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Gospel Reflection 20070527

The self-seeking person eventually feels dead inside.
Collective work means working together. At times, this requires sacrifice and a delay of personal gratification. Your talents and gifts are too great to be used just for yourself. When you think only of yourself, your happiness is only for the moment, but when you make the concerns of others your own, your happiness lasts a lifetime. - Bishop James P. Lyke OFM

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The Powerful Gifts of the Holy Spirit

May 27, 2007
Pentecost Sunday

Gospel
Jn 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”



Environmentalists preach to us about the need to tap the renewable resources of the universe. The non-renewable coal and oil will give out some day.
The renewable sun and wind is virtually inexhaustible. Pentecost is a day for spiritual environmentalists. It tells us to stop relying on the non-renewable coal and oil of our wasted lives, our futile searches for satisfactions that do not satisfy. Stop depending on our self exhausting pursuits of trifles that promise to fill us (and fulfill us), but leave us empty instead — like the empty hole of a plundered mine. Spiritual environmentalists, the joyful messengers of Pentecost, summon us to tap into the exuberant and ever renewable resource of the Holy Spirit. Open to the power of the Spirit, filled with spiritual gifts, we will live in a constant state of renewal. Exuberance will replace exhaustion. What are some of those gifts? Understanding. Knowledge. Counsel. Fortitude. Wisdom. Fear of the Lord. And many others. These gifts are the food for the soul, renewable sources of interior energy that bring us totally alive. We are not starved for information. In fact information is choking us just as toxic wastes pollute our physical environment. We are starved for insight and wisdom and meaning. Something to renew us.
On this glorious Pentecost, turn to the renewable resources of the soul — the gifts of the Holy Spirit — a power source for our souls.

Praise the Holy Spirit on this feast of Pentecost. Rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s unending renewable sources of personal growth and happiness. Ask God for more of His sun and wind so that His tumultuous energy may power us to live satisfying lives and be able to share them with others.

