Sermon on the Holy Spirit
It is said that a certain guide lived in the
desert of Arabia who never lost his way. He carried with him a homing pigeon
with a very fine cord attached to one of its legs. When in doubt as to which
path to take, he flushed the bird into the air. The pigeon quickly strained at
the cord to fly in the direction of home and thus led the guide accurately to
his destination. Because of this unique practice, he was known as the “dove
man.” So, too, the Holy Spirit, the heavenly dove, is willing and able to direct
us in the strait and narrow way that leads us to the more abundant life, if in
humble self-denial we submit to his unerring supervision. Then we shall be men
and women of the Pentecost.
Let us focus on our Lord Jesus. When Jesus was
baptised in the Jordan and the Spirit descended on him in the visible form a
dove, it wasn’t a piece of advertisement or comic routine; but serious
business. Because immediately after the baptism, Jesus submitted to the Spirit
who drove him into the desert as a prelude to his mission. The body of Jesus
was instinct with the Spirit, such that whenever he exhaled he breathed out the
Spirit. You will recall how after his Resurrection he breathed on his
disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit; those whose sins you forgive, they
are forgiven.” That was the Spirit of pardon and reconcilement. Jesus clearly told his disciples, “The Spirit
blows where he wills. There’s no telling where he will blow you.” After Pentecost day the Apostles were
dispersed on the wings of the Spirit to the fours corners of the earth on the
mission evangelisation.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who animates
the Holy Catholic Church and Communion of Saints. We believe in the Holy Spirit
who brings about the forgiveness of sins, and accomplishes the resurrection of
the body and life everlasting.
If any outsider declares that the Catholic
Church is packed with fools and charlatans, we can assure him that there’s room
for one more. How the Church has survived despite its fractious factions when
the Roman and British empires have collapsed; how the Church has survived, what
with all its troubles within and problems without can only be answered by the
last paragraph of the Apostles’ Creed which we recite every Sunday: “I believe
in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,” or, more correctly, “I believe
in the Holy Spirit who animates the Church, who builds and sustains the
Catholic Church, who preserves the communion of saints, who operates the
forgiveness of sins, who brings about the resurrection of the dead and honours
the pledge of life everlasting.” St. Paul states openly that the divine Spirit
dwells in the human body. He is like blood that pervades every millimetre of
the body. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is its soul. And
since the soul has not left the body, how can the body fall apart and corrupt?
Today’s feast tells us that the Holy Spirit continues to be present in the
church. And, let me add, that presence is a loving presence. Presence without
love is as destructive as love without presence.
Apart from baptism, the sacrament of
confirmation signals the abandonment and submission to the power of the Spirit;
it signals the empowerment that results from the Spirit’s presence. The person
who abandons herself to the sway and power of the Holy Spirit is led to live
according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. The people who are
empowered by life in the Spirit are known by the fruits they bear. Their lives
are fragrant with peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering, gentleness,
truthfulness, single-hearted love of God and neighbour. The absence of the
Spirit is evident by sentiments of hatred, jealousy, envy, greed, lust and
despair. With the Holy Spirit in our heart we are sure where our preferences
lie.
Take the case of St. Peter. The Spirit would
push Peter to Rome to preach the Word and to die for it. That was the best
thing that happened to him since it came from deeper and more mature
spontaneity, the type of spontaneity that makes you rush to the rescue of
children screaming in a burning building or a train crash or bomb blast, the
mature spontaneity that makes you speak in defence of someone unjustly treated,
to open your heart to a poor person.
That’s the Spirit (with a capital “S”). When
we let the Spirit take over our lives, the best is yet to happen.
The famous Protestant charismatic preacher,
Rev. Moody, once said, “You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe
without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God.”
A little girl was visiting her grandmother in
a small country town in southern United States. Grandmother took the girl to a
highly charged Pentecostal function. The people got all worked up and expressed
their feelings by jumping about and shouting. It was another of those “Holy
Roller” services. The little girl asked her grandmother if all that leaping
meant that the Holy Spirit was really present. Her grandmother said, “Honey, it
doesn’t matter how high they jump; it’s what they do when they come down that
will tell you if it is the real thing.” My comment is that it would be good if
we were a little more enthusiastic about our faith, but what matters is what we
do in everyday life. Does the Holy Spirit have a practical effect on our daily
life, and in what way? As someone put it, “We do not need more of the Spirit.
Rather, the Spirit needs more of us.”
“Receive the Holy Spirit; those whose sins you
forgive, they are forgiven” (John 20, 22). That was the Spirit of pardon and
reconcilement. After Jesus assigns to the disciples (and to all of us) the
ministry of making his love present in the world, he offers the strength to
carry out such a difficult task: “He breathed on them and said to them,
‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20, 22). This is like a new creation scene in
which Jesus enlivens and empowers his followers much as the creator breathed
life into the first human being (Gen 2, 7). Then Jesus singles out what is
clearly the very first duty of his followers: “If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”
(20,23). This can only mean that one of the primary effects of true Christian
love is the willingness to forgive others who may have hurt us in any way. This
is an awesome responsibility and it cannot be restricted simply to the
sacrament of reconciliation. Every one of us is offered the help of the Holy
Spirit so that we may have the courage to forgive and if we do not do so, in
some very real and tragic sense the healing will be thwarted.
Sometimes I think that the only question that
will be asked at the last judgement will be, quite simply, Did you let my
people go? In other words, was the overall effect of your presence in the world
to liberate or to hold in bondage? Were you a Moses, friend of God, or a
pharaoh, holding others in slavery? Forgiveness can be very difficult, but that
is precisely why Jesus sends his powerful Spirit to assist us.
Jesus clearly told his disciples, “The Spirit
blows where it wills. There’s no telling where it will blow you.” Jesus told Peter, “When you were young, you
clad your belt and went where you pleased. But when you are old (i.e. matured
in the Spirit) somebody else will clad you and take you where you do not wish
to go.” You might also remember that decisive turning point in the life of
Peter. He was in Rome in the year 52, but the antichristian persecution was
getting too hot for him there. So he struck out for home and country back in
Palestine, accompanied by a little servant boy. But on the way, on the Appian Way,
to be exact, he was intercepted by Jesus who appeared to him. Peter was shocked
to see the Lord and asked him that famous question: “Quo vadis, Domine?”
(“Where are you headed, Lord?) And suddenly the little boy began speaking, “My
brethren in Rome need me.” The vision was over, the Spirit had spoken, and
Peter made an about turn, double-timing it back to Rome where he was crucified
upside-down.
Living a spiritual life is living a life in
which our spirits and Spirit of God bear a joint witness that we belong to God
as his beloved children. This witness involves every aspect of our lives:
“Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the
glory of God”, says St. Paul (Rom 10, 31). Wherever we go and whomever we meet,
God’s Spirit will manifest himself through us. We may occasionally need to
speak up in defence of God, even enlighten someone about Jesus Christ, as long
as it doesn’t create divisions. But the way that the Holy Spirit manifests
himself most convincingly is through the fruit: “love, joy, peace, endurance,
kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5, 22).
These fruits speak for themselves. Circle the odd one out. Joy is the odd one
out. Why? The other items, like love, peace, goodness, are virtues requiring
strength and application, to have and to develop, especially self-control. But
joy seems to come and go by itself. I feel it or I don’t. I feel good when I do
and sad when I do not. It’s like the difference between good cool weather and
physical fitness. I can’t produce cool weather but I can work towards physical
fitness by proper dieting and exercise. “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow
we diet !” Patience and self control fall into the gymnasium variety;
joy is like the weather. We cannot earn it or acquire it, though we can pray
for it since we know that God and the saints are in the fullness of joy. And we
can prepare ourselves to work together with God’s generosity in the power of
the Holy Spirit precisely by making other people happy.
Happiness is the result of spiritual health,
not material wealth. Material wealth certainly can be a positive factor of
security for our children and ourselves. But by working for our spiritual
health we can acquire a deeper foundation for inner security. A happy person is
not a person in a given set of circumstances, but rather a person with a
certain set of attitudes. You can get out of bed ready to make the day an
adventure. Or you can drag yourself out of bed dreading the hours ahead. You
can get up early enough to have the time to relax with a healthful breakfast.
Or you can stay in bed as long as possible and rush to work, mind and body all
tense, and thoughts all scrambled from hurrying. Your attitudes help create
your circumstances; they make you either a happy or unhappy person, to overcome
problems or go under them. You can rise from sleep and declare, “Good Lord,
another day!” or you can say: “Good day, Lord”, or “Another good day, Lord.”
Among the saints who are identified with joy
or mirth is St. Thomas More of England. Thomas More was condemned to death by a
perverse and petulant King Henry VIII. But the death sentence did not dampen
his gaiety. During his last days, while in prison and suffering from his old
disease in the chest - gravel, stone and the cramps - he habitually joked with
his family and friends, whenever they were permitted to see him, as merrily as
in the old days of Chelsea when he was Lord Chancellor. When it came time for
him to ascend the executioner’s scaffold, it was discovered that the structure
was so weak that it appeared ready to collapse. Turning to the man assisting
him, Thomas More remarked, “I pray you, I pray you, Mr. Lieutenant, see me safe
up, and as for coming down, let me shift for myself.” After kneeling and saying
prayers, he turned to the executioner and, with a cheerful countenance spoke to
him: “Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck
is very short. Take heed, therefore, thou strike not awry for saving thine
honour.” As he placed his head on the block, he shifted his prison grown beard
aside saying, “This has committed no crime.” May I remind you, dear friends,
that under his finery as Lord Chancellor, St. Thomas More always wore a hair
shirt and prayed five hours a day.
Focusing on the coming great feast, we recall
that our dear Lord Jesus has poured into our hearts the Spirit of the promise.
May we be open to his joy, strength and consolation.
We believe in the Holy Spirit who animates the
Holy Catholic Church, who brings about the forgiveness of sins,
and accomplishes the resurrection and life
everlasting.
PRAYER: (Hildegaard of Bingen, 1098 – 1179)
Holy Spirit, the life that gives life,
You are the cause of all movement,
You are the breath of all creatures,
You are the salve that purifies all souls,
You are the ointment that heals all wounds,
You are the fire that warms our hearts,
You are the light that guides our feet.
Let the world praise you.
PRAYER TO THE HOLY
SPIRIT
O Holy Spirit of
God, Come
into my heart and fill me:
I open the window of my soul to let you in. I
surrender my whole life to you.
Come and possess me, fill me with light and truth.
I offer to you the one thing I
really possess –
My capacity of being filled by you.
Of myself I am an empty vessel.
Fill me so that I may live the life of the Spirit,
The life of Truth and Goodness, The
life of Beauty and Love,
The life of Wisdom and Strength. But,
above all, make Christ to be formed in me,
That I may dethrone self in my heart and make him King, So that he
is in me, and I in him,
Today and forever. Amen
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