Pentecost: It's Never Too Late!

 

Deacon Dave · Pentecost: It's Never Too Late!

Homily for Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023. Reading: Acts 2:1-11. Theme: Pentecost: It’s Never Too Late! 

The first Pentecost Sunday was such a significant turning point in the story of Jesus and His disciples. It brought the Good News of Christianity out of the confines of Jerusalem and began its expansion throughout the known world. This is why it is celebrated as the birthday of the Catholic Church. Up to that day the Church existed of course, but in a kind of hidden way, very much like a child growing quietly in the womb. But with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we just heard about in the first reading from the Book of Acts, this Church-in-the-womb burst forth into the world kicking and screaming like a newborn baby! The apostles and disciples of the Lord made a lot of noise in Jerusalem on that first Christian Pentecost, boldly proclaiming the truth about the Risen Christ and baptizing 3,000 people! 

But this Pentecost experience was never intended to remain just a one-day event. It has been spiritually repeated all over the world in every generation through the Sacrament of Confirmation. And during the first few centuries of Christianity, the Spirit’s presence was made known among the newly confirmed by tangible outward signs similar to Pentecost. But once Christianity became widely known and accepted much of these visible manifestations of the Spirit seemed to stop. How come? What happened? Well, quite often the Faith was forced upon nations by their rulers. At other times people embraced Catholicism due to cultural and family expectations. In other words, the essential elements of a personal faith in Christ and a heartfelt desire to embrace the Faith were missing. And as we all know, the Sacraments are not magic. Their effectiveness in our lives depends upon how much we have opened our hearts to the action of God’s grace. 

And so I would venture to guess that for many of us there was no post-Confirmation Pentecost experience like those early Christians. If you were like me when I was confirmed, there was no real interest in being set on fire for Jesus nor enthusiasm in wanting to give witness to Him. Instead, the Fire of the Holy Spirit placed within me by that Sacrament was more like a dim pilot light in the back burner of my life. And quite honestly, there were many years in which I just blew the flame out completely. But it wasn't because of any ineffectiveness on the part of the Holy Spirit. No, it was because of my own lack of faith and my own inattention as to Who I was really receiving. However, the good news is that with God it’s never too late to do the right thing. It's still very possible for us to spiritually revisit our Confirmation and reignite the spark of the Spirit. Because no matter how long it’s been that tiny flame of grace is still there and just needs something to stoke it into a blazing fire! 

And that is precisely the special mission or job of the Holy Spirit: to reignite the faith that is within us and make our love for God and neighbor both grow and glow. How this might happen differs for each one of us but in one way or another the Spirit Himself will bring it about if we have hearts open to His action. Quite often this comes about when we experience some serious life-event that, be it amazing or devastating, grabs our attention and makes us realize how much we need real faith in our lives. Or we might have a self-revelation that is so honest that we ask God to remove all the spiritual trash that we have accumulated within ourselves over the years. Some call this personal spiritual awakening being “baptized with the Holy Spirit”, others call it being “born again”, and still others name it a “conversion experience”. But whatever we want to call it, the common factor is that the Pentecost fire within us has been relit and the Sacrament has been activated! 

But where do we go from there? How do we grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, which admittedly seems more tricky than it is with the other two Persons of the Blessed Trinity? I mean, it’s rather easy for us to relate to God the Father because we all know what a father is, or at least is supposed to be. And when it comes to Jesus it’s even easier because he became human and so we can relate to Him very well in that regard. But quite often we come up blank when it comes to the Holy Spirit and often mistakenly think of Him much like the Force in Star Wars. But He is not some sort of mystical energy. He’s a Divine Person who loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. 

The Bible tells us that the Spirit makes Himself known through symbols that describe how He acts in our lives. For example, He came down upon Jesus at his baptism in the form of a Dove as a sign of gentleness and peace. Christ describes Him as Living Water that flows out from within us and as the Breath of God that gives life through the forgiveness of sins. He is our Paraclete who stands beside us in times of difficulty and the Spirit of Truth who enables us to recognize and reject the lies that our culture often embraces. He comes as a Mighty Wind which speaks of invisible power and as Fiery Flames that purify and energize. His miracle of Tongues shows us that He is a unifier of people no matter who they are or where they come from. 

