Happy birthday to you all! That's right. Happy birthday! Why do I wish you a happy birthday? Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit (to Jesus' first followers/and their becoming his Church. That day was the birthday of the Church. We are the people of God who form Jesus' Church, so we can truly say that the birthday of the Church/is our birthday too.
Pentecost
reminds us that God's plan for us (goes far beyond forgiveness. God wants us to
be living signs (of Jesus' life for everyone we meet. Unless our actions are a
sign of our Christian life, the Resurrection is wasted. We all have "a
variety of gifts". To say (that we have none) is to insult God. We can use
our natural gifts for good or ill. They can be either self-centered and destructive,
or united with the Spirit I as part of God's plan. The Spirit does not change
God's gifts. He works through them so that we can bring hope to those around us
by proclaiming, "Jesus is risen. He is the Lord".
Today
we celebrate the fact that God's creative Spirit is his gift to our human
nature. Think of the apostles Peter and
Paul. Before Pentecost, Peter was outspoken and passionate both for good and
ill. After Pentecost, his gifts were filled with the Spirit and totally
directed towards others to further the kingdom. Paul was the same. The
passionate persecutor of the Church became the passionate preacher and
missionary.
Jesus
said, "ask and you will receive". Do you ever ask to be a new
creation, that you will know the Lord and the power of his resurrection? We
cannot say it is not for us. Today is the acceptable time. We do not gather at
Mass each Sunday to be comfortable. We are called to recognize that we are
sinners, to accept God's love and mercy, and then to act in the world around
us.
No
matter how little we have done in the past (we must begin working for the
kingdom of God. The people we meet in our everyday lives depend on us to learn
that Jesus not only died and rose for us, but is alive in the world now. The
Spirit will change each of us for good
if we allow him. It is this "allowing" that is often wanting.
This Pentecost, we should ask ourselves, '"Do I want the Spirit to change
and renew me, and the sooner the better?" If not, why not?