By Jessica Able, Record Staff Writer
It doesn’t matter if you are eight years old or 68 years old, Jesus wants everyone to experience the peace of Christ, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz told those gathered at the Cathedral of the Assumption May 24.
Representatives of various cultures from around the Archdiocese of Louisville gathered in downtown Louisville on a bright, clear day for a multicultural celebration of Pentecost.
Pentecost is the time, the archbishop said, when we hear Jesus say to all of us, “Peace be with you.”
He noted during his homily that the congregation’s presence at the cathedral was important because it represented the diversity of the 111 parishes spread across the archdiocese’s 24 counties. Among those Catholics who attended were people representing the cultures of Africa, the Carribbean, Latin America, the Philippines and Korea.
“We are supposed to be gathered as a family, he told the congregants. “When we are gathered as individual families and come together as parish families and now as archdiocesan families, this is very important for you who are here. You are also symbolic — symbolic of families throughout the archdiocese.”
Archbishop Kurtz noted that in the first reading in the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and gave them the gift of understanding. This gift was the Holy Spirit’s first miracle for the apostles, the archbishop said.
“We have the richness in our archdiocese of many cultures, many languages,” he said.
But that diversity “wasn’t the miracle. The miracle was, they were able to understand one another.”
And the second miracle, he said, was that when the apostles spoke, they spoke about “God’s mighty words.”
Archbishop Kurtz also noted that the liturgy’s responsorial psalm — “Lord, send out your spirit and renew the face of the earth” — connects Pentecost to Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology, which is expected to be issued in the next few weeks.
“He’s going to say we are supposed to care for one another and we are supposed to care for God’s creation,” he said.
Archbishop Kurtz concluded his homily by saying that just as the apostles celebrated that first Pentecost, “we are celebrating today the richness of the many cultures throughout our archdiocese coming together.”
“We pray that the Holy Spirit renews our hearts so that every day we can begin again to understand God’s presence and renew the face of the earth,” he said.
Members of various choir ensembles throughout the archdiocese provided music for the liturgy, which was sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Ministry, the Office of Worship and the Catholic Services Appeal. An ice cream social followed Mass in the Cathedral Undercroft.
