May 27, 2007 Pentecost Sunday

  2007년 5월 27일 성령 강림 대축일

 

 제1독서 사도행전 . 2,1-11
1 오순절이 되었을 때 그들은 모두 한자리에 모여 있었다. 2 그런데 갑자기 하늘에서 거센 바람이 부는 듯한 소리가 나더니, 그들이 앉아 있는 온 집 안을 가득 채웠다. 3 그리고 불꽃 모양의 혀들이 나타나 갈라지면서 각 사람 위에 내려앉았다. 4 그러자 그들은 모두 성령으로 가득 차, 성령께서 표현의 능력을 주시는 대로 다른 언어들로 말하기 시작하였다.
5 그때에 예루살렘에는 세계 모든 나라에서 온 독실한 유다인들이 살고 있었는데, 6 그 말소리가 나자 무리를 지어 몰려왔다. 그리고 제자들이 말하는 것을 저마다 자기 지방 말로 듣고 어리둥절해하였다.
7 그들은 놀라워하고 신기하게 여기며 말하였다. “지금 말하고 있는 저들은 모두 갈릴래아 사람들이 아닌가? 8 그런데 우리가 저마다 자기가 태어난 지방 말로 듣고 있으니 어찌 된 일인가?
9 파르티아 사람, 메디아 사람, 엘람 사람, 또 메소포타미아와 유다와 카파도키아와 폰토스와 아시아 주민, 10 프리기아와 팜필리아와 이집트 주민, 키레네 부근 리비아의 여러 지방 주민, 여기에 머무르는 로마인, 11 유다인과 유다교로 개종한 이들, 그리고 크레타 사람과 아라비아 사람인 우리가 저들이 하느님의 위업을 말하는 것을 저마다 자기 언어로 듣고 있지 않는가?”

  

 제2독서

 코린토 1서 12,3ㄴ-7.12-13<또는 로마 8,8-17>
형제 여러분, 3 성령에 힘입지 않고서는 아무도 “예수님은 주님이시다.” 할 수 없습니다.
4 은사는 여러 가지지만 성령은 같은 성령이십니다. 5 직분은 여러 가지지만 주님은 같은 주님이십니다. 6 활동은 여러 가지지만 모든 사람 안에서 모든 활동을 일으키시는 분은 같은 하느님이십니다. 7 하느님께서 각 사람에게 공동선을 위하여 성령을 드러내 보여 주십니다.
12 몸은 하나이지만 많은 지체를 가지고 있고 몸의 지체는 많지만 모두 한 몸인 것처럼, 그리스도께서도 그러하십니다. 13 우리는 유다인이든 그리스인이든 종이든 자유인이든 모두 한 성령 안에서 세례를 받아 한 몸이 되었습니다. 또 모두 한 성령을 받아 마셨습니다.

 

복음

요한 20,19-23<또는 요한 14,15-16.23ㄴ-26>
19 그날 곧 주간 첫날 저녁이 되자, 제자들은 유다인들이 두려워 문을 모두 잠가 놓고 있었다. 그런데 예수님께서 오시어 가운데에 서시며, “평화가 너희와 함께!” 하고 그들에게 말씀하셨다. 20 이렇게 말씀하시고 나서 당신의 두 손과 옆구리를 그들에게 보여 주셨다.
제자들은 주님을 뵙고 기뻐하였다.
21 예수님께서 다시 그들에게 이르셨다. “평화가 너희와 함께! 아버지께서 나를 보내신 것처럼 나도 너희를 보낸다.” 22 이렇게 이르시고 나서 그들에게 숨을 불어넣으며 말씀하셨다. “성령을 받아라. 23 너희가 누구의 죄든지 용서해 주면 그가 용서를 받을 것이고, 그대로 두면 그대로 남아 있을 것이다.”

 

 

 

 May 27, 2007

 Pentecost Sunday

 Reading 1
Acts 2:1-11

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34

R. (cf. 30) Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O LORD!

the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Reading II
1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13

Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.

As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

or

Rom 8:8-17

Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Consequently, brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.

Gospel
Jn 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

or

Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.

“Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
Those who do not love me do not keep my words;
yet the word you hear is not mine
but that of the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.”

 

 

 Commentary

 

 The Spirit comes upon all those gathered and waiting to be clothed with power from on high and all begin to express the Spirit in foreign tongues, preaching boldly. Everyone who hears them, understands in their own language what God has done in Jesus. This Spirit has been given to us, individually in confirmation but more powerfully as Church together. We gather and the Spirit is expressed in each/all of us. We all call God "Father," in the power of the Spirit, and we are all gifted, These gifts are for the communion of the Church, and the common good. We are all one in the Spirit by baptism and eucharist.

The Spirit is Peace, the Person of the Risen Lord breathed into us, poured out upon us, sending us out into the world, as the Father sent Jesus to preach forgiveness and to hold those who do evil/injustice/violence bound-to resist evil and to live under the power of the sign of the cross. The Spirit draws us into the Trinity with Jesus to the glory of the Father. We can spend the rest of our lives/prayers seeking to understand this mystery.

 

 

 PRE-PRAYERING

The Jewish people prepared to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, or (fifty days) by waiting for the seeds to grow into eatable food. They had been planted at the time of Passover which was a remembering of how God had brought them out of Egypt and planted them in the new and promised soil of Israel. They prepared by waiting, watching, and hoping for nourishing rain. They would gather at the time of harvesting the first cutting and celebrate their faith in the abundant and accompanying God.

