Deacon Michael's Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost - June 4-5, 2022

Here’s Deacon Michael’s homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost - June 4-5, 2022

  Readings for this Sunday can be found HERE

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Today the Season of Easter concludes with the great Solemnity of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter when the Apostles, as tradition has it, gathered in the upper room on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and experienced the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them

…something that had been promised to them by Christ prior to his ascending.

Pentecost is often referred to as the “birthday of the Church” as this descending Spirit empowered and formed the disciples for the mission of spreading the Gospel out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

Our faith, yours and mine, are a result of this inspired movement nearly 2,000 years ago.

Our parish this weekend is dense and alive with the business of the Holy Spirit.

This afternoon at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford 49 young people from our parish community will be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Also, this afternoon here at Saint James two young children will be received into the Church through the waters of Baptism, blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All of this reminds us of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in empowering and animating our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ

…helping us to live in word and deed by that same Spirit alive in the power of His inspired words and deeds.

This Holy Spirit of God who is love, is all about life.

Scripture so reminds us.

In Genesis the Spirit moved over the waters at the Creation

…and human beings came to be when God breathed life into them

…and at Pentecost the Spirit’s presence was felt by the disciples as like a driving wind, breathing life into this new community of the infant Church.

This Spirit, God’s animating presence, dwells even with us

…our bodies being as temples…Paul reminds us.

Our tradition has long seen this indwelling Spirit available to shape our lives in practical ways through the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit”.

Tradition names seven: Wisdom, Understanding, Right Judgement, Courage, Knowledge, Reverence and “Fear of the Lord”.

We see these on banners hung in churches on Confirmation day, or printed on the cover of the program for the event, or the parish bulletin that weekend.

Let’s pause for a moment and recall what these gifts are and how they can help us.

The first, Wisdom is being able to see God’s work in our world, sensing the deeper meaning and significance of things, events and people…and in judging, sensing the truth.

Understanding is the gift of comprehending how we are to live as followers of Christ, not being confused by the competing, conflicting and contradictory messages and signals of the surrounding culture, which are many.

Right Judgment is the gift of clearly knowing the difference between right and wrong when we see it.

Courage is overcoming our fears in order to do this right that we have properly judged.

Knowledge brings us a deep understanding of the meaning of God in it all.

Reverence is the gift of respect for God and recognition of our reliance on God in humility and loving trust.

And finally, there is the “Fear of the Lord” which Aquinas described as akin to not wanting to offend God

…akin to how we wouldn’t want to offend parents

…rather than a fear of punishment.

It is a recognition of the reality that God is God and we are not, we are his creation.

Proverbs names “fear of the Lord” as the beginning of Wisdom, bringing us back to the beginning.

These gifts are offered to us in love, for our good and the good of all we encounter.

These gifts need to be cultivated and attended to in our lives so that they don’t wither

…cultivated through a life a prayer, spiritual reading and religious practice

…and consciously “exercising and practicing”, “working out” these gifts everyday,

so they can grow stronger in us.

Working with these gifts, nature cooperating with grace, can magnify the work of the Spirit in and through our lives helping to change us

….and so in a small but important way the world around us.

Take a look at that world around us.

We can see a lot of these gifts’ opposite number at play.

…thoughtlessness and incomprehension

…failed moral judgment and lack of courage

…ignorance and irreverence,

…many acting like they’re God and somehow the center of all. 

Think of what these breed and nourish…

…a disregard for the truth and evasion of responsibility

…a lack of respect and regard for each other and human life generally

…arrogance and pride and narcissism on display in our public life

…the violence aimed at persons, nations and the natural world.

Ask yourself if this world that could use more

…wisdom and understanding

…right judgment and courage

…knowledge and reverence

…all capped off with an understanding that we are not God.

This is important in the lives of those young, and very young, of our community being confirmed and baptized this weekend

…and for the world they are inheriting.

Maybe we can help them by working to make these gifts real in our own lives and the little corners of reality we inhabit.