Homily[2] Pentecost
Sunday Year C (Mass during the Day): Fr. Michael U. Udoekpo
·
Acts 2:1-11;
·
Psalm 104:1,
24,29-30,31,34;
·
I Cor 12:2-3b-7, or
Rom 8:8-17
·
John 20:19-23 or John
14:15-16,23b-26
The Fire of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives!
We celebrate Pentecost
Sunday, today, 50 days after Easter. And
I really love the readings, the songs and the spiritual themes reflected in our celebration,
particularly the responsorial Psalm “Send forth your Spirit Lord, and
renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30). I also love the Alleluia verse of
today, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them
the fire of your love.” This
traditional antiphon begins every session of our Rosaries. I love saying this
too in my native language-- Di O Edisana
Spirit, Duk Yoho ke me esit nti ikot mfo, nyung nam ikan ima fo oyoho ke esist
mmo!( Veni Sancte Spiritus) . These
passages are full of the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirits can do for us.
They specifically point
to a number things that we must take note: One, the Holy Spirit is alive in the
Church, in our midst. Two, the Holy is
like a “Fire” in us, burning with love. Three, with the Holy Spirit we can do a
lot. We can move mountains. We can love. We can forgive. We can build. We can
listen to the message of Pope Francis. We can transform the face of the earth with love, kindness, forbearance, unity and gentleness.
To the first point, you may ask, how do we
know that the Spirit is alive in the Church? The Gospel does not lie. Christ
does no tell lies! Believe him! You would recall soon after his Baptism in Luke’s
Gospel chapter 4, the first thing Christ himself acknowledged was a sense of divine
mission and the presence of the Holy Spirit with him. As God’s incarnate spoken
of by the prophets (Isa 61), the Spirit enables him bring the Good news to the
poor, and freedom to the captives, liberation to the oppressed and the marginalized. This
came to be true throughout Jesus' mission!
We continue to see this assurance
of the Spirit in today’s Gospel (John 14). Christ, before his mission to the Cross,
promises 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.” You better believe it. Christ’s promises are never in vain! The Holy
Spirit, the Advocate, the “Divine Attorney” is with us. The Holy Spirit is in
the midst of our daily challenges. The Spirit fights for us. The Spirit keeps us in the state
of grace. The Holy Spirit brings us wisdom, fortitude, knowledge, piety, counsel, understanding and fear of the Lord. The Holy Spirit enables us love God and our neighbors joyfully and keep God's his commandments.
Speaking of this ever
presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives Paul says:
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (daughters) of
God. For you did not receive 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, so that we may also be glorified with him,’ (Rom
8:8-17). To the Corinthian Church Paul very directly says, “Do you not know
that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you...” (1
Cor 3:16-17). Pentecost Sunday reminds
us today that the Spirit of God dwells within us.
To the Second point,
the Holy Spirit dwells metaphorically like a fire, spoken of in today’s 1st
reading ( Acts 2:11). On that first Pentecost, the Disciples of Christ were in
one room “suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong wind, and it
filled the entire house in which there were. Then there appeared to them
tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each 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.”
In this text, “fire”
is an image of God’s loving, illuminating, encouraging, enabling and inspiring
presence with the Apostles and the Church. The beauty of this fire of God’s
love dispels the fears of persecution and of the unknown, experienced by the early Church. It enables
Peter and the Apostles to preach the Risen Lord fearlessly to all Israel. It enables
devout Jews who lived in Jerusalem, and people of different cultural background
and languages to reconcile their differences, to understand themselves, to
appreciate one another.
Today, we live in a
divided world, broken nations, economics, politics, religions, cultures, languages and
differences, starting even from our families, churches, worship centers, to
places of work, to the United Nations and to the play grounds. In Nigeria, for instance,
it is Islam vs Christianity, Boko Haram vs the Chibok Schoolgirls, corrupt
officials vs the poor electorates, justice vs injustices and other patties’ interests.
In the United States the differences span from the platform of the Democrats to
that of the Republicans, Obama-Clintonism vs Trumpism; the traditional teachings
of the Church on family, marriage, love, the common good, justice, peace (stress
by Pope Francis in his Amoris Laetitia- the joy of love and in other various teachings of the Church) vs modern re-definition
of these institutions. Globally, we have peace in one hand, and war, or
terrorism on the other. What do we do? How do we use the spirit that God has
given us? What role does the event of Pentecost play in our lives today?
This takes us to the
final point. The fire of the Holy Spirit given us today comes in different
ways, given us in different ways- to advocate for us, to protect us, to strengthen
us, sanctify us as individual, to make us holy, forgiving to our neighbors,
imitate Christ, but that we may also share this different gifts with the world (1
Cor 12:4-7). Whatever our gifts are: prophecy,
legislating, dancing, advising, preaching, speaking, teaching, entertaining, singing,
governing, we want to use it for the common good, to kindle the face of the
earth.
We live in such a
divided society. We want to let this fire of love, through the conduit of our wisdom, fortitude, knowledge, piety, counsel, understanding and fear of the Lord, burn away the
darkness of hatred, racism, division, bigotry, violence, terrorism, war,
injustices and inhumane activities in our homes, in our work places, in
government offices, and in our play grown. All that we are saying today is that,
send forth your Spirit, O Lord, that the face of the earth be renewed!
