People have strong views about Church music which they are not afraid to express. When Catholics suddenly started singing hymns at Mass in the 1970s, we borrowed some traditional Protestant hymns. We must be careful about the content, but many of them are fine. More suspect music was imported from other sources. A generation of Catholics grew up fond of the catchy tunes they sang as schoolchildren. Yet everything we say and sing in church must accurately reflect what we <a></a>believe, what God has shown us to be true.
"Bind us together, Lord" was written by a Pentecostalist Baptist, rejecting what he saw as outdated Church structures and teaching. The tune can stick in our heads, but it’s the words that matter. Even when tidied up in Catholic hymn books, what does it mean to sing: "Born with the right to be free"? That’s wrong. No one is born with rights they can demand from God. We receive everything as pure gift. That’s the point of Jesus’s love on the Cross. Yet, without singing the song, we can share the sentiment: "Bind us together, Lord."
The world is divided and hurting, but the desire for unity doesn’t disappear. Division causes loneliness, anger and conflict. Yet the longing for oneness is part of the human condition. Of course it is, because we are all created by the one God as one human race. It is human sinfulness and selfishness which erect barriers that God never intended. The Holy Spirit can overcome those barriers and satisfy our yearning for unity.
The Holy Spirit creates unity in the first place, and restores unity when it is lost or damaged. Because the Holy Spirit, Who is Love, connects us to God and to one another: "The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling within us."
At the first Pentecost: "something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit." This isn’t literal fire. It is something with the power and heat and warmth of fire. It is the Holy Spirit of God, the burning fire of His love, which transforms our relationship with Him and our relationship with one another. We receive the same divine presence and power in baptism and Confirmation. We are united to God and united to one another.
This unity has to mean something in practice. In Jerusalem the Holy Spirit "brought together the many languages of the earth in profession of the one faith". Division between Christians, within the Church, is a sin against the Holy Spirit. "There is one body and one Spirit … one Lord, one faith, one baptism." Whether we live in England or Nigeria, Germany or Poland, we share the one faith. In all that is essential, we believe the same thing. Anything else is asserting self against God and causes division. It’s a risky matter, particularly for leaders who teach or permit what is not of the faith of the apostles.
The Holy Spirit brings us together in belief of the one faith. Equally importantly, He helps us express that in action, especially towards those in need. This too is a unity we need to strengthen. Just because we can afford to, because we are so pressured at work, it’s easy to say "my free time is my own - I’ll use it exclusively doing what I like with the people I like." That is not helping to build up the unity of the Body of Christ.
Unity is not slavish uniformity. God delights in the diversity of His creation, in the variety of gifts He bestows upon us. How do we respect and encourage legitimate diversity while doing all we can to build up the bonds of unity? Again, the work of the Holy Spirit. Disunity is so often the result of sinfulness and selfishness. The role of the Holy Spirit in reconciliation. The words of absolution we hear at Confession: "the Father of mercies … has sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins".
We want to be fully the individuals God created us to be – always in the service of God and the service of the other. That means discerning the different influences acting upon us. What comes from the Holy Spirit, what comes from the spirit of the world? When we accept humbly the word of Scripture and the teaching of the Church, we know this is from the Holy Spirit. When we sacrifice our time and our priorities in the service of others, we know this is from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is working within us to build up unity and in this unity we experience the love of God and the love of neighbour.
"Send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth." Or, perhaps: "Bind us together, Lord … with cords that cannot be broken."
<em>This homily was preached at the Church of the Holy Ghost & St Stephen, Shepherd's Bush, London, on Pentecost Sunday 2023. </em>