We prepare to celebrate the abundant blessings of the “Wind” of God by being honest about how we have been growing, because of the constancy of that Spirit. We can be quite occupied by how we need to grow, advance, virtue-up in our lives. There are good crops growing in our lives and our relationship with God, because of the goodness of God which we can easily negate. God gives in the increase and we are God’s farm-field. It is good to be honest about the growth we are.

REFLECTION

In our First Reading and in the Gospel we hear some heavy breathing. The “breath” that brought about creation in the Book of Genesis, is spreading out once more and bringing about a new creation, a new revelation. Devout Jews are gathered for the second of their three major feasts. The first being Passover and the third, the feast of Booths which is a thanksgiving celebration for the abundant wheat and grape crops. People from all differing languages are gathered and they hear members of the Way or of His followers, begin speaking as “in-spired”. It is a second Genesis in which a second creation is to come forth. The Apostles experience the Spirit of God and they will be urged to speak in every land and every language to bring about the completion of the original “Let there be light”, and “Let there be life.”

Pentecost is a festival of the first fruits and in our faith tradition the first fruits were these early believers. They were encouraged to live it out, speak it out, bring it about and the “it” was the creative Word of Christ.

Jesus enters the locked-up spirits of the frightened disciples and they experience some in-spiring words themselves. Regret is replaced with renewal of the relationship which Jesus initiated individually several years before. Now there is something new about the relationship. Instead of “Come and see”, or “Come follow me”, there is a sending and a going-out party. Jesus breathes the Spirit into their vacancies and invites their insides to go outside and create the new incarnation of Jesus.

Saint Thomas Aquinas came up with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. I feel inspired to comment on these gifts which we are to have received with the sacrament of Confirmation. I do not intend to improve on the Angelic Doctor, as Thomas is called. I would like to more clearly understand these gifts I received way back at old Blessed Sacrament church.

WISDOM:
I was given a colorful blanket by a Jesuit from India who told me it was a symbol worn by particular wise men in a remote area of his country. I feel warmer when I surround myself with it, but not wiser. Wisdom is not a gift to be worn, but a sense that everything is a gift. It becomes a growing sense of what things are and what they are not. Wisdom is a way of holding things in tension. We might want something to be more than it is and it would be so good if it only could be, but we allow it to be just what it is, with God’s fingerprints on everything.

UNDERSTANDING:
This gift follows upon the first. The English word “substance” literally means “to stand under”. To understand means that the Holy Spirit is enlightening our minds about the consequences of our use of all the other gifts God has given us. Abuse, means to take away the proper use from what stands under its appearance. Misuse is “my-use” with no respect for God’s design for the goodness of the object. The proper use of something is a great praise of the Creator, but we need this gift of Understanding to see better.

KNOWLEDGE:
This is the Gift which assists us to know who we are and what we are to do. It is practical, that is it moves us to a gratitude for action. It is more than “self-knowledge”; more a grace that assists us in the awareness of our being in Christ and in our incarnating Him, or bringing Him into more visibility. It is the Gift which helps us know who we are in God’s eye.

COUNCIL:
This is the final Gift assisting the intellect or our ability to ponder and decide. It strengthens the mind to be able to look fearlessly at all sides, all the darker areas, all the unfreedoms and self-centeredness in our human struggle for truth. It assists us to be honest and aware of the various gravitational pulls of our whimpering flesh, prejudices, selfish inclinations and fears. This is the gift we are not so sure we really want, because we love our ways, our patterns of self-indulgence.

FORTITUDE:
The last three Gifts are about doing the truth. There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. This gift moves us to a steady hand as well as a desire to keep on keeping on when we do slip and spill. While its root meaning is “strong” it is more about resolve, perseverance, and patience with our not being strong in our living the other Gifts. This Gift is the encouragement the parent gives to the child beginning to walk, “Come on, get up, woopsy, and try again!”

PIETY:
This Gift encourages a loyalty or fidelity to God and the relationship which God initiates and sustains. This Gift encourages us to prayerfully listen and reverently live what we hear. There are so many voices trying to convince us about our identity. Piety results from hearing who God says we are and living accordingly.

FEAR of the LORD:
It would be a funny gift from God that would render us scared and frightened of the giver. This Gift of the Spirit is similar to how we might walk through a store whose shelves are filled with crystal and delicate china dishes. Respect for the beauty, yet fragility would move us, not to fear the owner, but a love for the creator of these artworks. This Gift works against recklessness and disrespect for the Giver and Creator of all. If we have a view of the beauty and goodness of creation, and stand respectfully in front of them, then we stand in a similar fashion before the Creator of all this delicate art-work around and within us.

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke of the great things God had done, alleluia.” Acts 2, 4

 

 by
Larry Gillick, S.J.
Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality

 

 

 “Without the Holy Spirit,” wrote Ignatius of Laodicea,  “God is distant, Christ is merely an historical figure, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is just an organisation, authority is domination, mission is propaganda, liturgy is only nostalgia, and the work of Christians is slave labour.  But with the Holy Spirit, Christ is risen and present, the Gospel is a living force, the Church is a communion in the life of the Trinity, authority is a service that sets people free, mission is Pentecost, the liturgy is memory and anticipation, and the labour of Christians is divinised.”

