“Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. (Gal 5:25)
Sunday Readings
My Dearest Friends in Christ,
With our Mother Mary and the Apostles, we have gathered today to celebrate the great feast of Pentecost. It is a feast of the birth of the Church’s missionary activity manifested in the transformation of the frightened Apostles into fearless preachers and evangelizers. It is a feast of unification manifested in the gift of tongues understood by everyone regardless of their many different native languages, thus a reversal of the curse of Babel in Genesis 11:7. It is a feast of renewal of God’s Creation by the Living Breath of the Spirit. Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter by Christians and 50 Days after Passover by the Jews, hence it is a feast that occupies a place of pride in the life and mission of the Christian Church. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Catholic Theology upholds in her teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from a single principle. He is together with the Father and the Son adored and glorified. It is He who spoke through the Prophets and continues to speak through the Prophets of our time and the magisterium (the highest teaching authority of the Church). Hence He is the Teacher, the Advocate, the Consoler, the Helper, and the Counselor. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love because love unites. He is the Love of the Father and the Son, the Love that binds the Trinity as one. Although described in various symbolic ways such as fire, breath, wind and dove in the scriptures, the Holy Spirit is essentially the same Third Person of the Trinity even though His modes of manifestation and activity vary.
Why We Need The Holy Spirit.
We need the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our world that is growing too cold to the things of God, a world bedeviled by secularism and materialism. A world where men and women believe in machines more than they do the Word of God.
~We need the Holy Spirit to enkindle the fire of God’s Love and Zeal in us, a world where temptations are daily luring us away from obedience to God’s Word. We need the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in the war against sin and to help us bear witness to Christ by our Christian example.
~We need the Holy Spirit because He sanctifies and makes us holy through the sacraments; this is why we must receive them devoutly in a state of Grace. A Christian who seeks to be holy must submit to the sanctifying power of the Spirit through the reception of the sacraments offered at the appropriate stage of their life.
~The world constantly floods us with erroneous teachings. Many Christian groups and social media are not even helping matters. Worse still, many governments of the world have legalized evils, making even the young and old confused in deciphering what is right or wrong, what is true or false, and what is moral or immoral. We need the Holy Spirit to help us discern what is right and to follow it, to enlighten our confused and darkened minds, and to teach us the Truth. “In difficult times, where we have to choose the right path, where we have to say ‘no’ to many things that may try to seduce us, there is prayer to the Holy Spirit, and He makes us strong enough to take this path of witness.” (Pope Francis)
By listening and meditating on the word of God daily, we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit re-echoing in our hearts. He inspires us to do good by speaking to us in the depth of our hearts and directing us to a worthy cause of action. Those who listen to this inner voice and wait for His directions rarely regret their actions or fail in their missions; St. Joseph is a perfect example. When human sentiments, emotions, and affections become our minds, the Holy Spirit makes the distinctions and clarifies our vision. Therefore commit everything to God in prayers because the Holy Spirit listens to us in prayers and helps us to pray more acceptably. When we dispose of ourselves properly His Gifts will function more effectively in our various callings and ministries in life. We need Him even much more now. We must allow Him to influence and take control of our lives.
The first reading from Acts of the Apostles recounts the great event and the miraculous transformation that took place during the first Pentecost thus fulfilling God’s promise to His Apostles of sending the Paraclete. They were empowered to preach and evangelize and they preached fearlessly. Through Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit and we receive His fullness in Confirmation. Thus we are, like the Apostles, to be missionaries, to preach the Truth of God’s Word in words and actions any time, any day, any place. We must fearlessly confront the evils in our society today rather than shrink away in fear and let evil thrive. The early martyrs were able to face brutal persecutions through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. He is still with us today and has not abandoned us nor His Church. This is why we must condemn and uproot any unjust structures in society, and unjust practices or laws. Evil can never triumph over good. We are soldiers of Christ let us not be afraid.
In the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians 12ff, Paul explains that the sharing of the various gifts of the Holy Spirit enriches the Church. He made it clear that these various gifts (charisms) are from the same Spirit. He additionally made a distinction between the charisms such as healing, teaching, prophecy, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, and others which He described in his letter to the Galatians (cf. Gal 5:22-23). Paul maintains that these spiritual gifts are to be used in the present time for the benefit of others, for the common good, and the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church.
The Gospel passage relates how the Risen Jesus gave His apostles a foretaste of Pentecost on the evening of Easter when He appeared and empowered them through the Breath of the Spirit to carry on the mission of His Heavenly Father. On the day of Pentecost, Jesus fulfilled His promise of sending the Advocate or Paraclete. The Apostles were empowered with the authority to forgive sins.“Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.” These wonderful words, which bind together inseparably the presence of the Holy Spirit with the gift of forgiveness, are referred to directly in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, yet they have a much wider meaning. These words remind us of the Christian vocation to love and forgive as we have been loved and forgiven by God, especially in our world which is often fiercely judgmental and vengeful.
The feast of Pentecost offers us the chance to look at the role that forgiveness should play in our dealings with others. Thus, we are challenged to examine our sense of compassion, patience, tolerance, and magnanimity. Learning to forgive is a lifelong task, but the Holy Spirit is with us to make us agents of forgiveness. If we are prepared on this day of Pentecost to receive the Holy Spirit into our lives, we can have confidence that our lives will be marked by the Spirit of forgiveness.
At Baptism and Confirmation, we received the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. You are His temple, but you can expel Him through obstinacy in sin. Let us make our life a Holy dwelling place for Him by reconciling with God when we fall into sin. May you be filled with His gifts and remain blessed.
May the Divine Light of the Spirit, illumine our hearts and lead us to the path of truth.
I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
