As if things could not get any worse after the pandemic, the rioting starts. Watching the chaos unfold in cities across our country, I could not help but think, "Jesus we need you now more than ever." In troubled times, in a world seemingly coming undone at every turn, we see again precisely how fragile everything human truly is. We see lives snuffed, livelihoods turned to ash, and the civilized fall into incivility. Yet in the smoke of uncertainty, the voice of Jesus breaks through, "Peace be with you," from this Sunday's Gospel reading (John 20:19-23). 

On this day, the Church was born. The promised gift of the Holy Spirit descends upon the faithful few. Fire now, true transformative divine fire from above, emblazons the once frightful to fighters. The Church explodes onto the  scene of a shattered and divided world with her mission to tell the lost the saving message of Jesus Christ, her savior and Lord. Lasting union, healing, oneness of love that each of us is thirsting is finally at hand, as the "driving wind from the sky, a noise like a strong driving wind," arrives on Pentacost.