Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

May 12 2013

Ascension: A call to a deepening of Christ’s presence in our lives

Homily for Ascension Sunday year C 2013

  1. AscensionToday we celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. We celebrate today this one significant and important article of our faith which we profess and declare every Sunday when we say the Apostles’ Creed or the  Nicene Creed. We celebrate this truth of our  Christian faith when we pray the Glorious mystery of the Most Holy Rosary. But what does the Ascension of the Lord mean? What does it mean for us?

  2. Christ has ascended into heaven. This is one truth of our faith that we proclaim. However, it doesn’t mean Jesus has left us altogether aboard the heaven-ward rocket. It also doesn’t mean that God has now gone and has left us on our own. One way to understand ascension is that it is a transformation, a deepening of the physical presence of Jesus with us (Immanuel) into a spiritual presence within us. We may no longer see him in person, but we can still see him in persons, in each one of us. This means therefore that he is not gone altogether but rather we are now the bearers of his presence. We are now the reflection of his light to others and to the world. This is what it means when he said in our first reading today: ‘[You] will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1:1-11)

  3. If Ascension then is the deepening of the presence of Christ in our lives through His Holy Spirit then it is a call for us to deepen our relationship with him. To deepen this relationship we need to look in ourselves the presence of Christ in our lives. But how can we perceive his presence?

  4. I have already mentioned this before but it’s worth repeating. This is not from me but from the Second Vatican Council. Every time we celebrate the liturgy Jesus Christ is truly present in many ways: as in the Word being read, in the Assembly, in the Minister and in the Eucharistic elements consecrated and received (Vatican Council II- Sacrosanctum Concilium 7 & 8). He is also truly present in the Sacraments we celebrate.

  5. But his presence is not only perceivable in all that I mentioned above. In our daily living and daily lives too, Christ is always present. Sometimes we don’t think of this, or we doubt on this because of some experiences we have that would lead us to believe that God is not really present in our particular situation or circumstances. But he is just always there. He stands true to his promise not to leave us orphans. ‘And now’, he said in our gospel today (Lk 24:46-53), ‘I am sending down to you what the Father has promised- the Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit, the fulfilment of his promise, is in us, working through us and keeping us alive. Even if at times we feel he is not around, he is there regardless of how we feel about it.

  6. However, we can only perceive this through the eyes of faith. Yes, we need  faith to see this. We need to pray for this gift because only with faith that we can say just as my friend shared with me the other day: ‘I thank God for my faith because this keeps me up when I am at the lowest moment of my life.’ Wow!  What an amazing statement of faith. What a fantastic way of acknowledging God’s presence in our lives. Through faith this friend of mine has really experienced in himself the beautiful experience of the presence of God in his life.

  7. With faith we can see God’s presence in each aspect of our life and in our experiences. Fr. Pat O’Sullivan, SJ, the spiritual director in the seminary in Melbourne, wrote something about this. In his book Prayer and Relationships: Staying Connected- An Ignatian Perspective, Fr. O’Sullivan noted some signs of the presence of Christ in our daily living. One sign of Christ’s presence, Fr. Pat would say is when: ‘We are of service to others, and keep on serving them in spite of their lack of appreciation and acknowledgement.’ [p.79] And I would add, when we  serve without thinking of a reward or a compensation for what we are doing. I give you a beautiful example of this presence of Christ in our lives. In the Philippines there is a wish-granting television program which I loved watching every now and then. In this particular episode, an actor has disguised himself as a victim of a car accident. Part of his face was covered with bandage and he was walking with a pair of crutches. His task was to search for a good Samaritan. His mission place was at the bus terminal or bus station. And just imagine it, it was very busy, people coming and going with all their luggage and baggage, buses and all. He approached several people for help to find his aunt’s place in the city of Cebu. Because of how he looked, many people ignored  him including a nun- in her habit for God’s sake. She thought he is just after her money. But then one security guard-on duty arrived at the scene and offered help. The guard went and asked permission from his supervisor that he’d take some hours off from work to accompany the young man to his aunt’s house. While in the cab, the guard said: ‘If your aunt is not in the place where we are going you can live with me in the house where I am.’ Even when the actor indicated he might not have enough money for the fare, the guard offered to pay for the fare of the cab. Such is a moving act that it made me shed a tear. It strengthens my hope and affirms my faith. It energises me to realize that in our world today, despite the apparent materialism, selfishness, greed and violence, there are still people who are empowered by the presence of Christ by loving and caring for one another.  This is again what Fr. Pat O’ Sullivan  described as another sign of the presence of Christ in our daily lives. He noted that Christ is truly present when ‘There is a feeling of connecting with another person, or a group; or a feeling of belonging as we admire the face of nature, as in a beautiful sunset.’ (P. O’Sullivan- Prayer and Relationships,79-80). This is just what really happens in that beautiful gesture of the security guard in our story above.