The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church.  The feast of Pentecost is an annual invitation to the Church to look into itself and discover its soul.  It is tempted, like all of us, to keep looking the other way. 

In one sense it’s more natural for forget about one’s inner life and to get on with living.  If you are always worrying about your heart or your liver, etc., you will not take risks or do a lot of work.  A healthy person just goes to it.  The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, and there is a sense in which that Spirit likes to work unseen, undeclared.  “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21).  Adapting Jesus's words we could say, It is not those who say ‘Holy Spirit!’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven.  It is those who live by the Spirit.  During the 2nd Vatican Council an Eastern bishop complained that there was little mention of the Holy Spirit in the documents.  The next document was full of it!  But something tells us that talking about the Spirit is not the same thing as living by the Spirit. 

However, we do have to pay attention to that inner place, to see by what spirit we are being driven.  If you never paid any attention to your health you would be asking for trouble.  Today’s feast is a reminder.

But obviously there is much more to it than this!  Traditional images of the Holy Spirit are: Fire, Wind, Water, Cloud, Dove…. Why such strange images?  All of them (except ‘dove’) have indeterminate boundaries or no boundaries at all.  They are reminders that we should not dare to restrict the activity of the Spirit to a few things we can understand. 

O Dove, O Flame, O Water, Wind and Cloud…!

O love that lifts us wholly into God!

The Holy Spirit lives in us but is not confined in us.  It is God; rather than being diminished in us, it “lifts us wholly into God,” as the poet said.  Any soul is for expansion, not constriction.  Things that have no soul  -  sticks and stones  -   are restricted entirely to themselves; plants have a certain ability to reach beyond themselves, for food and for propagating their species; animals still more.  But human beings are able to reach vastly beyond themselves and touch the depths of everything.  This capacity is enlarged infinitely by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, so that we can touch even the depths of God. “The Spirit searches all things,” St Paul wrote, “even the deep things of God. For who knows the thoughts of a person except the person’s own inner spirit? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Cor 2:10).  O love that lifts us wholly into God!

            In a daring image the same poet, Jessica Powers, wrote that silence is a sort of decoy of the Holy Spirit!  Just as hunters attract the flying birds out of the sky by placing a plastic or wooden imitation of them on the ground, we call down God's Spirit by our silence.

The decoy of silence,

hope’s unuttered sigh,

that the Ultimate Silence

drift down from the sky.

 

 

 "Receive the Holy Spirit!"

Do you know and experience in your life the gift and power of the Holy Spirit?  After his death and resurrection Jesus promised his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Receive the Holy Spirit! Jesus knew his disciples would need the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission entrusted to them. The gift of the Holy Spirit was conditional upon the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father.  That is why Jesus instructed the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49).  Why did they need power from on high?  Just as Jesus was anointed with the Spirit at the beginning of his ministry at the River Jordan, so the disciples needed the anointing of the Spirit to carry out the mission entrusted to them by Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is given to all who are baptized into Christ to enable us to live a new way of life -- a life of love, peace, joy, and righteousness (Rom. 14:17).  The Holy Spirit fills our hearts with the love of God (Rom. 5:7) and he gives us the strength and courage we need in order to live as faith-filled disciples of Jesus. The Spirit helps us in our
weakness (Romans 8:26) and enables us to grow in spiritual freedom (2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:21).  The Spirit instructs us in the ways of God, and guides us in living according to God’s will. The Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness. Isaiah foretold the seven-fold gifts that the Spirit would give: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the
Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

The gift of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual gifts and blessings of God are made possible through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus.  After his resurrection Jesus “breathed” on his disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit.  Just as God breathed life into Adam, so the gift of the Holy Spirit is an impartation of “new life” for his people.  With the gift of the Holy Spirit a new creation begins.  God recreates us for his glory.  Jesus’ gift of peace to his disciples was more than an absence of trouble.  His peace included the forgiveness of sins and the fulness of everything good.  Do you want power to live a faith-filled life as a disciple of Jesus?  Ask the Father to fill you with the power of his Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).

Basil the Great, a fourth century church father, wrote on the work of the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit restores paradise to us and the way to heaven and adoption as children of God; he instills confidence that we may call God truly Father and grants us the grace of Christ to be children of the light and to enjoy eternal glory.  In a word, he bestows the fullness of blessings in this world and the next; for we may contemplate now in the mirror of faith the promised things we shall someday enjoy.  If this is the foretaste, what must the reality be?  If these are the first fruits, what must be the harvest?” (From the treatise, The Holy Spirit) Do you thirst for God and for the life of the Spirit within you?

"Lord, I thank you for the gift of Pentecost and for new life in the Holy Spirit.  Fill me with your Holy Spirit and set my heart ablaze with the fire of your love that I may serve you in freedom and joy."

Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great!  Thou art clothed with honor and majesty
24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all;  the earth is full of thy creatures.
29 When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die  and return to their dust.
30 When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure for ever, may the LORD rejoice in his works.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.

 

 

 Homily from Father James Gilhooley

The story is told of Napoleon Bonaparte boasting to a Vatican cardinal that he would destroy the Church. Replied the official insouciantly to the perplexed emperor, "Good luck, Your Majesty. We priests have been attempting to do just that for centuries."
   
