It is a sad reality that mass shootings happen regularly throughout the country.  This past week, San Diego was the site, and of all places, a place of faith and refuge:  the Islamic Center.  My heart broke as I saw photos of my friend Imam Taha Hassane, who is like the pastor of the Center.  He was distraught.  He carried in his expression the weight of a leader whose faith community members he could not protect.  Bishop Pham and I went to visit him and his community, to take flowers and a candle.  To offer our condolences and prayers.  To tell him that our hearts break with theirs.

This Sunday is Pentecost, and the whole thrust of Pentecost is that people move closer together as one.  In the first reading, when the driving winds filled the house where the wide diversity of people were gathered, they began to speak in one another’s languages and understand one another.    It was the Spirit calling them together to be One.  In the second reading, we hear how we, though different parts, are all part of the same body.  Jews or Greeks, enslaved or free.  We are all One.  And in the Gospel, Jesus breathes on his apostles and sends them forward.  As they are given the gift of the Spirit, they are to forgive sins.  That is, they are to aid in the project of reconciliation, which makes us One.

We must believe that we are all One People.  That we are One Body.  Muslim or Catholic, white or Latino, gay or straight.  As soon as we start dividing ourselves, we go against the work of the Spirit which is laboring to bring us together.  Because it is my ardent prayer that our friends at the Islamic Center and indeed all of our Muslim brothers and sisters know that our hearts beat with theirs as the One Body that we are, we have installed banners on the front of the church that read:  “Many Parts, One Body.  We Stand with the Muslim Community.”  As you enter our church this Sunday, may you feel connected with our Muslim brothers and sisters, with people who came to pray and to practice their faith just like we do.  May you feel the Spirit drawing you towards them, closer.  So that we will make real the dream of the Spirit:  that we be One.