  8. In the light of today’s celebration of Mothers’ Day we must not discount the fact that Christ is present in all mothers too and in all good things they do as a mother to a family or as they fulfil their responsibilities as mothers. Christ is present in all mothers in the way they cared, nurtured, nursed, supported and loved their children even if times are hard and challenging. So today, we honour all mothers and thank them for their sacrifices and for being a carrier of the loving care of Jesus Christ to the children, to the weak, to the vulnerable and to the dependent. Thank you all mothers for your love.

  9. So today as we celebrate this Solemnity of the Ascension as well as Mothers’ Day, we thank God for our faith. We thank God for the mystery of the Ascension and for the faith and hope he gives to us, which assure that though Jesus might have gone physically, he is still present with us as he was. Let us also thank God for his gift of the Holy Spirit that prolongs and sustains the presence of Christ in our lives. For our part let this also be our prayers that we would witness our faith in a way that enables others to see Christ in and through us, and thus drawing them to Christ as well. Amen.  

Happy mothers’ day!

 

May 4 2013

The Holy Spirit: The precious gift of God to the world

Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter 2013 year C

charismatic renewal2Last Sunday I baptised two beautiful little babies. After the baptism I left the families at the sanctuary as they took some photos. I was heading to the sacristy when this little 2-year old kid came running after me. At first I didn’t mind him. But he continued to follow me. Still I didn’t stop to talk to him but then he gave an amazing comment which I never heard from a 2 year old kid before. He said: ‘You put water on Eden’s head before.’ I said ‘Yes I did.’ Then he asked me: ‘Why?’ I was caught by surprise. It is not only because I don’t know how to explain it to him in a way he could understand, but more so because of his age. I can’t believe that little kid had  been observing me as I baptised and even formed an inquiry to himself. I tried to answer him but then another lady caught up with him. She also tried to explain it to him. I  don’t know if that kid got anything out of our explanation. I am not convinced of my answer myself.

I’m sharing this with you because that innocent question of that little kid ‘why?’ evokes something in me as I was reflecting on the gospel for today. Jesus was hinting that he had to leave his disciples. If I were there, I would have also asked like that little kid why does he need to leave. I could have persuaded him to just stay with us on the grounds that we love his company, we love to listen to his words, we love to see him present with us as he is. Like the disciples, we could have said to him: ‘To whom shall we go now, you have the words of eternal life.’ But Jesus had reason to leave. He had to leave to prepare a place for us. He had to leave for the Holy Spirit to be active in us in our journey of faith.

The good thing about his leaving [through his death, resurrection and ascension] is that it opens for us more riches of God. It gives us opportunity to be the reflection of his light to others, just as the sun had to set fully in order for the moon to shine its full brightness. His leaving gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the paraclete, our lawyer, who will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus told us (Jn 14:23-29). And because of the Holy Spirit we come to see the fullness of God that Jesus has revealed in his life on earth. This same Holy Spirit is one that guides the Church through the centuries. It is the same Spirit of Jesus that sustains us as Church in the midst of persecutions, problems, trials, challenges, etc. It is the same Spirit that serves as the wisdom of the leaders of the Church starting from the Apostles until now. Because of the Holy Spirit, we can proudly say, the Church in which we belong to has been proven and tested by time and experience.

Over the centuries, the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in the Church, in each one of us, and in our human experiences. One concrete example of the working of the Holy Spirit in the Church is in the first reading we have heard today. The Apostles and the elders of  the Church had convened a Council in Jerusalem to resolve the issue of initiating people  into the Church. Apparently, some Jewish converts to Christianity said to the Gentile converts that they need to be circumcised to be part of the Church. This means, they have to follow  the Jewish custom first before coming into the Christian Church. This was the issue. The Apostles resolved this with the help of the Holy Spirit. So the apostles had this notice for the Gentile converts: ‘It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: abstention from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals, etc.’ (Acts 15:1-2;22-29)

In our time too, there are many ways that the Holy Spirit is at work. The election of Pope Francis is one. He wasn’t one of the ten strong contenders. He is not as young as many would have expected the new pope would be. But now he is showing us a lot of examples, in fact challenging all of us to have a lifestyle check. Another sign of the Spirit at work is this crisis of abuses in power and authority by some members of the Church. In crisis like this,  the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and of justice, is  working on renewal, and empowering us to assess ourselves and our faith in Christ. The beauty of this Spirit is that it gives us abundant gifts, riches from God. The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has reflected on this during his homily at the Vigil with the young people during the World Youth Day in Sydney 2008. The Pope noted that this same Spirit has generously given us gifts that are “working within us, giving us direction and definition in our witness” to Christ and to our faith. The Pope then urged the young people and this is an invitation for us today who are here too: ‘that we turn to the Holy Spirit in order that we find the true meaning of renewal.’ The pope then concluded the homily by these words of assurance: ‘In accepting the power of the Holy Spirit you too can transform your families, communities, and nations.’