In effect, the bishop was doffing his scarlet biretta in salute to the Holy Spirit. That Spirit dwells comfortably and sometimes, I suspect, very uncomfortably within the Church. Try what anyone might, the Church will not go away precisely because the Third Person of the Holy Trinity is on the job around the clock. Napoleon thought the prelate was pulling his imperial leg. He took on the Church. He was rudely dethroned. The Church  survived. The former emperor wound up beating off mosquitoes as a full-time occupation on the damp island of Saint Helena somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
    
Think of the top athletes in any sport you can name - baseball, cricket, soccer, whatever.  Without these players, their respective teams would be a big nothing. With them, their teams are contenders for first honors. Sometimes the stars and their fellow players because of them will wear championship laurels. These top-of-the-line performers lend an all-important spirit to their teams. Without them, the other players would be non-contenders and possibly losers.
    
Without the Holy Spirit, the Church would be at best a third rate operation or, perhaps better, a non-operation. But with the Spirit the Church is today able to survive its many difficulties. Some commentators go further and say with the Paraclete the Church played a strong hand in bringing down the Communist empire in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and in eastern Europe in the last century. And who are you and I to say they are wrong?
    
What everyone does agree on is that it is the Holy Spirit that keeps the Church on her feet, sometimes bruised and bloody but still valiantly swinging away. Many times that swing is good enough to be a knockout punch. And all of this is happening twenty centuries plus after its foundation in Palestine by Jesus the Nazarene!
    
Scientists tell us that space ships are moved out of the atmosphere of the earth by a particular fuel combination that results in millions of pounds of all-important thrust. Racing car enthusiasts giddily inform us that sleek race cars move around the track at an outrageous 200 miles per hour. They are of course propelled by an exotic mixture of powerful fuels.
    
And, as in the case of the space ships and racing cars, we Christians and our Church are likewise fueled by an awesome fuel. But in this case the name of that fuel is the Holy Spirit. And pound for pound, the Spirit is a winner. What other figure in the five thousand years of recorded history can match His track record? None of the champion players you can name are hardly in His league. But who or what is?
    
The Acts of the Apostles 2:2-3 speak of the Spirit in terms of wind and fire. A writer has noted that a wind can move a clipper ship across an ocean at a brisk pace. First though it must take the effort to unfurl its sails. A fire can warm the corners of a cold room, but it must be lit and then tended.
    
So it is with you and me. We possess the gifts of the Holy Spirit from day one of our Baptisms. They were quadrupled by our respective Confirmations. They rest unpeacefully in our spirits waiting to be called to birth and life. If they are, then we fly and we take on a golden glow. Try as one might, there is no way of disguising a genuine Christian. Unhappily there are so few genuine ones. Thus the real article stands out like that famous sore thumb.
    
Soren Kiergegaard sums up the situation of many of us. He most unflatteringly compares us to domesticated geese. Invariably we talk of flying. So, we say, "We have wings. We should fly. Let us use them." But says the professor mournfully we stay firmly glued to the ground.
    
But perhaps this Pentecost might be different for us. Why? Well, listen to Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."
    
However, do remember, as somebody has put it, we do not need more of the Holy Spirit. Rather, He needs more of us.
   
Do stand out like a sore thumb this Pentecost season.

 

 

Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html

Religion Planted Within

A brilliant man, a man of education, with Doctorate Degrees and honors from most major universities, took a sabbatical.  He decided to devote as much time as it would take, one year, two years or more, and learn all he could about Jesus.  He studied ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew and Aramaic so he could read the earliest texts about Jesus.  He studied Ignatius, Justin, Augustine, Aquinas, and all the famous theologians of centuries, always focusing on learning about Jesus.  He read the works of modern theologians.  He took courses in various foreign languages so he could understand theologians in their original language. 

After studying and studying he wrote his own book about Jesus.  It was an instant success not just in the academic circles, but in every Christian and even non-Christian Church.  The man, the esteemed professor, was called upon to give talks about Jesus to all sorts of different groups, from seminarians to atheists. His lectures always ended with a question and answer period.  Usually, there was no one in audience who could ask a question that the brilliant man had not been asked before or for  which he did not have an answer at the tip of his tongue.

No one, until an elderly man raised his hand after one lecture.  The old man asked: “How is it that someone who has studied as much as you has learned so little?”

What?  What type of an arrogant simpleton would dare question the great scholar, the great professor?  After the commotion settled down, the scholar responded, “I am sure that I have much more to learn about Jesus, but why do you feel that I have learned so little?” He had the old man.  At least until the man said, “You have Jesus in your head, but you do not have him in your heart.”

Knowledge of Christ come from the head, but knowing Christ comes from the heart.  His Spirit must be within us.

And this is the great gift of Pentecost, the solemnity we celebrate today.  The Spirit of the Lord has been given to us so that we don’t just know about the Lord, we know the Lord.

The great fallacy of religious education is the concept that intellectual knowledge makes a person a Christian. Some parents participate in this fallacy by demanding their children go to religious education but never worship with the community. Some priests participate in this fallacy by determining a persons admission into a sacrament by the quality or maybe even quantity of his answers to catechetical questions.  There is no FCAT in religion.  Knowledge of answers does not make a person a Christian.  No, Jesus makes a person a Christian, and He does this by giving us His Spirit.

