Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

May 28 2012

Pentecost: Empowering the Church

 Pentecost B 2012

We might say that the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples liberated them from their fear and transformed them into apostles, men with a mission. Not for nothing do we say that this feast marks the birthday of the Church. Let’s look more closely at what today’s readings tell us.

First of all, Pentecost was an established Jewish feast, one of the most important in their liturgical calendar. It was sometimes called the Feast of Weeks, because according to the instructions in the Torah, it took place seven weeks after they had gathered the first sheaf of new corn. So initially it was a kind of harvest festival. Torah stressed that the entry of the tribes of Israel into the Promised Land marked the fulfilment of God’s promises to his Chosen People. It was right and fitting that they should offer the first fruits of the harvest as an act of thanksgiving. The Jewish people came to think of the festival as a celebration of the renewal of the covenant. A key aspect of the covenant was God’s gift of Torah, the laws for righteous living and it just so happens that in rabbinical teaching, fire was often used as a symbol of Torah.

The passage from Acts that we heard just now stresses the crowds present in Jerusalem on the day that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, looking like tongues of fire. There were pilgrims from every part of the world into which Jews had gone. These pilgrims from the diaspora then can be said to symbolize the known world. As the apostles began to preach, each of the visitors heard them in his or her own language. And we may be sure that when they returned to their own countries they talked about what they had seen and heard in Jerusalem. Later, when the apostles began to move out from Jerusalem carrying the good news towards the ends of the earth, no doubt some of these people came forward to support what the apostles said, and to welcome the gospel.

Today’s gospel is another extract from Our Lord’s final instructions to his disciples during the Last Supper. He promises to send them an Advocate whom he describes as the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father; he [or she] will be my witness. Scholars argue about the best translation of the word rendered here as ‘advocate’. To us ‘advocate’ suggests a court of law which is not the normal setting for the apostles. Still, there is a touch of the courts in Jesus’ instruction that you too will be witnesses because you have been with me from the outset. Because they have been with Jesus throughout the years of his public life, they will be able to testify – to bear witness – to all that he has said and done. Since the Spirit is the Spirit of truth they can count on her to help them recall accurately the details of Jesus’ life and teachings: the Spirit of truth will lead you to the complete truth [and] will tell you of the things to come.

We sometimes speak of the ‘indwelling’ of the Holy Spirit. By that we mean that the Spirit once received remains with us, unless we drive her out by committing grave sin. The Spirit dwelling in us represents Jesus’ ongoing presence in the world. This makes us vulnerable, for Jesus does have enemies in the world. Think of the often renewed attacks on Church schools and the teaching of religion generally. Think of the plague of abortion. Think of the indifference to and the demonization of refugees and asylum seekers. Insofar as we draw attention to these evils, we shall receive the abuse that Jesus’ enemies can no longer give to him directly.

Writing to the Galatians, St Paul was concerned not so much with the Spirit’s influence on the mission of the whole Church as with her effect on the life of the believer, that is to say every single one of us. After all, we all received the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we were confirmed. God does not force his gifts on us. We can put them to good use, or we can ignore them. We can follow the promptings of the Spirit, or we can pay no attention. Paul writes: If you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence. He lists the fruits of self-indulgence. They include sins of the flesh, works of idolatry, activities that harm the community, like jealousy, anger, factions; and drunkenness and carousing. By contrast, the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.

As you know, this year’s feast of Pentecost has been chosen by the Australian bishops to launch the Year of Grace. It is not so much a time for doing something new as a time for pausing to take stock and for being more deeply what we are already: people of God, recipients of many gifts. Just as the Jewish people regularly recall God’s liberating gifts to them, so also we are being invited this year to review all that God has done for us. It will then be natural for us to draw closer to God with prayers of thanksgiving. Please note that I am not saying we should say more prayers. What I am saying is that we should pray better, i.e. we should spend more time quietly in the presence of God offering prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

During this week the Church reminds us of another matter, namely the need for reconciliation between indigenous Australians and the later arrivals and their descendants. When the first European settlers invited themselves into Australia at the end of the 18th century they were immediately struck by the differences between themselves and the native inhabitants. ‘Different from’ quickly came to mean ‘inferior to’. The 18th century is sometimes called the Age of Reason. It was a time of research, enquiry, exploration; it was a time of notable achievements in literature, art and music – a high point in European civilisation. Regrettably it was not the most civilised Europeans who arrived at Botany Bay. From the point of view of the Aborigines, what they call ‘the invasion’ has been a disaster. Yet we now know that those peoples had developed a very intelligent way of managing and using the resources of this continent. They had an elaborate set of beliefs about the origin and purpose of creation. They had laws and a moral code and ways of dealing with transgressors. Certainly their culture was very different from that of the Europeans, but it was not inferior to it as a way of ordering society.

