Pentecost

We conclude the Easter season today with the feast of Pentecost. While we spent forty days in penance during Lent, today marks the fiftieth day of the Easter celebration, reminding us that our joy in the victory which Jesus won in His Resurrection is greater than our sorrow over our sinfulness. In fact, the name Pentecost literally means fifty in Greek. It is this day in which God pours forth the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles to start the Church.

In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to celebrate this day as a harvest festival and as a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai after God had freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It is most appropriate, then, that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurs on this day, to remind us that it is by the Spirit of God that we have everything we possess: not just our salvation but the fundamentals of existence, such as food, clothing, shelter. God always acts with the Spirit: we should recall how Adam received the Spirit of life in the very beginning in order to live, or how the Spirit is called upon by the psalmist to renew the face of the earth. But what or who is the Holy Spirit?

Put simply, the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. This love is so real, so tremendous between the two, that it is a divine Person, hence the Most Holy Trinity, which we will celebrate next Sunday. But this Person who is love does not remain only between the Father and the Son; He is sent down upon humanity to be the bond of love between God and man. It is in the Spirit that we are able to be united to Jesus Christ, as Saint Paul highlights in our second reading. It is through the Spirit that we are able to become holy, for only by His presence in us are we able to pray as we ought or to know what it means to be holy.

Above all, God sends forth His Spirit so as to renew the face of the earth. How does He do this? By His indwelling within our souls. God does not send the Spirit only on one occasion, but pours Him out upon us like water from a fountain. We are always in need of the rejuvenating graces and the ceaseless presence of the Holy Spirit to become holy, to be what we are supposed to be. We ought to make our own what the sequence for today’s feast beseeches of the Spirit: “Cleanse that which is unclean, water that which is dry, heal that which is wounded. Bend that which is inflexible, enflame that which is chilled, correct what goes astray.” Only in the Spirit can we be good, only in the Spirit can we be just, only in the Spirit can we be holy.

Let us beseech God on this day to pour out upon us once more His Holy Spirit so that we may be what we were created to be. Let us make our own those wondrous words, “Come Creator Spirit! Come from thy heavenly throne, and make our souls thine own!” Let us beg God to renew us by His Spirit so that we may be engulfed in the fire of His love, transformed from mediocrity into the saints we are supposed to be. Do not remain cold or lukewarm, but be stirred anew to live by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. May our parish truly be a temple of the Holy Spirit, where the fire of love burns day and night, the unquenchable fire that does not destroy but purifies and prepares all for the glories that await the faithful in the eternal splendor of Heaven.

Pentecost and First Holy Communion (OF)

We celebrate today the two most important gifts that Our Lord left to us after His ascension into Heaven: the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Eucharist. For today is not only the great feast of Pentecost, but it is also the day when four of our young members will join us in receiving Holy Communion for the first time in their lives.  Yet these two events are intricately linked together, so that we could not have one without the other. How is this so?

We first could not have the Eucharist without the Holy Spirit, because we would not have the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church without that same Spirit.  Pentecost is among other things traditionally called the birthday of the Church, the moment when the Church truly came into being.  It is the Holy Spirit, the gift of God Himself from God, who brings forth the Apostles so as to begin to exist as the Mystical Body of Christ.  For only in the Mystical Body can one receive the Real Body and Blood of Him who died for us on the Cross, rose again on the third day, and has ascended to the right hand of the Father.  Without the Church, there is no Communion, and without the Holy Spirit there is no Church.

Yet we Christians cannot have the Holy Spirit without having Holy Communion. Indeed, God has sent the Holy Spirit down upon the Church so as to unite us into one, demonstrated by the unity of tongues seen at that first Pentecost.  But what helps us to maintain that unity, or to make that unity more perfect?  It is in the means which Jesus Himself has passed on to us at the Last Supper before His saving Passion and Death: the Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion.  In the Eucharist is found the means whereby the soul is drawn ever closer to God and through the Holy Spirit towards the one with whom we are meant to be united both in this life and in the life to come: Jesus Christ our Lord.

How wonderful are the mysteries of our faith, by which all things draw their sanctification from the Holy Spirit while flowing from and leading back to the Holy Eucharist! The act of receiving Holy Communion is an act that should be treasured by all who are made worthy by the Holy Spirit to receive it. These things are not rewards for being good or doing what one is supposed to do, but they are aids in becoming what we were created to be from the beginning: the children of God, adopted in the Spirit, unified to the Father through the Son who makes us like Himself whenever we receive Him with a clean heart.

Let us celebrate, first of all, the great event of Pentecost on this day.  Let us rejoice that God comes to dwell within us through He who is gift of God’s love.  Let us desire to be united more than ever with the Spirit of sanctification by receiving frequently and with the right intention the instruments of that same sanctification: the sacraments. Let us be united to the Church who is ever united with the Spirit that gives her the holiness to be able to distribute the sacraments which aid in our salvation.

But let us pray this day for our four young ones who are to receive for the first time the ultimate fruit of the Church’s sanctification in the Holy Eucharist. Let us pray that they may be prepared for the day when they shall be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in Confirmation so as to be the full member of the Church as God desires for all of humanity.  Let us also recall our own reception of the Eucharist, and consider whether we allow this sacrament to lead us to a more intimate relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, or whether we inhibit the action of the Spirit in our salvation by unworthily receiving Communion. Let us be stirred up anew to a greater love of all that God has given us in Himself so that we may not be alone, may not be led astray, but that we may receive the desired effect of His Spirit and His Eucharist: the union with God that awaits in the eternal banquet of Heaven.