St. Paul learned this lesson the hard way.  The Acts of the Apostles records one of St. Paul’s greatest failures.  He went to Athens with Barnabas, convinced that he could convert the Athenians by meeting them on their own ground, in the field of philosophy.  Yes, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had been dead for over three hundred years, but Athens was still the center of philosophy.  So Paul sent out the word that he had a new knowledge for the people of Athens.  Many came to hear him.  Paul began by speaking about the Temple to an Unknown god he had come upon in Athens.  He figured he would wow them by pointing out that this temple shows the Athenians were searching for Jesus.  Jesus was the answer to all their intellectual inquiries.  Do you know what the result of all this was?  The people who heard Paul said, “This is very interesting.  We’ll talk about this another day,” and they walked away, obviously unconvinced.  Very few returned to become Christian.

From that point on, Paul was not concerned with intellectual arguments, instead he spoke about how the Love of the Lord had transformed his life.  Paul went from Athens to Corinth and spoke about the Cross of Jesus, his death for love, his life, the gift of his love.  At Corinth the people had an encounter with the Spirit of Jesus within Paul and many became Christian.

As a priest, so often I am edified by people who radiate the presence of the Lord without standing on a soapbox, without spewing out intellectual insights, without drowning me in pious platitudes.  But there is something about the truly holy that draws me to an experience of the Lord.  What is this something?  It is the Spirit.  They possess the Spirit of Christ.

And it is these, truly spiritual people throughout the ages , who have drawn others to embrace the Lord. 

The apostles spoke on Pentecost Sunday, and people of all different languages heard the Spirit speaking to them.

How about us?  We have also been called to be apostles.  Can we allow the Spirit to speak through us?  Yes, if we allow ourselves to be tied to Jesus in our hearts, not just have knowledge about him in our heads. 

That is what the word religion means, you know: being tied, being tied to the Lord.

The Spirit of Jesus has been gifted to us not just for ourselves, but for a world that longs for meaning in life.  Pentecost is the celebration of the present reality of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in our lives. Today we pray that we might allow the Spirit to radiate the presence of Christ within us to a world that longs for an experience of its Savior.
 

 

 Homily from Father Phil Bloom
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/

With You Always
(May 27, 2007)
Bottom line: The most effective thing we can do for others is to accompany them, to be with them; similarly, Jesus asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to be with us always.

You may have seen the headlines which proclaimed that abstinence education does not work. According to some studies, abstinence education did little to help young people delay sexual activity until marriage. If these studies are accurate, it is of course a disappointment. However, there was something which the media did not widely report. The same studies which indicate that abstinence education doesn't work, also showed that "sex education" does not work. Although sex education teaches children all the methods of contraception, it does not reduce the rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The natural question is: If neither abstinence education nor sex education work, what does work? Is there anything we can do to help our young people and to protect them from harmful activities?

Well, there is some good news. The studies show that two factors can protect our young people against destructive behaviors.* The two biggest protective factors are (pause) parental involvement and religious practice. I know that a lot of parents might not believe this, but children in general strive to live up to parental expectations - especially if their parents are involved in their lives: That is, if parents know where their children are, who they are with and what they are doing. Children want to honor their parents. I have had gang members break down and cry in front of me. Why? Because they realize they brought shame to their parents. All of us want to honor our parents - even if we know our parents are not perfect. The greatest thing that parents - and other adults can do - is to be involved in the lives of young people.

Now, I know that I have often failed in this regard. I was not enough involved with my nephews and nieces in their more difficult years. This came home to me in humorous way. When the first Toy Story movie came out, I saw a trailer and said to myself, "I'd like to see that movie. Maybe I will take my nephews." Then I remembered: they are in college now. They are not going to want to see Toy Story. Okay, I was a little late, but, you know, it is never too late if we are parents or grandparents, uncles or just family friends. The best thing we can do is accompany our young people, be with them.

This brings me to the theme of this Sunday - Pentecost Sunday. Jesus tells us he will ask the Father to send the Advocate...who will be with us always. The Greek word for Advocate is Paraclete. It means someone who is called beside another, an attorney. We need someone next to us. Before the Church had the New Testament, she had the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.

I read the Bible every day and I hope you do too. But the Bible is kind of like the user's manual you get when you buy a car. If something goes wrong, I don't pull out the manual; I ask my brother for help. The Holy Spirit is like that. He shows us how to keep on the road - and what to do when something breaks down. The Holy Spirit guides by way of the Church which Jesus founded. He is always with us. And he invites us in turn to accompany our young people - and other who need his guidance.

