May Jesus Christ be
praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.
The feast of Pentecost
is a day of celebration. It is the
birthday of the Church. Fifty days after
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and nine days after his ascension, the Holy
Spirit descended upon the apostles. With
a mighty wind and with tongues of fire, the Spirit of the Father and the Son
was given to the Church and to the world.
It is the birthday of the Church.
The disciples of the
Lord Jesus, and the mother of the Lord Jesus, had been gathered together in
prayer for several days. For three years
the disciples had gathered with the Lord Jesus during his earthly ministry. For three years the disciples had been
gathered to the Lord Jesus as the first fruits of the harvest of the Church of
God. And now, with the descent of the
Holy Spirit, they would be sent out.
They would plant the seeds of the Kingdom and they would gather the harvest. Endowed with tongues of fire over their heads
and voices on fire with the message of salvation, the disciples proclaimed the
mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ. In
the words of every language and people, to every land and every nation, the
invitation to life in the kingdom was sent.
The Spirit was sent and the disciples were sent. The Spirit transformed the disciples and the
disciples with the Spirit transformed the world. The disciples were changed by the power of
the Spirit. The fear and doubt of the
Last Supper was gone. The uncertainty of
Holy Saturday was gone forever. The
disciples of the Lord Jesus, now empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit, are
convinced of who they are and what they have been called to do. They know their identity and they know their
mission.
In nearly every passage
of the Scripture that is proclaimed in the Sacred Liturgy, we learn these two
things about ourselves. We learn of our
identity, meaning who we are and more importantly whose we are. And we learn of our mission. We learn what it is that we, as followers of
the Lord Jesus and witnesses to his resurrection, are called to do.
The identity of the
Christian is the identity of the Lord Jesus.
He is the beloved Son of the Eternal Father. In him, we are the beloved children of the
Eternal Father. The mission of the
Christian is a share in the mission of Jesus Christ. We have our role in the redemption of the
world. We have our time to proclaim the
good news with our words and with our lives.
We have our daily opportunities to walk as the Lord Jesus walked and
love as he loved. We have our time to be
rejected, to be persecuted, and to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. And we have our time to gather with the other
disciples, in the presence of the Mother of God, and receive the consolation of
the Lord.
The Holy Spirit, sent
from the Father and the Son, reminds us of our identity and strengthens us for
our mission. The Holy Spirit empowers us
to call upon God as our Loving Father and enables us to know the Son more
profoundly. In the power of the Holy
Spirit, our own witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is strengthened
and our ability to share in the cross of Christ is deepened.
On this feast of
Pentecost, we ask the Father for a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit that
we might be sent out to live and proclaim the message of salvation. We ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to
cast all fear and all doubt from our hearts that we may rejoice in our identity
and embrace our mission. And we ask for
the Holy Spirit to transform us, so that with the Holy Spirit, we will
transform the world. Amen.
Preached
at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