You may remember that it was not until 1967 that Aborigines were granted full citizenship rights. I can tell you that to an Australian who has lived abroad for more than 30 years, that is an embarrassing fact. So progress has been made, but it is far from complete. The purpose of this reconciliation week is to make us all aware of the problem, and at least open to attempts to solve it.

Early navigators called our country the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. Let us not stifle the Spirit within us, but rather be open to her promptings to draw closer to God and to each other. (Quentin Howard)

26-05-2012

Apr 21 2012

Jesus is real: Not an Ilusion

 Easter III B 2012

The gospel passage we read today is the last we shall read on the Sundays after Easter relating appearances of Our risen Lord. This one occurs near the end of St Luke’s gospel. Again the emphasis is on the joy of the disciples. Their joy was so great that they could not believe it, and they stood dumbfounded. Jesus took the initiative and asked: Have you anything here to eat? The fact that he was able to eat a piece of fish before their eyes satisfied them that he really was there in the flesh; he was not an illusion.

This incident follows the return of the disciples from Emmaus. When Jesus joined them as they walked towards the village, he drew their attention to all the passages in Scripture which spoke about the Messiah – this without revealing that he was speaking of himself. It was only when they were at table that they recognized him in the breaking of bread. Back in Jerusalem he repeated the lesson for the Eleven: Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled. And after explaining everything he concluded: So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And the punch line is: You are witnesses to this.

Once the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, their fear left them and they did indeed begin to testify to the fact that Jesus, who had been crucified, had risen from the dead. His death won pardon for our sins. He is the Son of God. The Acts of the Apostles is concerned mainly with just two apostles: Peter and – above all – Paul. In the early part we can read several of Peter’s sermons, and today’s first reading was taken from one of them. Addressing a Jewish audience, he tells them bluntly: the same Jesus you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate … It was you who accused the Holy One, the Just One, you who demanded the reprieve of a murderer while you killed the prince of life. Peter recognizes that there were mitigating circumstances. They didn’t know that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. And in any case the prophecies had to be fulfilled. When all was accomplished, God raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are the witnesses.

 I expect you remember that last Sunday we read St John’s account of Jesus’ apparition to the disciples on that first Easter Sunday evening. It was then that Jesus gave them the power to forgive sins – the sacrament of reconciliation. St John touches on this matter in the letter from which our second reading was taken. It is concerned not so much with what priests can do for sinners as with what Jesus does for us all: If anyone should sin, we have our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is just; he is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours, but the whole world’s. Jesus’ suffering and death have won us pardon, but if we do sin after Baptism he will continue to argue that we should not get our just deserts. He never ceases to implore the Divine Mercy for us.

To recapitulate: in the gospel Jesus told his followers that they were to be witnesses to his death and resurrection. In the Acts we see that they had begun to do that. Bearing witness to the resurrection is expected of every Christian – including ourselves.

A lady who heard me last week suggested that I should tell you something of my experience of missionary work in Africa. It is a form of bearing witness, but there is much more to it than standing up in a market place and shouting “Jesus is alive”. For a dozen years I worked in country parishes in Burkina Faso, a poor, dry, land-locked country in West Africa. Missionary activity began there in 1900 and has made good progress to the extent that there are now 15 dioceses, each headed by an African bishop, with many vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Despite that progress there are still many people who follow the African Traditional Religion, who make sacrifices to the spirits of their ancestors asking them to intercede on their behalf with the Supreme Being. There are many Muslims too. In the cities you find that the great majority are either Christians or Muslims, but in country districts many still follow the traditional religion.

Why does anybody change? The motives are usually mixed. People follow their friends. Or there may be economic reasons such as not being able to hold a stall in the market unless they become Muslims. Or – and this is important – they may be attracted by the mutual support they see in the Christian community, and the hymns they hear the Christians sing as they worship. If somebody wants to become a Muslim, it’s very easy: they just have to raise their finger and say: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet”. This can be done without giving the person any instruction at all – which means that there are lots of very ignorant Muslims around. By contrast, someone who wants to become a Christian, must follow instruction for several years; at the end of each year they will be examined on what they have learned and if they don’t answer well enough they’ll have to repeat the year. Meanwhile, they are expected to participate in the life of the Christian community, come to Mass regularly, take part in working bees and live upright virtuous lives.