 

 

 Homily from Father Andrew M. Greeley
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html

Background:
John's account of the giving of the Holy Spirit on Easter differs from the account of the Pentecost event in the Acts of the Apostles. Still, his short account with its double salutation of 'Peace be with you" gives that common greeting new significance for the early followers of Jesus and for us today. Coupled with the commission of being sent forth as Jesus had been sent by the Father, it sets the stage for their reception of the Holy Spirit with its power and responsibility of forgiveness.
read the padre
 
Story:
Once upon a time a new family moved into a neighborhood. It was a nice neighborhood and it was very close to where the Daddy worked, so close he could walk to work. There was only one thing wrong with the neighborhood. Most people weren’t Irish! Yes, that’s true there are such neighborhoods! They were Mexican and Thai, Jewish and Korean, Japanese and Indian, Polish and Columbian, Lebanese and Chinese and just about every other nationality that you could imagine. The children in the neighborhood swarmed around the new kids. Are you really Irish? We don’t have any Irish living in our neighborhood. What’s it like to be Irish? Can you teach us Irish songs and dances and tell us Irish stories? Our new family was not dumb at all. They realized that there was some pay-off in being different. They had to look up Irish songs and stories and learn some Irish dances. They became very popular. They also learned a lot about all the strange people (i.e. those that were not Irish in their neighborhood and decided that while they were not Irish it wasn’t their fault and they were pretty cool kids anyway. They loved the cooking even if some of it was a little too spicy. Do you want to move back to the old neighborhood, their parents asked them anxiously. No way, said the kids, God made us all different and we enjoy it! All Irish neighborhoods are BORING!

 

 

Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,Pa
http://benedictine.stvincent.edu/archabbey/Weeklywords/Weeklywords.html

 

Gospel Summary

When John's gospel identifies the Holy Spirit as Paraclete, or Advocate, he wants us to understand that this powerful divine Spirit is sent to us as a helper and defender. It is not easy to live the ideals taught by Jesus, and those who try to be loving and generous will often be ridiculed for their apparent lack of concern for themselves. They will be called imprudent and unwise and even foolish. Moreover, they will be severely criticized by those who see in them a judgment on their own self-centeredness.

When the Spirit becomes our Advocate, we have a powerful ally who will "teach us everything" and will "remind us of all that Jesus has taught." Thus, the teaching of Jesus will no longer be limited to the biblical word, precious as that may be, but will become a living word, spoken to our hearts and leading us to draw all the deep, rich meaning for our lives out of the biblical word.

As we are led to this deeper understanding of the Bible, we will also experience an intimate union with Jesus and with his heavenly Father. The Spirit will work within us to make this union ever more perfect, with the consequence that we will become conduits, as it were, of God's powerful love to the whole world.

Life Implications

When the gospel says that the Advocate/Spirit will "teach us everything," it gives us the wonderful assurance that we need not guess at what Jesus would do if he were in our situation. We know that the world we live in is far different from the world that Jesus knew. This can make it difficult to apply the wisdom of Jesus to the twenty-first century. Some people wear bracelets with the letters, WWJD, meaning, "What Would Jesus Do?" This is a very good question, but we must do much more than just ask the question. We must listen to the Spirit, and that means earnest prayer and much patience. The answer will always tell us, in one way or another, how to be a more loving, caring and trusting person.

For example, Jesus did not have the experience of old age, but his wisdom, disclosed through the Advocate/Spirit, will show us how to be hopeful and patient and trusting, in spite of growing weakness and loss of control. Likewise, Jesus did not enjoy material wealth, but his Spirit will prompt the wealthy to be sensitive and generous in the presence of need. Jesus did not experience worldly prestige, but his Spirit will tell the famous how to remain in touch with reality. Nor was Jesus a modern Scripture professor, but his Spirit will tell such a person how use scholarship for the noble purpose of "breaking open" the Scriptures for the nourishment of others.

In all these ways, we have a powerful divine Spirit, who will stand with us to advise and protect us. Thus, we are never alone, even at the darkest moments. No wonder this Spirit is also called the Consoler and Comforterâ?旅?our powerful advocate in every situation.

 

 

Homily from Father Cusick
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html  

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As the third millennium draws near some are filled with dread, their minds given over to imaginings and fantasies. Some are drawn to groups which preach superstition, placing hope in the comets or imaginary creatures from other planets. These idolatries are an abomination. "You shall have no other Gods before me." For Christians, the 2000th year after Christ's birth marks the renewal of life in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and renewed commitment to the true faith bestowed in Jesus Christ. Both are gifts of God the Father to the Church in these "last days" before Christ comes again.

On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance. (Cf. Acts 2:33-36) (CCC 731)

The Lord Jesus associates the Church with himself, so that the body of believers are one in the Holy Spirit and the "Body of Christ". St. Paul learned this well when, thrown from his horse in the midst of his vociferous persecution of Christians, Christ called out to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the most perfect earthly work of the Church. Our role as baptized members of the Body of Christ reaches its most exalted moment each time we offer ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice in union with Christ through the prayers and hymns of the Eucharist.

At last Jesus' hour arrives: (Cf. Jn 13:1; 17:1) he commends his spirit into the Father's hands (Cf. Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30) at the very moment when by his death he conquers death, so that, "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father," (Rom 6:4) he might immediately give the Holy Spirit by "breathing" on his disciples. (Cf. Jn 20:22) From this hour onward, the mission of Christ and the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (Jn 20:21; cf. Mt 28:19; Lk 24:47-48; Acts 1:8) (CCC 731)

I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick
 

 

Homily from Father Alex McAllister SDS
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/

 

Most sermons in Catholic Churches today, wherever they might be preached, will probably include the phrase: what we celebrate today is the birthday of the Church. I have certainly used this phrase quite often myself! But the more I think about it the more I realise that this a phrase that ought to require a good deal of qualification before it slips off our tongue.

