Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This word gives me a lot of joy and peace because I see a Church that loves me and is in love with you. I also see that the Lord is not a moralist. He put me in a perfect place even though I am a sinner, a great sinner; nonetheless, he called me to be here with you. I see in this word today that the Lord’s love is not demanding or asking anything from me.
The reading from Ezekiel on dry bones fits us very well since we are half dead in many ways. I like what the prophet said: oh, my people, I myself will open our graves and have you rise from them. You will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves. It’s wonderful that there is no moralism, no demands, nothing about making an effort. The Holy Spirit does not come to you only when you are good; he just comes! I pray for the Holy Spirit that he will bring these dead bones to life. What does it mean that the Lord will open our tombs? It means that you’re dead, a decomposing man.
Go to the cemetery and open a tomb and you will see a poor man; there is no life, only worms. This is us until the Lord comes. He opens our tomb, something you can’t do. Try it if you want and see what happens. Go to the cemetery and talk to the dead and raise them up and see if you are able. No one will come out! There is only one who can open the tomb, bring them out and resuscitate them, only Jesus Christ.
This vigil is framed by the Passover. It is the fruit of Easter, of God’s love for us in sending his Son who has already risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. This is why he can send the Holy Spirit, who renews us and sends us forth to renew the face of the earth, especially mine! Often you can see how the face of a person changes because of the influence of the Holy Spirit; how amazing.
We often talk about what the Holy Spirit does but not his gifts or his fruits. Do you know the gifts of the Holy Spirit? There are seven: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Did you know them? If so, who cares? What is important is that you live them. If you only know and can recite them all, doesn’t mean anything. It may make you the most arrogant of people. Do you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to forgive or to counsel others or to have wisdom?
The Holy Spirit is not in a super fragile glass that breaks if you commit a sin. He doesn’t come for the perfect. Look at the gospel and see how they are terrified and locked up in the upper room. To be isolated and by themselves is a sign of sin. They don’t want to go out to announce the gospel or anything; they are unable to love, to give of themselves.
God sends the Holy Spirit to the humble, to those in need, not to the arrogant. He doesn’t come so that people can fall over and speak in tongues. The Spirit allows the disciples to know the languages of the nations, not to talk gibberish. Everyone understands them in their own language.
The mission of the Holy Spirit is so you and I can say that Jesus is the Lord of my life. He is the one who makes it possible for you to really see that he is the Lord, to experience that. That he has the power to defend you, to help you, to love you no matter what. It is a good question to ask: is he the Lord for you? When he is Lord he has power over adultery, pornography, over everything that enslaves us. The Holy Spirit will make him Lord of all aspects of your life.
Jesus appears always on ‘the first day of the week’. The same day as the disciples walk to Emmaus, that Mary thinks Jesus is the gardener, that he appears to the disciples locked up in the upper room. Jesus appears at dawn while the disciples are fishing. He comes early to forgive sins as all of us are called to forgive, to untie the person whom we have not forgiven. If he/she has already passed you can go to the grave and untie him. Without forgiving we are like the disciples locked up out of fear, afraid to love, to go out of themselves, to give their life. The Holy Spirit gives you this power.
You are afraid to love your spouse or the other person because you think this will kill you: to always give in to the other, how can I live? The other will get worse if I do that. Jesus says from the cross: forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. We need the Holy Spirit who gives us this power to forgive. Don’t measure yourself about how many gifts of the Holy Spirit you have these days. Just let the Lord do the work and you will bear an abundance of fruit.