Today, we celebrate the end of the holy season of Easter and the presence of the Holy Spirit that is with us. Today, on Pentecost, we also bring to completion the paschal mystery which we have been commemorating in a special way throughout Lent and Easter: the passion, death, resurrection, ascension of our Lord and coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples.
During his visit to World Youth Day in 2008 in Australia, Pope Benedict XVI stated that the images we have of the Holy Spirit show how difficult the role of the Spirit is to comprehend. First, in our reading from Acts, the Spirit is depicted as the sound of a mighty wind from heaven that fills the whole house where the disciples are gathered. The word in Greek for “spirit” and “wind” is the same, so the wind clearly indicates the Spirit of God. Then, there appeared tongues of fire which rested on the head of each of the disciples present, indicating the presence of God’s Holy Spirit with them. In these tongues of fire, we recall Moses speaking to God out of the bush which was on fire. We recall that, as the Israelites wandered through the desert, they were accompanied during the night by a pillar of fire, indicating that God was with them. We hear in our reading from Acts how the disciples are filled with the Spirit, enabling them to proclaim God’s word and God’s presence in different languages.
Pope Benedict added in his address to the youth in Australia that the Holy Spirit has been in some ways the most neglected person of the Blessed Trinity, that a clear understanding of the Spirit perhaps seems beyond our reach. Even though there is always going to be a sense of mystery in the way we understand God, there are certainly things about God and the Holy Spirit that we will be able to experience and understand. We can understand and experience the Holy Spirit to an extent because it is the Holy Spirit who invites us to participate in the life of the Trinitarian God, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Indeed, it is the Spirit who helps us in our weakness, who helps us put our prayers into words, who intercedes for us in sighs that are too deep for words according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (741).
As we think about the Holy Spirit as a great teacher for us on our journey of faith, I want to you to think about a teacher who made a huge difference in your life? I can think of Mrs. Betty Seiter who was my fourth and fifth grade teacher at Mary Bartleme Elementary School in Chicago. Mrs. Melanie Espinosa and Mrs Barbara Johannes who taught me history and social studies at Santa Ana High School in California. Sister Elena Arrellano who taught me Spanish in Ecuador. And Mr John Gallum and Sister Bea Dorsey who taught me in seminary. They were all great teachers whom I admire very much. The way they taught made a lot of sense. They were creative in ways I did not think was possible. The stories they told me about their lives and their experiences encouraged me and made me want to learn. I would not have had the journey of learning I have had in life without these great teachers. This bring us to the great teacher we have in the Holy Spirit: the Spirit who came to the disciples at Pentecost from the sky like a mighty wind and like tongues of fire as described in the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent in the name of the Father to teach us everything and to remind us of all that Jesus taught us as described in today’s Gospel. The Holy Spirit is even greater than the great teachers whom we remember from school and college. The Spirit is there for us as a great teacher to lead us to the truth, to open our minds and souls to God’s grace and to guide us in our life of discipleship. Ever since the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, the first leaders of the Church at Pentecost, the Spirit has been guiding the members and leaders of the Church from straying from the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Spirit has served as an inspiration to spread this truth to people all over the world.
With all of this in mind, we are all to be challenged in today’s celebration of Pentecost to search for the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. I will give you some of examples of how I see the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. I wrote a reflection this week on Flocknote about prison ministry. Well, let me tell you, if I had to decide on my own, I would not have even started with prison ministry. I guess it was out of fear and a lack of confidence in myself that I did not think I was equipped for prison ministry. There is a team of Catholic lay people here in the Jackson area who help in the Catholic prison ministry here in Pearl. I definitely feel the Holy Spirit helping us navigate the challenges and the hurdles we have to overcome even to get into the prison to minister to the inmates there. They are so appreciative of our ministry and are so engaged in the Mass and in our studies together. We are currently looking for lay people who want to be involved in that ministry, so you may let me know if you are interested and would like to attend orientation. I also see the Holy Spirit involved in our St Jude artisan group, formally known as the crochet group, and our Knights of Columbus group. Those groups have the Holy Spirit alive in them in the way they reach out to our parish and to others in the faith.
However, another way I see the Holy Spirit alive in us, guiding us and teaching us is through the way we are to engage in learning more about our faith. If you think about it, we have access to great catechetical material at our finger tips like never before. We have holy scripture and different studies guides on Holy Scripture, like Father Mike Schmitz’s the Bible in a Year that many of you have used. We have the Church documents and the Catechism. We have our Formed Website and Amen app that we promote at our parish, and so many other websites and apps. There are so many different blogs and podcasts out there that many of us listen to or read. And we have our faith formation program here at St Jude for children, youth and adults. I know that we all have busy lives and have some much wanting our attention. But continuing to learn about our faith as directed by the Holy Spirit: that is the responsibility of all of us on our journey of faith. I look at my own journey of faith and how the learning process is still active and alive even with the many constraints I have on my time. In the time I have been here at St Jude, I have earned a Masters degree and two certificates in Church Management. I have been in formation to be a secular Carmelite and I have prayed the Ignatian spiritual exercises on a month long retreat in Spain, just to name the main things I have done. The point is: we can not just sit back passively and let the Holy Spirit teach us. We need to be actively engaged in the learning process and seek those opportunities out.
As we celebrate this great solemnity of Pentecost today, may we pray that the Holy Spirit of God come into our lives to renew us, to renew our Church, and to renew the face of the earth.
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