So, with all this in mind, how might the Spirit be manifested in our own lives today? Well, it seems to me that the Dove of peace comes to rest upon us whenever we strive to live in respect and unity with others. The Fire of the Spirit burns within us when we become enthusiastic and committed to doing what is right and just in God’s sight. The powerful Wind of the Spirit pushes us out of our comfort zones so that we can think of others and be of service to them. His Living Water refreshes us spiritually through prayer and meditation and we pass on the Life-giving Breath of the Spirit by forgiving those who have hurt us. Finally, I think that we can participate in His gift of Tongues whenever we use our speech to say the good things that people need to hear, things that will really help them. 

These are just some examples of what I think it can mean to live life in the Spirit. But if we cultivate and nurture a personal relationship with and an intentional devotion to the Holy Spirit, He will show each one of us how we can best tap into His Presence and Power in our own particular needs and situations. And if we practice this devotion on a regular basis then Pentecost can become an ever-present reality in our daily lives. It will no longer remain for us just a story in the Bible or be frozen in history as a one-time event that happened a very long time ago in the city of Jerusalem.

Going Away In Order to Be Near

 

Deacon Dave · Going Away In Order to Be Near

Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 21, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 28:16-20. Theme: Going Away In Order to Be Near 

Compared to Easter, the Ascension of Christ into Heaven can seem kind of anti-climatic in our liturgy. What I mean is, we spent 40 days of Lent getting ready for Easter. And then we had over-the-top liturgies from Holy Thursday through the Easter Vigil. The Easter Season itself goes on for many weeks and by the time the Ascension comes around it can almost seem like an afterthought. But in reality, the Ascension is the icing on the cake of Easter, so to speak. The Ascension takes up where the Resurrection left off. It magnifies and expands the Risen Lord’s presence and makes a promise to all of us about what we will one day experience for ourselves. So, far from being an afterthought, the Ascension is immensely important to Christ’s entire mission of salvation in three ways. 

First of all, the Ascension proclaims Jesus as the universal Savior and expands His presence. It allows Him to be available to all people of all time and in every place. When He lived His physical life on Earth, Jesus was very much tied to a very particular group of people (the Hebrews) and limited to a very specific and localized section of the planet (the Mediterranean Middle-East). His movements were constrained by time and space as well as by geography and politics within the Roman Empire. Of course he was always God, but in His humanity He was tied down and limited. But the Ascension has freed Him from all those restrictions and limitations! He no longer belongs to any one country but is King of All Nations. He is no longer bound to communicate in any one language or owned by any one culture. He can now speak to every human heart and be present in every village, city and nation. The Ascension allows Christ to freely exercise His role as the Universal Lord with His healing embrace encompassing all the world and every single person in it. 

Second, the Ascension transforms Christ’s way of being with us from the physical to the spiritual, from the visible to the invisible. At the Ascension Jesus left earth dramatically, by being lifted up into the sky and taken out of sight. It didn’t have to be done that way but He chose this type of exit as a powerful way of reminding the disciples to stop looking for Him in ways that we were used to doing. He would still be with them and with us but in new and different ways. In His farewell speech at the Last Supper Jesus repeated many times that He would come back to us, remain with us, live within us. And He even told us how we could experience His ever-abiding presence: through obedience to His Word, through love for Him, through the Spirit’s power, through service to the poor and suffering, through the Real Presence of the Eucharist, through the Mystical Body which is His Church. This aspect of the Ascension reminds us that there is a vibrant reality all around us that is invisible but every bit as real as the one we experience with our senses. 

Thirdly, the Ascension tells us not only about what happened to Jesus, but also about what will happen to us. It points us to the reality of “the hope to which we have been called”, as St. Paul said in our second reading. Just as Easter promises us real life beyond the grave, so the Ascension shows us that this real life will be one that is experienced in both body and soul. Where Jesus has gone, we hope someday to be. This is why Jesus said at the Last Supper, “I am going to prepare a place for you, that where I am you also may be.” Being ascended into the glory-life like Jesus was not something reserved for just Him alone. He went through this experience before us as our Leader and Pioneer, as the Scriptures testify. But this glorification is also our destiny as redeemed human beings. The Assumption of the Blessed Mother body and soul into Heaven is a sign and proof of this fact. Mary was human like us, not divine, and yet she too was lifted up. The difference between our glorification and hers is that we must wait until Christ returns but we do indeed know that it will happen to us. 