So as we continue our celebration today, let us assess our lives. Are we making ourselves available for the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us? Another way to do this is to stop asking ‘why’ do we have to do this,  and to start asking ourselves ‘how we might live out the Spirit of Christ in our daily lives.’

Jan 13 2013

Baptism of Jesus: Moment of Grace for us

Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus 2013

Year C (13 January 2013)

Today we celebrate the feast the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist at the river Jordan. In our liturgical calendar, this feast marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of the ordinary time. Some homilists  would even consider this day as the third epiphany, with Christmas as the first one through the visit of the shepherds to the manger when they heard from the angel the news of the birth of Jesus. The second epiphany is the solemnity of the Epiphany itself which we celebrated last Sunday, i.e. when God reveals himself to the nations through the visit of some wise men from the East. And today’s feast marks the third one when God, as the Holy Trinity reveals the true identity of Jesus.

It is interesting to note that in the first manifestation of God, the Shepherds were led by the Angels. In the second, the wise men were led by a star. And the third manifestation, it’s the Holy Trinity (the first time to be noted in the gospels) that reveals the true identity of Jesus himself.

To celebrate this day and to understand what really does the baptism of Jesus mean for us, we need to reflect on three events occurring at his  baptism.

First, is that heaven was opened above the place in the water where Jesus was standing. According to Mark Link, S.J., in his commentary on this text, this opening of the heaven scene “recalls the prayer of Isaiah [Is 64:1), where the prophet pleads with God to ‘tear open the sky’ and come down and set things right on earth.”[1]

Second is the descending of the Holy Spirit (like a dove) upon Jesus. Again, Link would say that this event points back to the Genesis story [Gen 1]of the Spirit of God hovering the waters and which put order out of chaos. So this signals a new  moment of creation.

Third is the voice of the Father ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” This confirmation of the Father points out to us that Jesus is the new Adam, God’s firstborn son of the new creation.[2]

So Jesus’ baptism then marks the beginning of a new creation story for us, a new moment of putting order out of chaos, a remarkable moment of salvation. His baptism is not only a decisive moment of a confirmation of his identity as Son of God, but it is also an important and indispensable moment for our salvation history. His baptism reminds us that he has not come only to identify with our humanity but also to identify with our fallen nature by  going the through the ‘remedy’ of our sinfulness though he has not sinned himself. We see this in his gesture to come to John the Baptist to be baptized. John’s baptism is for repentance, that is, for the forgiveness of sins. Yet Jesus has no sin, so why did he choose to be baptized? It is so because he wants to save us from where we are at. We are sinners. He wants to save us from sins. He couldn’t wait for us to come back to him. He searches us out by identifying with us in our human need of forgiveness and renewal. He has expressed this in his baptism.

The baptism of Jesus is also a moment of grace for us. One of the Early Church Fathers, Hippolytus of Rome has spoken of this great grace of Jesus’ baptism for us. He wrote: ‘If the Lord had yielded to John’s persuasion and had not been baptized, do you realize what great blessings and how many we should have been deprived of? Heaven was closed after then; our homeland on high was inaccessible. Once we had descended into the depths we were incapable of rising again to such lofty heights. The Lord was not only baptized himself; he also renewed our fallen nature and restored to us our status as God’s children. At once the heavens were opened to him. The world we see was reconciled with the world that lies beyond our vision; the angels were filled with joy; earthly disorders were remedied; mysteries were revealed; enemies were made friends.”[3]

So if the baptism of Jesus signals a new moment of creation, then we who are baptized with him and in the name of Christ must also be renewed. This renewal must be part of our New Year’s resolution. And we must try our best to keep it up. Renewal here can also be understood as conversion- which means not only repenting the sins and the wrongs we have done in the past but also going forward and striving to live a good and godly life day by day. Conversion is a daily tasks and responsibility. It is important to note too that we can’t do it on our own. We are not alone in this journey. We need one another. More importantly, we need God. When we are baptized God has called us his children. His Spirit resides in us. This Spirit is our power to go on with our resolution to renewal, to ‘give up everything that does not lead us to God’ as St Paul tells us in our Second Reading today.

So as we continue celebrating the feast of baptism of Jesus, let us thank God for this grace because through baptism we are assured of eternal life. We might falter at times as human as we are we usually say, but we are still God’s children, and this is where our dignity lies. To borrow a line from the song of the late Whitney Houston ‘Greatest Love of All‘ “No matter what they take of [us] they can’t take [our] dignity” as children of God. We have become children of God by virtue of the baptism of Christ and by virtue of our sharing in his baptism. So it is worth rejoicing and worth celebrating. 

[1] Mark Link, S.J. Experiencing Jesus: His Story, 96.

[2] Link, 97.

[3] Sermon on the Holy Manifestation 6-9 by St Hippolytus of Rome (Source: Journey with the Fathers: Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels)