HOMILY FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY YEAR A

              

1. Acts 2:1-11

2.1 Cor 12:3-7

Gospel: John 20: 19-23

                 " The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives."

Once a certain doctor asked the priest that why he preached the existence of the Holy Spirit as the Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

The doctor continued to ask: " Do you ever see the Holy Spirit? Do you ever smell the Holy Spirit? To all of these questions the doctor received a ' No' answer. But when the doctor asked: " Do you ever feel the Holy Spirit?" The priest replied: " Yes, indeed."  " Well," said the doctor, " There are four  of the five senses against you, Father. So I doubt that there is the holy spirit.

Then later it was the turn of the priest to ask. " You are a doctor of medicine, " the priest said." It is your business to treat pains. Did you ever see, hear, taste, or smell a pain?" asked the priest. " No," answered the doctor. " Did you feel the pain, " followed the priest. " Yes, I did," said the doctor.

" The priest continued, " there are four senses against you. Yet you know and I know that there is pain. By the same proof,  I know that the Holy Spirit exists," continued the priest.

Dear brothers and sisters we are here to play because we do believe that the Holy Spirit exists because we feel His presence in us. Even if we do see, hear, taste or smell the Holy Spirit, we do believe His existence. It is because "for those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible," ( From 1943 the movie The Song of Bernadette).

The word ' Spirit' is coming from the Hebrew word ruah and Greek Pneuma which means " breath." Breath is like an air or a wind that without it we are dead and we could not live. In the Old Testament, the spirit is described as like the wind which is mysterious and wonderful. Nobody knows how the wind comes about and how it originates. However nobody could doubt its existence when it is there. Nobody can ignore its effect and force. It can break, uproot, propels clouds and seeds and dusts, devastates and fertilizes soil. In the same regard the Holy Spirit is even more mysterious. Often enough we do not realize that He is there but He is at works in our hearts and sooner or later  we will notice his effects in us. He is the breath of life that without whom we cannot live. How important breathing is we realize when we, for the first time, how real breathing problems. Like a heavy bronchitis that without the air we get so many problems, the same with the Holy Spirit that without Him our life has no direction. We have to know that the person who works and helps us in the Church is the Holy Spirit but we don't recognize in the Church and in our Christian life.

Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Pentecost. Pentecost is the day where we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Spirit that Christ promised them before His ascension, back to His Father in heaven. Pentecost comes from the word pente the Greek word for fifty. So Pentecost is fifty days after Jesus was resurrected from the dead during Easter. Since today  is the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit to apostles and to us too, let us talk about the Holy Spirit in order to have a better understanding of this person of the Blessed Trinity.

First, the Holy Spirit of course, is God like the Father and the Son. The third Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity sent to the world by the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit now guides the church and continues the work  and teaching of Jesus without changing them. He is the sanctifier of the Church.

Second, the Holy Spirit comes to us first at the moment of our baptism, more fully at our confirmation, infusing in us together with sanctifying grace and the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. He gave to us His seven gifts of : wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Also this Holy Spirit gave to us the twelve fruits of these seven gifts, namely: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, meekness, fidelity, modesty, continence, and chastity( cf. Gal 5:16-25). Without the Holy Spirit, nobody can believe or hope and/ or repent his/her sins.

Third, the Holy Spirit is love made person. We know that all love comes from God, but how we can understand it better by discussing the three characteristics of love. The first characteristics is that love is sacrificial. It demands that we make sacrifices for the one we love. It must never be selfish. Just like me when I wanted to submit myself into the hands of God, I thought of seven choices that God would give me to serve him.  These seven choices were: does he want me  to remain single forever? Does He want me to be a doctor? Does he want me to get married early and have family of my own? Does He want me to become a businessman? Does He want me to do nothing? Does He want me to become a New people's Army rebel? Does He want me to become an activist or to become a social worker? However God did not choose any of these above that I mentioned before Him. I became a priest.

The second characteristics of this love is, it must be purifying . Any love which drags a person down or ruins his is a false love. A love which makes a person worse instead of making him/her better is not love at all. But if through this love the person becomes a better person and better Christian, then this is true and purifying love.

The third characteristics  is that love must always be caring. It does not demand service from the other to ensure our own comfort and to fulfill our own needs. Love always says: "Not what I want but what you want."

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