Pentecost Sunday Homily

As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday today, it is hardly surprising that the readings reflect a focus on the reception of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and of receiving that spirit to dwell within us. There are many gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. If we are open to their reception and provide fertile ground for them to grow within us, there is incredible grace that can come from them. We can be called to many different vocations. Perhaps we are called to be parents, or to heal, or to teach, or to protect, or to preach, or to simply and lovingly serve God through our everyday acts that reflect a reverence for Him, and a love for our fellow man who are all His creations.

Whatever our gifts are that we receive, and however we put them to use to lovingly serve, it all starts with being open to the reception of the Holy Spirit, and to provide a dwelling place that is kept in order for it to reside within each of us. We then need to be open to the Spirit’s work and be willing to be humbly led wherever it will take us. This is not always easy; our visions for our future and our earthly made plans do not always align with God’s plan for each of us. We need to live and act with humility and accept the fact that we will not always understand His plans, but live them out, nonetheless. To do this requires the graces that can only come from the reception of the Sacraments and the actions of the Holy Spirit itself. If this same Spirit was able to take twelve, often quarreling, rugged individualists who had been living in fear and without a true understanding of what God’s plan was for them, and transform them into a unified group, with an undisputed leader, and have them go boldly forth to preach, teach, love, and ultimately die for our Lord, imagine what is possible for each of us if we but accept this gift. I am not necessarily saying we are all going to turn into rugged evangelists overnight or see the kind of personality shift that the twelve experienced. That has been done, and we have the fruits of that with us to this day in our priests and bishops as successors to the original twelve through apostolic succession. What we can definitely experience is the change in attitude and perception of how we make our life choices that comes only through the indwelling of that Spirit of God. We can proclaim our beliefs, we can demonstrate love for our fellow man through everyday acts of kindness and service, we can show to those who do not yet believe what it means to have this intimacy of the Spirit with our creator, and what is then possible for each of us.

In our world, we will have trouble. Jesus himself told us this, and it is in part why He left the Holy Spirit with us so that we would not be alone. To prepare to meet each challenge we must prepare ourselves through the strengthening that is only possible through God’s spirit. We hear each day of injustices that are perpetrated, of hatred and violence that take place throughout our world, and we are left with a choice. We can do nothing, and allow this to continue, or we can react to try to establish positive change. Our inaction will speak as loudly as our actions at the time of judgement, and in the interim, the anguish and the prayers of those suffering will be heard by our Lord. How can we expect God’s blessings to be placed on us as a people if we allow others to continue to suffer? We must speak out to those in authority, we must protest when necessary, we defend the truth of our beliefs so that others may understand, and we must not simply turn away from things that are afflicting our fellow man because we do not want to take on the burden of the troubles that others are experiencing. Action is required, not just social media posts expressing our disapproval or outrage. We cannot love if we ignore. It is the same whether we neglect the feelings of a loved one, avert our eyes when we see someone in need, or choose to ignore an injustice because it is inconvenient, or we are frightened. We must stand together if we are to ever move closer to the world that we who are the body of Christ are called to build. It may seem overwhelming, but we are not without help. God will never leave us alone in these circumstances if we allow Him to dwell within us and guide us, give us His words, bolster us with His courage, and especially show us how to love perfectly. If we can live within those gifts, the rest will come naturally.

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