Pentecost (5/27/2007)

Homilist: Fr. Donald Brick

No one has ever seen the wind, yet we know for certain that it is there. We know for certain that it can affect and change an environment in which it become present. We have never seen the wind, but we have heard it, we have felt it, we have seen the results of its movement. None of us has ever seen the Holy Spirit, yet is possible to know that Holy Spirit is present because, like the wind, the Holy Spirit makes His presence known in tangible sensible ways. Now know this: The Holy Spirit always makes Jesus Christ present in a physical way so that we can encounter Him and have new life.

What happens in many lives is that we do not see the working of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we think it needs to be the way that it was 2000 years ago. We need to hear strong, driving wind; we need to see flames depart and descend upon each person; we need to see extraordinary charismata at work; we must speak in tongues. This is not the case. Initially, the Holy Spirit was given to the Church through extraordinary things. There were miracles but since the Holy Spirit is given generally through the ordinary means. The Holy Spirit is there to keep us is a state of grace. Part of the reason we can not see the working of the Holy Spirit is because of sin. If you want to see the Holy Spirit alive and at work look at your life now. Each of you are here in the pew waiting to receive your Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. This is not something our modern world values in the least. However, the Holy Spirit is not just at work for one hour He is at work 24 hours a day. He is at work at the mass transforming the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. He is there lifting us out of our sinfulness and bringing us to Confession when we do fall. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that forgives sins in the confessional through the power of the priesthood. The priesthood is a gift of the Holy Spirit so that Christ’s presence remains with His people through the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit is at work constantly and He is at work in each one of us. St. Paul says, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is about life. The Holy Spirit is the life and love of Christ.

The Church, like Mary, is about new life. The Holy Spirit filled Mary with new life at the Annunciation, and Mary gave birth to Jesus. The Holy Spirit filled the apostles with new life at Pentecost, and they immediately gave birth to a new era through their preaching and example. God is a God of abundance, not sterility, of confidence, not fear. God relentlessly creates new life through each of us, if we allow Him to do so. We are created to be fertile. We are meant to bring others to new life in Jesus Christ.

It is ultimately only holiness of life that can fully give the message of God’s love to the world. By your vocation your are to remind the world that “God is.” Enclosed in God you are a testimony of firm faith in God and the happiness and fulfillment that comes from a life centered on God. It is only by being united with Christ that we can bear fruit, both in our own life and in service to others.

When you are praying you are not speaking to an unknown God. You are not meeting with a dead God but you are meeting with the Risen Jesus who has conquered sin and death. You are speaking with a God who lived and breathed like you and me and died so that we can know our personal dignity as God’s children. This is what is missing from our generation the experience of the living God. Why? Because we do not pray!! We are missing the experience of deep Christian prayer. The Holy Spirit is the master of prayer and He may appear invisible to the human eye but the effects of a person deeply united to the Trinity is like a pebble being thrown into a lake it makes one ripple then another and another.

Let us look at the Acts of the Apostles and there are two images given to us in this reading. One image is the image of wind. The word spirit is the same word for the Jews as the word wind. But you notice the adjective and adjectives are very important when reading scripture because it was not a gentle breeze, it is described as a strong driving wind. We have had some of those winds in WI. We see the effects of the wind. The limps are torn off trees, some are even uprooted. This is an image of the Holy Spirit strong and driving not a timid Spirit but a Spirit of strength. The second image given in this reading is an image of fire. What does fire do? It burns! It is dangerous. We use the image of fire to describe passion. I have fire in my heart or I have fire in my belly depending on what kind of passion you have, but nevertheless it is an image of passion. We are told the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles like fire. There appear to them as tongues as of fire which parted and came to rest on each one of them. The image we have is one big flame and one source eventually parted and rested on each of the Apostles individually. You see the Holy Spirit comes upon the Church but He comes upon each member of the Church in a unique kind of way. The Holy Spirit if He comes into our life comes as a strong driving wind and as a passionate kind of fire.

Some then happens and the people who gathered for this feast of weeks after the feast of Passover. We the apostles gained courage and began to preach heard the preaching in each persons tongue. The list is extensive people from every where and all known parts of the world of the Jews. They had all gathered in Jerusalem and each one heard the apostle speaking in his own tongue. What is described here is a reversal of the tower of babel. You remember the story of the tower of babel in the Old Testament. It was as story to explain why human beings spoke different languages and why we divided one from another. It was a result of our pride and human beings wanted to build a tower that reached to the heavens and they were very proud and God cast confusion into their midst a confusion that lead to different languages and a separation of people. This reading is telling us that the presence of the Holy Spirit does just the opposite it reversed babel and brings us together as a community. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power and also a Spirit of unity. If we are weak we are not filled with the Holy Spirit. It we are divisive we are not filled with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is a source of unity. We are told that the apostles having been filled with the Holy Spirit spoke of the mighty acts of God. The mighty acts of God and filled with enthusiasm.

Some writers refer to the Acts of the Apostles as the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. We know the Gospel of John, Matthew, Luke and Mark. It is the life of Jesus done in the heart and very life of the Church by the actions of the Holy Spirit. It is a Holy Spirit that does four things; it is a Holy Spirit that inspires us. What does the word inspire mean? It makes us enthusiastic right! It means in the spirit. A sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence means that we are inspired. This is suppose to be the natural state of Christians to be inspired, not to be bored or flat, but to be inspired. Are you inspiring.

Another act in the Acts of the Apostles is the Holy Spirit strengthens because the Holy Spirit desires to strengthen our faith and the opposite of strength is weak. The Holy Spirit Strengthens us, inspires us and the Holy Spirits sends the Apostles and the Holy Spirit confirms the truth of Jesus Christ. The truth of His life and His preaching.

The room where the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles is called the centacle. You have heard that word it is the place where the apostles gathered. You might remember the gathered there on Holy Thursday for the first Eucharist where Jesus gave them His Body and Blood and exhorted them to do this in memory of me. It was a place that Jesus appeared to Peter and 10 of the other apostles on Easter Sunday. Thomas was away so there was only some of the apostles there. It was a place where they experienced the risen Lord. It was a place where Mary and the Apostles gathered waiting for the promise of Jesus to fulfilled. The centacle is a shabby place and it is not a very beautiful place. The Basilica is a Centacle for you for this is the place through His word and sacrament where Jesus reveals Himself and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a beautiful building but it is not the building that is important because Jesus gave Himself to His community, personally to each one but to the community of believers. He revealed Himself after the Resurrection to a community of believers and He poured out His Holy Spirit individually but to a community of believers. We celebrate our church today and this is a centacle where these events take place and this is the birthday of the Church and we commit ourselves to prayer and ask Jesus to make this place where truth is know and people know the powerful winds and fire of the Holy Spirit.

In our day, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are going to see the greatest saints the world has ever known, with the exception of Our Lady and St. Joseph. We will see the greatest saints the world has ever known. Being a saint is not about doing extraordinary things it is about loving Jesus Christ in an extraordinary manner. It is giving our entire being, our entire self, our whole life over to Jesus Christ. Christ desires to live in us and through us. To be a saint is to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit that there will be no difference between our will and the will of Jesus Christ. Jesus wants everything, every part of who you are. If we are willing to open our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to take over our lives we will see extraordinary things.