Homily - Pentecost Sunday

Pentecostés (El Greco, 1597).jpg

Praise be to Jesus Christ for ever and ever Amen. And we pray on this feast of the Pentecost  - Come Holy Spirit Come!!

Pentecost literally means 50th. It is celebrated on the 50th day after the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus, Easter Sunday. We remember the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and the Virgin Mary with the sound of a rushing wind and flames of fire. 

It is also a memorial of the origin of the Church when the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit went out and preached the Good News of Jesus Christ to all. And even those who spoke different languages understood them.

Many years ago, I was the safety director at a privately owned company with over 500 employees. The owners considered themselves good Christians and their company a Christian company. They had a faith based Employee Assistance Program, a team of ministers that would come and walk the plant once a week offering counsel and prayer with employees.

As the safety director, I was to make sure the workplace was safe. However, with that many employees on 3 shifts, working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, someone would get hurt. Then my job became injury management. From by my faith that included prayer.

One day, after I had prayed with an employee. The employee asked if I was Pentecostal. He said that he was a member of a Holiness Church. I asked does that mean you speak in tongues? 

He said yes, and I asked him to tell me about it.

He was excited to do so and he retold Acts 2:1-4 - The pastor calls us up and prays over us. Then comes the sound of a rushing wind that gets louder and louder. The Holy Spirit fills the whole building. The Holy Spirit comes upon those the pastor called forth and may even overcome some in the congregation. Many will begin speaking in tongues. Some will tremble and shake. Others will dance. Some are overwhelmed and faint. The entire Church is filled with the freeing power of the Holy Spirit and people exclaim prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

In our neck of the woods, when people think of the Holy Spirit that Charismatic Christian’s story is what comes to mind. But for many, that freeing power of the Holy Spirit can scare us.

Looking around this community of believers, there are probably not many who speak in tongues. It is a gift some Catholics have. Even still, I can feel the power of the Holy Spirit in this room.

Jesus speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit said, “Streams of living water will flow from within those who believe in me.”

Many believe the Holy Spirit has not come yet. They have built a dam to block those streams of living water waiting on their idea of what the gift of the Holy Spirit is. They dam it up because they want to control it. They want to put it in their own little box and pour it out as they want. They lock the Holy Spirit within a closed heart.

They forget the Holy Spirit has always been among us. The power of the Holy Spirit is in this room.  “Lord, send out Your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth,” 

You may not speak in tongues. You may never perform a miracle that you are aware of.  I cannot profess either of those. But, The Holy Spirit of God Who has been living within us from the moment of our Baptism.  

The dam is about to break in many of you.

The Lord sent the Holy Spirit to that room of Apostles on the day of Pentecost. It was a room very similar to this room. It was filled with people very similar to you. Ordinary hard working people, simple fisherman and educated tax collectors, all different. Some were meek and mild. Others were excitable and bold. 

Jesus did not change them. He did not make them homogeneous puppets in faith. He united those differences. Anointing them, the Holy Spirit of God came upon them. By no effort of their own, they were changed.

It is by the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God true Christian believers can proclaim “Jesus is Lord.” The gifts of wisdom to know God and the understanding of the truths of our faith. The trust of God’s counsel for right choices. The fortitude, courage, strength, and might to witness the gospel to the world in the knowledge of God’s will in our life. Worshiping God in the awe and wonder he deserves.

God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This first fruit of love is the source of our life in Christ.  

Friends, that is why I can say that the power of the Holy Spirit of God is in this room!!! It is already inside us waiting to be discovered. It is waiting to be embraced. Get rid of whatever it is that is keeping it from spilling out upon us at this very moment from deep in our hearts.

Come Holy Spirit Come and shed your divine light upon us.

Friends, Pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to do good for others. Pray to be reconciled with God by our holiness. Pray for the power to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to all by the way we live our lives and love one another.

Praise be to Jesus Christ forever and ever. Amen.