Homily 382 – Laurel and Yanny are Catholic – Pentecost

In the famous account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, we read of how Peter and the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, came out of their hiding place and began to preach the gospel. In a miraculous occurrence, everyone who heard them preaching heard them in his or her own native language. You might think that this means that the apostles began to speak multiple languages. Read it again. The Scripture says that each “heard” in his own language. The miracle seems to be in the hearing. One thing is preached, and people hear it differently.

I thought of this scene of Pentecost as I followed the latest viral internet craze this week. An audio recording of a single word is heard differently by different people. Some people hear “Laurel” and some people hear “Yanny.” It’s the same exact recording, but people just hear it differently (If you really want to get into this, here’s a link). It seems to me that this is similar to what is going on at Pentecost. The apostles are all preaching the gospel, but each person hears a little differently, in this case each in his native language.

I actually find in this Laurel/Yanny debate something very Catholic. Neither Laurel nor Yanny is “right.” It turns out that both are present in the recording. It just depends on what your ears pay attention to most. So too the Church needs different people who “hear” the gospel with their own spiritual ears and speak about what they hear. Without the many parts of the one body, we would miss some of the message. The Church truly needs everyone, each with their own perspective to add. This is what builds us up as the “whole” or, in the Greek, kata holos – Catholic.

To be Catholic is the have the “whole” of everything Jesus intended for his Church. In the context of this week’s controversy, to be Catholic is to have people who can hear Laurel and people who can hear Yanny and maybe some people who hear something else entirely. We need all people in the Church, the young the old, everyone. We need the diversity of “spiritual ears.” It turns out that, to be Catholic, you need both Laurel and Yanny.