Peace, Brothers and Sisters,
Perhaps people know a lot about the Holy Spirit and the gifts and fruits that he gives us as we celebrate Pentecost. But knowing the gifts of the Holy Spirit is only intellectual knowledge, it doesn’t give us the actual gifts. Knowing what wisdom is doesn’t mean we have it. Maybe we know what understanding is, or counsel, or fortitude, or piety but that doesn’t mean we have those gifts.
I say this because it seems that we believe that the Holy Spirit enters through the head, through our little heads but the sequence says: “you are the soul’s most welcome guest.” It does not say the brain but the sweet guest of the soul. So what good is it for me to know what wisdom is if I don’t live it. Catholics often think that faith is understanding things, learning things and this is not faith. Faith is to live in the Risen Christ, to live knowing that the Holy Spirit helps you, to live knowing the Holy Spirit seals you, that Christ has forgiven your sins.
Many people know the bible and its beautiful words but have an empty life; their soul is destroyed. It could very easily be like this for us. So, what does the Holy Spirit do? St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians says, “No one can say Jesus is Lord unless it is through the Holy Spirit.” This is the mission of the Holy Spirit for all of us. That we can say with our lives: that Christ is Lord! To say that Christ is the Lord, means that he is Lord of your life, that he is number one. He has power over what you cannot do, he has power over your sins, over your weaknesses. This is why he is the Lord because he loves you! He loves you in that cross that you have. He came and he is the Lord who has revealed the Holy Spirit to you. Otherwise, you don’t have this freedom.
Maybe we have some funny ideas about the Holy Spirit, and it is good to remove them since sometimes they are deeply embedded within us. People think that the Holy Spirit can leave us. However, I tell you one thing, in baptism you received the Holy Spirit. You did not receive the sweet guest of the soul that comes and goes. It doesn’t go away when you sin, thankfully, because who would give you the desire to change if not the Spirit. How could a person convert or feel loved by God, if not for the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit does not come and go, nor does it mean that we walk on a tightrope and that if we fall, he goes away.
The Holy Spirit is something completely different. The Spirit is our inner teacher, a wonderful teacher that we all have through Baptism and that we have received his fullness in Confirmation. Those who are confirmed have received the Holy Spirit and that helps us not to depend on our efforts. It says in the Sequence: in our labor, rest most sweet, grateful coolness in the heat; solace in the midst of woe. And our inmost being fill! So, it is important to listen to the Holy Spirit and you cannot drive him away. This is a very good news.
Before Pentecost the disciples were locked in the house for fear of the Jews, right? We are also locked up now, not for fear of the Jews, but maybe fear of the virus. Many are still locked up in the houses and they watch the Mass online or not at all. Or some have the doors of their life closed to the Lord. You act like you know perfectly how you want your life to be, so you close the doors to God. But it is better that you open the doors so that God can intervene. You may not let him intervene because you and your little head have already designed in your
life in the near term and the long term what you want. Everything is in a little box. You don’t know that tomorrow you can die. We can be closed to the other, not able to love, not able to forgive your husband, not able to understand your children, not able to put yourself in their place and judging them all day. Not able to open your life even to yourself. You close the door to the possibility of living chastity, of respecting your girlfriend, not living together before marriage. The doors are closed because you only want your will.
It always impresses me because I have seen that the Lord does not arrive by breaking down the doors or breaking the stairs. He comes very quietly, without making any noise. He doesn’t break anything and comes in the middle of us. This is what Jesus did with the apostles in the upper room. He stood in their midst and said, “Peace to you!” You can live in peace if you do not stop following the will of the Lord. If you are not always at war with your wife, with your children, with your co-worker, at war with the whole world even with yourself.
We get depressed because our plans are not fulfilled, our projections are frustrated because we are looking for ourselves in everything. That’s why I encourage brothers to hear this good news: that the Holy Spirit is with you! And secondly, that the Lord despite the fact that you and I have closed the doors, comes in quietly, he knows how to enter with love, with the love that he has for us. It is love that brought him to enter our life, he enters into our midst, not judging us. The Lord is truly wonderful.
Well, cheer up, brothers and sisters, that we be given the peace of having encountered the Lord who gives us faith, he gives us the chance to listen to the Holy spirit, he lets you reflect on what you have experienced so you can feel forgiven. It is wonderful that when you are going to confess your sins and the moment you make the sign of the cross you feel forgiven. This is because the Holy Spirit has revealed this to you.
Many women with the sin of abortion never feel forgiven even after the priest tells them that God has paid you for your sins and they keep confessing it and keep confessing, why? Because they will not listen to the Holy Spirit that reveals his forgiveness. He has been given to your life! May the Lord help us as this Easter season ends with Pentecost. The Church goes forward in this great mission to announce the gospel, the good news that we have received!