Sixth Sunday of Easter
“Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” These are the words that Fr. Mark said to the 28 people who were confirmed at the Easter Vigil just a few weeks ago. They are the words that our 8th and 9th grade students will hear next school year when Bishop Boyea confirms them. These are the words that call down the Holy Spirit upon the baptized, just as Sts. Peter and John gave the Holy Spirit to those who had accepted the Word of God in Samaria, after they had been baptized.
Does this gift of the Holy Spirit change those who receive it? Does the Holy Spirit matter? Of course! By the anointing with the Sacred Chrism and the laying on of hands, those who have been confirmed are united to the Blessed Trinity in a new way! They are little christs, little anointed ones, just as Christ, the anointed one, was filled with the Spirit.
Sadly, we can block the many graces that the Spirit wants to give to us, the seven-fold gift of: wisdom, understanding, reverence, knowledge, counsel, right judgment, and wonder and awe in the presence of God. We can say no to these gifts. We can say no to the courage, the excitement, the joy that are the gifts that should be poured upon us when we are baptized and confirmed.
How often do I see those gifts going unused, like birds that long to fly but are locked in a cage that gives them no room. How often do I see people come to Sunday Mass as if they are going to a funeral! How often do I see people coming forward to receive the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, without joy on their faces! It’s not that we always have to feel happy or have a smile on our face. That will only happen if we are welcomed into heaven. But, we can always be joyful that we are able to participate in the anticipation of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God, the Antechamber of Heaven. That’s what we get the opportunity to celebrate each week. And if we are truly celebrating, then we are not dour, but delighted. Imagine how much fun the Open Houses that we attend would be if everyone acted their like they do at Mass! Not much at all!
The Holy Spirit gives us life, gives us breath. It is like the vision of the dry bones from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. Even though the bones are put back together, and the sinews and muscles are all on the bones, they bodies need the Spirit of God breathed into them in order to live. We need that same Spirit or else we are nothing but a collection of bones, muscle, and organs walking around like zombies. We need that Spirit!
We need the Spirit to be able to give an explanation “to anyone who asks…for a reason for [our] hope,” as St. Peter says in our second reading. The same Spirit that allowed the Apostles, Blessed Mother, and disciples gathered in the upper room at the first Pentecost, to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News, to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem; the same Spirit that sent Philip down to Samaria to preach and baptize those who were willing to accept the Word of God; that same Spirit dwells within us and wants to renew the face of the earth by our testimony and witness to the Gospel of Christ. It is like the fizz in a shaken pop bottle that is just waiting for the tiniest opening to explode out of us.
But we have become good at keeping the lid on. We have become good at quelling the Spirit so that we don’t have to give an explanation for our faith. We can be like adolescents in the faith. We don’t know much and we’re afraid of sharing what we have for fear that we are different, that we upset the apple cart. We may not have joy, but at least we’re comfortable where we’re at, and we don’t want to challenge anyone else, let alone ourselves. Just like adolescents we don’t want to be different. We want to the same as everyone else. But that’s not what the Spirit calls us to. As St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Do not conform yourselves to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Do not be the same as the world, because if we are, then we do not have the Spirit of God, since, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, the Advocate, the one who stands up to defend us and gives us words to speak as we proclaim the Good News, that Spirit the world cannot accept, “because it neither sees or knows him.”
“For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love.” If we have the Spirit, we have power. Not power which dominates, but power that serves by proclaiming the freeing love and redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus. To show that we have the Holy Spirit do we all have to quit our jobs and go off to Pacific Islands, Saudi Arabia, or unknown jungles in South America to preach conversion? No, we have plenty of opportunities right here in East Lansing, Okemos, and the entire greater-Lansing area. There are people who do not know Jesus and who need to. There are people who know Jesus and have been baptized, but who have not yet received the full inheritance of the Spirit that is their right as children of God in confirmation. The more we are willing to bring Christ to our work place and even in our own homes (where, sadly, I fear He is sometimes absent!!), the more will we transform this world to be more like the Kingdom of God that Christ instituted by His own presence here on earth.
The more we pray on a daily basis for the gift to recognize the times when the Spirit is calling us to bring Jesus into a particular conversation or situation; the more we are proud to be Catholics and bring that into the public sector, rather than being ashamed of having different rules and different views that so many others; the more we open ourselves up to the Spirit rather than blocking Him by our fear and our sins, the more we will have that enduring joy and peace that Christ promises to us.
And so, as we prepare for Pentecost over the next two weeks, may our prayer be an invitation to the Holy Spirit to make His dwelling in us, fill us with His power, and help us to be alive with Him rather than just dry bones rattling along in life.
Come, Holy Spirit,
Fill the hearts of your faithful
and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit
and they shall be created
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Amen.
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| "VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS REPLE TUORUM CORDA FIDELIUM COME HOLY SPIRIT FILL THE HEARTS OF YOUR FAITHFUL" From Monte Cassino Benedictine Abbey, Italy |