to follow a path of self-destruction. This was the norm in this world and we might be tempted to keep things as they were. However, the Good Shepherd is here and He is calling us. When we harken to His voice, it will bring the peace and joy of the abundant life. Felipe wasn’t trying to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd. He was just available for God to speak to him. Then, he heard his voice through the beggar. We don’t have to stress ourselves by trying to listen to God’s beckoning. We just need to be available to listen to His voice coming from sources where we least expect it.