On the Sundays of the last Lent before their Baptism, the catechumens take a number of steps towards reception of the sacrament. On one Sunday, for instance, the priest formally teaches them the Lord’s Prayer. In fact they will have learned it long before, but on this Sunday it is transmitted to them, phrase by phrase, in the presence of the whole community. When we got to that part of the Mass on that Sunday I would always ask the catechumens alone to lead the community in saying the prayer.

Their initiation reached its climax during the Easter Vigil when, after years of preparation, whole crowds of catechumens were baptized. At the beginning of Mass they were dressed in their ordinary clothes, but once the waters had been poured they went out into the night with their godfather or godmother and put on new white clothes, then processed back into the church while the choir – and congregation – sang this joyous hymn “Tônd fâa soob daare” (= “The day of our Baptism”). And the festivities continue on Easter Sunday.

Missionaries do much more than teach the faith and administer the sacraments. We work at promoting development, sinking wells and bores, trying to improve agriculture, maternal and child welfare, responsible citizenship. The tasks never end. All are aspects of bearing witness to God’s love for humanity. And we have vacancies! (Quentin Howard)

22-04-2012

Jul 23 2011

Homily for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

17th Sunday Homily (Year A)

A few months ago,  I read a news of a 13-year-old boy in Cebu Philippines who committed suicide for the reason that his mother did not buy him a laptop computer. Reading that  I felt so sad and upset. I didn’t blame anyone though, because I realized that it was not anyone’s fault. It’s a symptom however of our materialistic society. Many people think that material thing is all that is. Many believe that material things can really make us happy and contented. Not a few people think that money is all that we need because through it, we can get everything that we need or want.

But we know, we who are here today don’t really believe that material things are all that we need, do we? If we do, we would not have been here. We are here because we believe as our faith- experience tells us that there is more to our life than material things. We are here, I hope and pray, because we are looking for that treasure of the kingdom that would really guarantee us of eternal happiness, real contentment and complete satisfaction.

In our Gospel today Jesus tells us another set of parables about the kingdom of God-a priceless treasure, that once it is found, we would consider all other things as mere shadows. But what is this treasure? What is this kingdom of God?

It is the kingdom of love, of peace, of justice, of solidarity, of sharing, of making God as the centre of our life…The point in our gospel today, is for us to seek for this kingdom.  But where? Jesus said, the kingdom of God is among us now, is within us. So let’s look at our heart. What are our priorities? If we feel sad hearing the news of  starvation in Somalia, it’s the sign of the Kingdom of solidarity and of justice. If we feel sorry for that boy who took his own life because he couldn’t get a laptop, it’s a sign of the Kingdom that we want God to be focus of our life rather than things. And as we read the papers everyday, we are in some ways moved to reflect on  some of the events happening around us. But  reading or reflecting on these things are not enough. We have to do something. As I mentioned last week, each one of us is given a ‘seed’ of the kingdom. Let’s work from there. Let’s develop it, share it, make it bear fruit.

But to do it in our time, is quite a challenge. Because there is another kingdom that is in opposition to the Kingdom of God-the kingdom of Satan. Satan is real and he is working now, more than ever. He even seems to have succeeded in some ways. Sin becomes so rampant now, that as John Paul II observes, leading us to believe that doing ‘it’ is just normal and part of our ordinary human life. The late Pope said, because of this reality of sin pervading in the individuals and in the structures, we lose the sense the sin. We are experiencing the eclipse of sin.

But seeing us here today in this Eucharistic celebration is a sign of hope that still we seek for the Kingdom of God, that we want to promote the kingdom of God, that we want to defeat the forces of evil around us.

But what can we do? What do we do then?

Three things: First, more than ever, we need the wisdom of Solomon to help us discern the Kingdom of God from the kingdom of satan; to discern between good and evil;  between right and wrong; between truth and lie; between life and death. Let’s pray that God would grant us this same wisdom.

We need Jesus in defeating the evil forces us. He stood for the truth, no matter what happens, even if he was standing alone, even if it led him to his death. Let’s keep close to his side.

And finally we need to do something to help those people who are really in need, not only of our prayers which is the first thing, but also because we have the means and the ways to do this. We have Caritas, Red Cross, St Vinnies, Catholic Mission, etc. God gives us these ways and these means NOT to put burden on us, but to enable us to share in promoting the kingdom of God here on earth. Let’s seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else will be provided.  Amen.