So hopefully, we can see that the Ascension is every bit as much an important celebration in our Faith as is Easter. It proclaims that Jesus is the universal Savior who has promised to be with us always and who continues His mission on Earth through the members and ministries of His Church. It reminds us of what we profess to believe every Sunday in the Creed: that reality and existence can be found in both the seen and unseen realms. And last but not at all least, it assures us that though Jesus may be gone from our sight, He is definitely not gone from our lives. He is more present to us now than He ever could have been before and is as close to each one of us as the beating of our heart and the whisper of a prayer.

The Paraclete: Our Advocate and Spirit of Truth

 

Deacon Dave · The Paraclete: Our Advocate & Spirit of Truth

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 14, 2023. Gospel of St. John 14:15-21. Theme: The Paraclete: Our Advocate & Spirit of Truth 

In today's Gospel, John brings us into the Upper Room in Jerusalem, to the place and time of the Last Supper. He shares with us part of the Lord’s farewell speech to the apostles, a last testament intended for all of His disciples, including us. You can sense the deep love and concern in the words of Jesus, as he speaks about the future without Him physically present. He makes several consoling promises that should fill us with hope and strengthen our trust in times of struggle or difficulty, but what I want to focus on is what He told us about the Holy Spirit. 

The first thing that gets my attention is that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit a “Parakletos” which is translated into English as Paraclete or Advocate. I find this very interesting because in the language and culture of Jesus' time, a parakletos was a lawyer and more specifically a defense attorney. Now, that makes me wonder and ask… why in the world did Jesus think that we would need the services of a lawyer? Well, it’s because He knew that the world would treat us no better than it treated Him. He didn’t want us to think that we are on our own, vulnerable and defenseless, when it comes to being accused of causing trouble when what we are really doing is speaking up for what is right and just. He wanted us to know that when we stand before the court of public opinion concerning our Christianity, the Paraclete will be right by our side, advising us and counseling us as would any good and wise attorney. 

Jesus also calls Him the Spirit of Truth and in the same breath He says that the world cannot accept this Spirit because it cannot or will not accept truth. What the Lord means is that those who live just for the attractions of this life and without regard for God, do not see or accept the truth because they are not really interested in it. Instead, they prefer to be counted among those who hold to popular positions and who chase celebrity opinions. In refusing to acknowledge truth, they instead try to create a false reality that caters to their own whims, that reflects their own desires and that blesses their own sins. 

And don’t we see evidence of this all around us today? I mean, who would have ever thought that the most common sense and obvious facts of life would be called into question and wordsmithed into different twisted meanings? You know, sometimes it might seem like everything around us is traveling down this path of insanity. But I think it’s good to keep in mind a quote from the late great Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said, “The truth is the truth even if no one believes it, and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it.” Those sure sound like words that could have come straight from Jesus in today’s Gospel! 

As Christians who take our faith-relationship with Jesus seriously, we cannot simply remain quiet. Instead, we need to turn to the Paraclete, our Defender and Counselor, and ask Him for the light and fortitude we need to be able to speak up as voices of truth. But as St. Peter tells us in today’s second reading, we must do so with gentleness and reverence because our goal is not to win a debate but to share the reason for the hope that is within us. And in doing so, we need to remember that the truth people need to hear most from us is that they are immensely and personally loved by God. Each and every one of them! Because the sad reality is that so many people have never heard this, they do now know it! And so it’s up to us to tell them so that they, too, can begin to have hope in their hearts and know the joy and peace that flows from a life lived with God. 

It’s a big responsibility that we have been given to be agents of the Spirit of Truth. But Jesus assured us that in doing so the Paraclete will advise us and act within us. He will provide us with counsel and direction giving us the right words to say, letting us know when to speak and how to say it in every particular circumstance. However, this sensitivity to the Spirit’s voice and action will develop within us only to the extent that we get to know Him through the practice daily personal prayer from the heart. In order to learn to really hear our Paraclete and recognize His voice, we have to make room in our day for this time of silence alone with the Lord. 

