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| Pentecost Assumption church Fairfield, CT* |
In today's first reading from
the Acts of the Apostles St. Luke gives us the well known account of the
extraordinary appearance of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles in the upper room.
The Apostles had gathered together for the Jewish feast of Pentecost, a feast
which commemorated the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Next week we will celebrate
the feast of the Holy Trinity but today's feast is about the Third Person of
the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Let's start out by clearing up a few
misconceptions that some of us may have about the Holy Spirit. First of all,
the Spirit is not a bird. I know that the traditional image of a dove given us
by Christian artists is probably ingrained in all of us. It is hard to portray
a purely spiritual being in art for a spirit has no body to paint or sculpt. In
one gospel passage the movement of the Holy Spirit is likened to the fluttering
flight of a dove and so I guess the early artists used the dove as a kind of
artistic shorthand.
Speaking about images I have
to confess that as a child I thought that the "tongues as of fire"
that rested on the Apostles at Pentecost were actually human tongues on fire.
It took me years before I realized that the "tongues" were actually
similar to the darting flames that we would see in our own fireplaces. Also
back then it was more common to refer to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost,
which only conjured up images from Abbott and Costello movies.
But in today's readings we
see that although we cannot see or feel or hear the Spirit of God, It dwells in
us and works through us. St. Luke says of the Apostles that "they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit." St. Paul says in the letter to the Romans
that,
you
are not in the flesh;
on
the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if
only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Our Lord says in today's
gospel that the Father will give "you another Advocate to be with you
always," and then He promises,
Whoever
loves me will keep my word,
and
my Father will love him,
and
we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
If we can't see or feel or
hear the Spirit, how do we know that He dwells in us? As Christians we have to
learn to read the signs. Just as the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe knew that
there were other men on his lonely island when he beheld their footprints, we
will know the Spirit by His signs. St. Paul says in the letter to the
Corinthians,
There
are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Lord;
there
are different workings but the same God
who
produces all of them in everyone.
Then, talking to us as well
as to the Corinthians, Paul says that to "each individual the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit." In other words we
all have a role to play in bringing the Spirit of God to each other.
What are the signs that the
Spirit dwells in us? In years past we used to speak of the fruits of the Holy
Spirit. If you pick a fruit from a tree and it tastes and smells and feels like
an apple, then you can conclude that it's an apple tree. The same goes for a
peach or pear tree. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul lists the fruits
or signs of the Spirit as charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness,
longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity." Some of
these words might sound strange to us today but we surely get the general idea.
Who would not want to receive the Holy Spirit? Would we want to be
uncharitable, miserable, quarrelsome, impatient, malicious, bad, mean-spirited,
offensive, unfaithful, immodest, wasteful, or promiscuous?
We don't need miraculous,
mystical, or ghostly experiences to encounter the Spirit today. After all, we
have all received the Spirit at Confirmation. Right after Pentecost the
Apostles saw that it was necessary not only to preach the Word but also to lay
their hands on all the baptized in order that the Spirit might dwell in
them. Generation after generation
have continued this practice. Every confirmation is a kind of Pentecost.
Even though the Apostles had
walked with the Lord and had seen His Risen Body, they still needed to receive
His Spirit before they could leave the upper room and go out and face the
world. St. Paul says the same for us.
For
those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For
you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but
you received a Spirit of adoption,
through
whom we cry, "Abba, Father!
Reading II. Galatians 5: 16-25, or
1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13
Gospel. John 15: 26-27; 16: 12-15 (the Advocate).
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