By using the words-the birthday of the Church-we tend to imply that the Church sprang fully formed into being. Sure the Church had to grow up, but the implication is that all the essentials were there from the start. It tends towards the assumption that Peter was swiftly acclaimed as the first Pope and the ten remaining apostles were soon regarded as bishops and everything went smoothly after that.

But this is far from the case. There are hundreds of issues and assumptions that would have to be quietly glossed over if we are to fall in with such a scenario.

If the apostles are the bishops, then who are the priests? And why is the word priest never even mentioned in the New Testament? And how come there is no reference to any ritual of ordination of anyone in the scriptures? And where do the Cardinals fit in? one could go on and on asking similar tricky questions, as indeed over the centuries many have.

Christ bequeathed his followers the Holy Spirit to inspire and guide the Church. At the Feast of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down upon those gathered in that locked room and filled them with the earnest desire to go out and proclaim the Gospel to each person in his or her own language.

The first impulse of the Spirit is therefore a missionary impulse. The task given is to open the hearts and minds of the people of the world to the Good News. And the disciples certainly took up this task there and then and in due time travelled the length and breadth of the known world to bring the message to as many as they could.

It is only later that the organisational questions come in. It is only as a result of the expansion through the world and the resulting growth in the number of believers that it becomes necessary to answer questions such as: What does baptism consist in? Who is authorised to preside at the Eucharist? What does authority in the Church mean?

These, and a myriad of similar questions, are still being worked out today. Indeed it was only finally agreed that marriage was one of the seven sacraments as late as 1215. And astonishingly almost 2000 years after the first Pentecost the precise role of the laity is still not clear.

The tolerance of Christianity in the Roman Empire declared by Constantine in the Edict of Milan in the year 313 was clearly an important turning point in the history of the Church. For it was then that Christianity became not merely a tolerated religion but the de facto established religion of the whole Roman Empire. Before then you couldn’t be an army officer if you openly professed Christianity, after that point, with a few exceptions, you couldn’t be an army officer unless you openly professed Christianity.

And, for good or ill, with establishment comes institutionalisation. In the space of a very few years we moved from a loose arrangement of house churches to one with a centralised bureaucracy and a system of governance not dissimilar to the structure of the Roman Empire itself.

My task here is not to undermine your faith in the Church; my purpose is exactly the opposite, it is to strengthen your faith but to do so in the light of the facts so far as we can ascertain them.

The point is that the work of the Holy Spirit did not begin and end on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is alive and well and working in the Church right down to the present day and he will continue his work till the end of time.

It is precisely through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that all our institutions and structures came into being. But what we have to be careful about is whether these are fixed in stone for all time. We have as a Church to keep things under review and to be open to the promptings of the Spirit the whole time.

I heard a priest in Knock preaching on Good Shepherd Sunday who said: You would have to have your head in a bucket of sand not to realise that there was a crisis in the priesthood!

We are certainly in the West undergoing a time of transition. The collapse in Church attendance is one symptom, another is the crisis in vocations to the priesthood and to the religious orders. However much we want things to stay the same the Church is certainly going to look very different in ten or more years time.

We have to have confidence and realise that, whatever transitions we are going through, this is not because the Holy Spirit has gone away. He is still with us and will undoubtedly guide us through the difficulties ahead.

And he is not only with the Church as a whole, he is with each individual member of the Church-that is what the Sacrament of Confirmation is all about. And the Holy Spirit accompanies us in our pilgrimage through life, guiding us through life’s transitions and the many vicissitudes we experience.

The Church did not spring into being with all its structures and doctrines in finished form. Neither did we understand all the implications of our faith at the moment of our Baptism or even our Confirmation. No, we grow in understanding, we develop and deepen our faith on our journey through life.

It is at the moments when our faith is challenged and tested that we most need to turn to the Holy Spirit and pray for his guidance and ask for the gift of discernment to help us make the right choices-choices that will lead us forward, choices that will bring us closer to God, choices that will bring our human potential to its fulfilment.

The Feast of Pentecost is indeed the birthday of the Church but there are many more birthdays ahead for the Church, many more challenges to face, many more opportunities for the Church to deepen and strengthen fidelity to the Divine Saviour, its founder and sole reason for existence.

 

 

 Homily from Father Clyde A. Bonar, Ph.D.
Contact Father at cbonar@cfl.rr.com

The Great Beginning of Our Church

Introduction

Today we celebrate Pentecost. The word "pentecost" comes from a Greek word meaning fiftieth. Both Jews and Christians have a feast called "Pentecost."

Within the Jewish tradition, Pentecost celebrates the day God gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai. It is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover (fifty days after the Hebrew people smeared the blood of a lamb on the lintels of their homes).

As a Christian feast, Pentecost recalls the fiftieth day after Jesus rose from the tomb. on Pentecost, the very breath of God rushed forth, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The Acts of the Apostles describes Pentecost with dramatic words, "a noise like a strong driving wind filled the house, and tongues as of fire came to rest on each one, all were filled with the Holy Spirit."

Birthday of the Church

These days we celebrate Pentecost as the "birthday of the church." In the words of the Preface for Pentecost, "the great beginning of our church." on Pentecost the Holy Spirit sent the followers of Jesus to preach the death and resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit opened the church to the gentiles, and the Holy Spirit directed the choice of leaders for the early Christian community.