Vigil Mass of Pentecost (OF)

St Philip Neri and the miracle of the catacombs

As we prepare to conclude our Easter festivities, the Church presents to us in her liturgy this Vigil Mass for one of her most important feasts: Pentecost.  This Vigil Mass echoes some of the actions of the Vigil Mass for Easter which we celebrated 50 days prior, in particular the extended readings to prepare our minds and hearts for the feast we shall celebrate tomorrow.  Pentecost is so important an event that the Church has this Vigil Mass to give us an additional opportunity to recollect the events of tomorrow and to celebrate them more joyfully.

Our readings this evening show us how Pentecost is the start of a new age in the life of the world and in the history of the Church.  We begin, of course, at the beginning, with the Tower of Babel. Humanity, continuing in its sinful state after the fall in the Garden, decides to build a tower so as to oppose God, whom they believe will disperse them throughout the world. Yet God desires to bring humanity together in Himself, the opposite of what these people believe. What causes the dispersal of humanity is sin which is completely opposite of the holy God. To demonstrate this, God causes the men at Babel to be dispersed not in place but in language.  By their sinful actions, humanity is separated from each other.

It is only in God that unity can truly be found for humanity, and this is demonstrated on Pentecost.  For on that day, the Apostles who receive the Holy Spirit are able to be understood by all attending.  At Babel, humanity was confused because of the variance of speech; but on Pentecost, humanity is confused at the comprehension by all! Thus does Pentecost begin to unravel the sinful effects of humanity’s beginning so as to prepare us for our ultimate end.

The second reading marks the archetype of Pentecost as concerns the law, for it is the time in the book of Exodus where Moses receives the law engraved by the finger of God upon the stone tablets. On that occasion, the Lord came in a terrifying storm to write out the law needed for humanity to abandon sin and to draw nearer to Himself.  But on Pentecost, God comes more peacefully so as to write out the new law of grace and holiness not on stone or paper, but in the hearts of believers, as the prophet Jeremiah told would happen on this day (Jer 31:31-34). What use is it to have some truth or belief engraved on the outside if we do not engrave it within? But only by the instruction and guidance of the Holy Spirit are we capable of receiving that law and living it out most perfectly.

We then hear Ezekiel recall his vision of the dry and dead bones being brought back to life by the Spirit of God.  These dead bones are given life anew through the words of Ezekiel and the action of the Spirit, rising from death unto new life.  This reading bears witness to the desire of God that none should perish, but that all should live through, with, and in Him.  God sends down His Spirit so as to revive us from our sinful ways, from those actions that cause our spiritual death and our eternal death.  It is by the Spirit that we are able to be freed of our sins and to begin to live out the holiness marked for each one of us, as the prophet Joel proclaims in the next reading.  It is the Spirit who excites us towards not merely avoiding evil and sin, but towards doing the good, persevering in the good, remaining in the good.

The Holy Spirit, as Jesus bears witness in the midst of the Temple, is the living water who pours forth from the pierced side of Christ. The Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son, and the means whereby that love is shared with each one of us.  The Spirit is the one who comes so as to renew the face of the earth with His continual presence in the Church.  Only through the Spirit are we able to worship God, to call Him not merely “God” but “Father”, to become the adopted children of our Heavenly Father.

It is by the Spirit that we are able to become saints, as each of their lives bear witness to, in particular the life of Saint Philip Neri.  On this exact feast day, the Vigil of Pentecost, St Philip was praying in the catacombs, as was his custom in Rome, praying fervently for the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, when a great miracle occurred.  There appeared a ball of fire before the saint, which then entered into his heart. His heart literally grew in size, so much so that the two ribs in front of his heart were cracked from that moment until his death, yet he experienced no pain, only immense joy and longing. For the rest of his life, St Philip’s Pentecostal heart burned with the love of God and love of humanity, striving to pour out that love to those who needed it most.

While the same might not happen to us, each of us is called to be enlivened by the Spirit so as to spread the joy of salvation to all.  It is the Spirit who pushes us to cry out the truths of the faith so that others might share in that joy.  It is the Spirit who sends us out to execute the mission of the Church in our daily lives.  It is the Spirit who offers us comfort and consolation in those times when life seems to grow sour, when the world seems to encircle us and mock us for our beliefs.  And it is the Spirit who promises to remain with us and to aid us as long as we seek to do the same.

Let us pray most fervently this day and tomorrow that the Holy Spirit will renew our parish. Let us pray that we might be receptive to the promptings of the Spirit speaking within the recesses of our hearts, calling us to something greater than anything the world can offer.  Let us be stirred up to live out our faith more radically than ever before, emboldened by the Spirit so as to imitate the Apostles in their own bold proclamation of the Gospel.  Let us ask the Spirit to pray for all of us, knowing better than we do what we need in order to be holy. Let us not be recollected anymore in our Easter joy, but let us spread that joy to every corner of the world, so that the joy of the Gospel may not be fruitless, but that all may come to share in this joy both now and in the life to come.