In closing, I want to point out how appropriate it is that we are being called to deepen our awareness of and devotion to the Holy Spirit in this month of May and on Mother’s Day as we honor Mary, the mother most blessed among all women. No other disciple of Christ was as open to the Spirit of Truth or as filled with His Divine Presence as she was. Her relationship with the Advocate was so intense, so total and personal, that we call her by analogy the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and their union resulted in the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us. May the Blessed Mother pray for each one of us, so that by the Power and Presence of the Spirit we, like her, can bring Christ to others so that, too, may have hope in their hearts and come to know the truth that will set them free.

Trust Instead of Trouble

 

Deacon Dave · Trust Instead of Trouble

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, May 7, 2023. Gospel of St. John 14:1-12. Theme: Trust Instead of Trouble 

There’s a heck of a lot in today’s Gospel that could provide us with countless hours of reflection and discussion, but what I want to focus on is just the first part. Jesus begins by saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” What can He mean since the reality is that we each face all kinds of troubles in our lives - personal setbacks, job or relationship struggles, threatening illnesses, on-going financial debts - how can our hearts not be troubled? I think what Jesus might be telling us is to not let the stress that so often and easily fills our minds descend into our inner selves where it can rob us of peace. There’s no way that we can - or should - ignore the difficulties and challenges that we have to face. They are real issues that enter into our minds and cause stress. 

But this stress can only travel from our minds to our hearts if we hold stubbornly to the idea that we are in control of everything. In other words, the stress in our heads becomes stress in our hearts when we persist in the idea that we can fix any situation on our own merits. Pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as the old saying goes. And the reason this stresses us out is because we innately know, deep down in the very recesses of our being, that we cannot. A simple reality check should remind us that there are things we struggle with that are not of our own doing or undoing. 

And that brings us to Jesus' next few words in today’s Gospel, “Have faith in God; have faith also in me.” Here is where we find the way to prevent head-stress from becoming heart-stress. In the Bible, the word “faith” can also be translated as “trust” because the original Greek word means both things. So Jesus is inviting us to trust in God (He means the Father) and to likewise trust in Him (because, as we say, “like Father, like Son”). This trust isn’t a kind of placebo to help us get through a tough time; nor is it a kind of mind-game to help us forget the issue at hand. Quite the opposite, faith means dealing with our reality head-on, confident that God will enable us to face it and get through it in a constructive positive way. The first step in embarking upon this challenge of faith, this pathway of trust, is to surrender our self-reliance and sincerely place confidence in the Lord. 

Think about what Jesus said in today’s Gospel concerning our own specially prepared room in the Father’s house. I think this should encourage us to take this first step in trust! He clearly tells us that He is getting everything all nicely done up and ready for us! He eagerly looks forward to being with us in a more full and complete way that we can experience here on planet Earth. It reminds me of when a couple is arranging a nursery for a new baby. There’s so much forethought involved in purchasing the right furniture, selecting the perfect color, designing it to be the best-ever place for the child you eagerly await and love. Well, that should give us an idea of how much Jesus is thinking of us and it should boost our trust in Him for our present needs! Because if He is that solicitous about our future, He must also be very interested in our present. If He wants to be with us that badly in Heaven, He surely reaches out to us here and now. And so really we have no need to worry or allow our hearts to become troubled. As Jesus said, it all boils down to faith, to living our lives in a personal relationship of trust. 

But we need to be patient and realize that learning to trust isn’t something that happens overnight or without effort. It begins with an intentional invitation on our part. God never ever pushes Himself into our lives against our will because relationships are rooted in love and love is based on freedom. So God waits to be freely asked and once we do invite Him into the situation, His Fatherly care and concern become manifest in our lives in clearly discernible ways. This doesn’t mean that food or money or clothes will miraculously drop down out of Heaven, but it does mean that God will see to it that our needs are met. For our part, to help us walk in and remain on this way of trust, we just need to remember that Jesus is the Way that we must follow if we want to experience the Providence of God. Jesus is the Truth Whose Word sets us free from the burden of trying to solve problems all on our own. And Jesus is the Life that is meant to be lived with inner peace and joy, knowing that this serenity and confidence is the fruit of a relationship with Him that begins here on planet Earth but is destined to last forever.

"Have faith in God; have faith also in Me."