Remember the disciples were at the crucifixion of Jesus: they were confused, frightened, fearful. Dreaming of a miracle, they had witnessed an execution. Their master gone, their purpose in life lost. Peter went back to fishing, he had to earn a living.

Then, Pentecost. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter stood up, raised his voice, and said, "Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, give me your attention." Peter started to preach the death and resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:14-36).

When gentiles who heard the Good News and began to believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit resolved some questions. The major question: Did gentiles have to obey the Law of Moses as followers of Jesus? Did pagans need to be circumcised to become Christians? The apostles and elders in Jerusalem answered these questions. They said, "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us" not to saddle the gentile converts with all the demands of the Law of Moses (Acts 15:22-29). That's the Holy Spirit opening up the church for gentiles to become Christians.

And, the Holy Spirit guided the new struggling Christian community. Paul had been successful as the apostle to the gentiles. Because of Paul's preaching, churches grew from Antioch to Ephesus. Then Paul warned the elders from Ephesus. Paul said persecutions will come, bloody persecutions by savage enemies. Paul said some preachers will teach false doctrines. But, Paul wrote, be secure, "the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to guard the church of God" (Acts 20:28). God the Holy Spirit would safeguard the early church.

Pentecost marks a great "beginning of our church." The Holy Spirit sent the disciples to preach Christ crucified, the Holy Spirit instructed the early Christians to welcome the gentiles, and the Holy Spirit looked out for the elders of the early Christian community.

Holy Spirit Still Guides

Of course, the guidance of the Holy Spirit did not stop with the early church. To this day, the Holy Spirit shepherds our church. The strong, driving wind, the tongues as of fire continue to echo through the ages, to the church in our own time.

At creation, God breathed into the nostrils of the first man to create life. So too, the Holy Spirit breathed into our church, creating a new community composed of all peoples of all times. As believes in Jesus Christ, we are united as a community called Christians.

United by baptism, sustained by God the Holy Spirit, our unity supersedes all differences. Right here in our parish we have people of European and Asian ancestry, Hispanic and African. As Christians, we take note neither of race nor of ethnic background. In the Body of Christ, there are no divisions. Rich and poor, male and female, young and old, each of us a temple of the Holy Spirit, all Christians, all Catholics. The Holy Spirit forms us into a community of believers.

By the working of the Holy Spirit, we all hear the word of God. Around the world this Sunday, people of every language will hear God speak in their own language. French in France, Swahili in Kenya. In the Diocese of Orlando, God's Word will be proclaimed in English and Spanish and Vietnamese and Korean and Ukrainian.

And, it will be the same word of God. By using our Lectionary, readings chosen by the Church, every Roman Catholic [and many Protestant churches] will hear the same scripture we hear today. Surely, the work of the Holy Spirit.

By tongues as of fire, the Holy Spirit speaks the new law, the Law of Love given to us by Christ. The phrase "tongue of fire" was a symbol for the Torah, the Law of Moses. When the tongues as of fire came to rest on the disciples, they received the new Law of Love.

We Christians look to the Law of Love for guidance in daily life. How often we hear at marriages the Thirteenth chapter of Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. "Love is patient, love is kind, never jealous or rude or selfish, always ready to trust, to excuse." Even at funerals. Remember British Prime Minister Tony Blair reading "Love is patient, love is kind," at the funeral for Princes Diana? It's the Holy Spirit that reminds us, live by the Law of Love, now and always.

The strong wind of the Holy Spirit, the tongues as of fire still echo in God's Church. Our faith, our actions are guided by the Holy Spirit to this day. The same Holy Spirit Christ that breathed on his disciples, the same Holy Spirit that guided the early church.

Forgive Their Sins

Notice, after Jesus breathed the Spirit upon the disciples, God gave our church a most unusual task: "If you retain the sins of any person, they are retained forever; and if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven." We all need that forgiveness. As he gives absolution during Confession, the priest says, "God sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins."

We do big sins and we do small sins. one dramatic sin a man in prison told me. one night the man went after his ex-wife's new boy friend. He entered the room and started shooting in the dark. Bullets went every which way, and hit a young boy. The man had just killed his own son.

Most of us have not murdered anyone, most of us have not even fired a gun in anger. But we do sin. one young person confessed being a "jerk". He argued with his sisters and brothers, blamed them for any scrapping around the house, never did his chores without being yelled at, was the cut-up and class clown at school, and so on. Being a "jerk" pretty well summed it up. No serious sins, but who wants to live with a "jerk?"

Remember always, whether we are a murderer or a "jerk" God forgives our sins. Name any sin you can think of: gossip, or sleeping around, or stealing. God forgives all sins when we ask for forgiveness. Any sin, God forgives. When our patience wears thin as we care for a mother with Alzheimer's disease, God forgives our sin of getting angry. Or the sin of not coming to church for years. Or the sin of foul language. Little sins or big sins, God forgives.

When Christ breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, God bestowed on the church the responsibility to forgive sins. In the confessional the priest speaks to us the words of forgiveness.

Conclusion

On this feast of Pentecost, our Gospel reading tells us how to live the Christian life. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we and our church leaders are to preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead. We are to live the Law of Love.

When we fall short, when we sin, God forgives us our sins, cleanses our souls, and sends us forth again under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That's how it is to be a Christian.