I suspect that some of you parents can relate to this story. It seems that it was a day like today, that is, Sunday morning, and a mother hurries into her son’s bedroom and speaks agitatedly at the sleeping bundle. “Look,” she cries, “it’s Sunday. Time to get up. Time to get up and go to church. Get up!” the son mumbles from under the covers, “I don’t want to go.” “What do you mean, “I don’t want to go”? responds the mother. “That’s silly. Now get up and get dressed and go to church.” He says, “No, I don’t want to go and I’ll give you two reasons why not.” He sits up in the bed and continues. “First, I don’t like them and second, they don’t like me. ” The mother replies, “Now that’s just plain nonsense. You’ve got to go to church and I’ll give you two reasons why you must. First, you’re 51 years old and, second you’re the pastor!”
Ah, first surprise, then laughter. Such is the basis of today’s feast of Pentecost. The disciples were hiding. They were hiding in fear behind closed and locked doors, shutting out the rest of the world which was hostile, persecuting and terrifying. They felt better huddled together in isolation planning what to do next, where to go.
And then a surprise! Into their isolation Jesus comes. Through closed doors he walks. Past locks he breaks in. surprise first, surely, but just as surely, there must have been laughter, at first nervous and with hesitation but afterwards long and loud as the impact of their friends presence sank in. I’m not sure they would have laughed so long and hard had they known what the friend would ask of them, but for the moment, they rejoiced.
What he would ask, of course, was what the mother in our story asked: get out of bed, get out of your isolation and fear, and go to church—to the assembly, to the world, and announce the Good News. They too are correct to protest, We don’t like them and they don’t like us—that’s why they were hiding. But the answer they get is this: you’re thirty or forty years old and you’re the pastors, the shepherds of a needy flock, the bearers of the gospel, the announcers of salvation and forgiveness. You must go, you have a mission.
There is a delightful story about a mother who bought a ticket to a concert by Ignace Padrewski, the great Polish pianist. She took her five-year-old son with her, hoping the experience would encourage him in his own young efforts at music.
She was delighted to see how close to the stage their seats were. Then she met an old friend and got so involved talking with her that she failed to notice that her son had slipped away to do some exploring.
When eight o’clock arrived, the lights dimmed, the audience hushed to a whisper, and the spotlight came on. Only then did the woman see her five-year-old son on the stage, sitting on the piano bench, innocently picking out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
She gasped in total disbelief. But before she could retrieve her son. Paderewski walked onto the stage. Walking over to the piano, he whispered to the boy, “Don’t stop! Keep playing!”
Then leaning over the boy, Paderewski reached out his left hand and began to fill in the bass. A few seconds later he reached around the other side of the boy, encircling him, and added a running obbligato.
Together, the great maestro and the tiny five-year-old mesmerized the audience with their playing. When they finished the audience broke into thunderous applause.
Years later almost all those present forgot the pieces that Paderewski played that night, but no one forgot “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
That image of the great maestro and the tiny five year old at the piano makes a beautiful image of the Holy Spirit and the Church. It makes a beautiful image of how the Holy Spirit unites with the Church to make beautiful music.
Going back to that image we see that the boy resembles the disciples. When Jesus departed from their midst, they were like spiritual children. Their knowledge of God and how to spread God’s kingdom was terribly deficient. It was like the little boy’s knowledge of music.
And, of course, the great Polish maestro resembles the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples encircling them with love, whispering encouragement to them and transforming their feeble human efforts into something beautiful.
There’s a tremendous lesson here.
We look at the world and see so many problems that need to be addressed. We also look at our talents and see how inadequate they are in the face of all these problems. It is here that we need to recall the image of the little boy and Paderewski.
Musically, the little boy’s skill was minimal. But Paderewski built upon it and turned it into something beautiful—something that completely mesmerized the sophisticated audience that gathered in the hall that night. In a similar way, the Holy Spirit can take whatever we have—no matter how small—build upon it, and transform it into something powerful and beautiful.
This is the good news contained in today’s scripture readings. This is the good news that we celebrate on this feast of Pentecost.
It is the good news that Jesus has sent upon his Church, the promised Holy Spirit.
We are not alone; the Holy Spirit is leaning over us, taking our small contribution, and transforming it into something we never dreamed possible.
We may not like them, and they may not like us, but we are called by the Holy Spirit like the disciples to get out of bed and go to church, get into the world and with the help of the Holy Spirit, make beautiful music.

Often we hear about the Holy Spirit but seldom do people speak about the presence of God, the Holy Spirit in everyday life. Why is that? Is God the Holy Spirit active in our individual lives? Is the Holy Spirit active in our communities?
My answer is yes God can be active in our lives and in our communities if we are open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Often I am asked to explain the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit. I like to use this illustration: take a glass of milk. Drink from it. God made milk wholesome. God made milk good for the body. We are like milk. God made each of us good, in fact very good, according to Genesis. We receive the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. I then pour chocolate syrup into the milk. This chocolate syrup is like the Holy Spirit, which is poured into our life at Baptism. Holding up the glass I taste the milk. And comment that it still tastes the same and looks the same. I then ask the question. What needs to happen? Someone always responds that it needs to be stirred up. I then stir up the chocolate until we now have chocolate milk. I then taste it and comment that life is now sweeter, looks different. I prefer chocolate milk to white milk.
So how do we stir up the Holy Spirit in our life?
(Before the Spirit is stirred up)
I take a blank paper and draw a large circle on it. I then put myself in the center of the circle by writing "ME" and inside the circle I add things like, money, power prestige, possessions, sports, friends, family, etc. I decide how I will spend my time, my money. How I will be with my friends, my family, how I play sports, How I like power, prestige, and possessions. After all I have the right to choose.
(How to stir up the Spirit)
I take another piece of blank paper and draw a circle. This time I put a cross in the center, which represents Christ. I then put the same items in the circle, which were in the first circle. This time I ask Jesus how I should spend my time and my money. How I should act with my friends, family, sports. I ask Jesus what to do with power, prestige, and possession.
What I have found in doing this is that my life is simpler. That the Holy Spirit can now use me to give the gifts to the people God loves so deeply. I find that there is power in my life to love when I couldn’t love before.
If you want to have a sweeter, greater tasting life put Jesus at the center of every decision you make. Put Jesus at the center of every relationship you have and I guarantee that you will experience the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Your life will never be the same with Jesus at the center.
I then ask the question: What would happen if we didn’t keep the chocolate stirred up? The obvious answer is that it would settle down to the bottom again. This is true with the spiritual gifts. If we don’t keep Jesus at the center of our life the power of the Holy Spirit will become dormant in our life and the gifts will diminish.
Today, let the Holy Spirit be stirred into faith action, just like the early believers filled with a boldness and conviction of truth.

Father Vince Dwyer says in his book Lift Your Sails, "The winds of God's grace are always blowing but we must make an effort to raise our sails." Our lives are a mixture of good and bad, of light and darkness, of courage and fear, of concern and indifference. But it is in the conflicting personalities we are that the Holy Spirit chooses to work. It is in our weakness that we find His strength and power. The Spirit works within our hearts transforming us and communicating to us a power beyond our own understanding. Without this indwelling of the Spirit we have no power to do what we are called to do.
Sometimes the presence of the Holy Spirit is difficult to grasp and we can only know of his work in our lives by the signs of His work seen in love, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness, which are the fruits of His work. But for these signs to become a reality, as we sit upon our little boats struggling with the strong winds, tides and obstacles of life, we must make an effort to raise our sails.
The Holy Spirit is meant to be experienced as a driving force in our lives. And the fact that some of us may not experience this power is not because the Holy Spirit has not been given to us, but because we do not use or release the energy that is flowing into us from God's love. We must make the effort to raise our sails and to call upon the Holy Spirit in the words of the hymn, "Spirit of the Living God, Fall a fresh on us — fill us — mold us — shape us — use us..."
The Holy Spirit works in us as the Spirit worked in Jesus. We can recognize that we have allowed the Spirit to work in us to the extent we are like Jesus. To the extent that Jesus is truly Lord in our life! There are times when we feel our life is empty and that we have allowed our lives to develop in ways that lack courage, strength and direction. Our strength comes from living in harmony with the Holy Spirit, for the winds of God's grace are always blowing. But we must make the effort to raise our sails and mount the sail of life firmly in the values Jesus taught.
It is difficult because many pressures move us away from the Spirit toward self-centered actions. Rather than respond to the Spirit, we often find ourselves responding to these pressures. We are all products and to some extent, victims of our culture which pushes materialistic satisfaction and self-achievement as chief means to happiness.
God's message is communicated to us in so many different ways, telling us He loves us and accepts us just as we are. It is a message that sometimes seems too good to be true; but it is! The winds of God's love are always blowing but we must make the effort to raise our sails.
We need one another. For it is in our faith community called Church the Spirit operates most powerfully to teach, to help, to transform, to bring us joy and peace. The Spirit has been given to us to continue the mission of Jesus. We know we have the power to do our task because He promised to be with us until the end of the world. No one person has all the gifts. No single person can bring about the dream of God for His world. But together as a community we have all the gifts necessary to spread the good news of God's love. Cardinal Bernadin wrote, "Jesus entrusted the task of transmitting and spreading the Gospel to the Apostles and their successors indeed to all of us who make up the Church." He says, "God's Spirit, present and active within the Church and within us, gives us the power to carry out the mission. God counts on us, yet we need not, in fact, must not count simply on ourselves. The Holy Spirit helps us, strengthens us, constantly gives positive results to our limited and imperfect efforts." The Cardinal concludes, "That's good news, indeed!"
In these times we recognize no church or community can survive very long unless it harnesses the tremendous variety of gifts large and small of all members. I pray that each of us has the trust and faith in the Holy Spirit to capture His love, His power, His presence and His peace. All we have to do is raise our sails.

posted by Mike Young @ 7:03 AM