Holy Spirit Sunday -
Pentecost, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima
Theme: Come, O Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth
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Readings: Acts 2:1-11;
Gal 5:16-25; Jn. 15:26-27,16:12-15
Dearest
brothers and sisters, today the mother church celebrates her birthday, the solemnity
of the Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples with
tongues of fire, and they spoke many languages. It was on the Pentecost that the
mission of the Church to all tongues, all peoples and all nations was
inaugurated.
Actually, the Pentecost means the fiftieth day,
and it was on the fiftieth day after the resurrection that Jesus sent the Holy
Spirit upon the disciples. According to the Old Testament tradition, the feast
of the Pentecost was already an important feast in the life and history of the
Jews. On that day, the Israelites celebrated two events in their lives. First,
on the Pentecost, the Jews commemorated the giving of the Ten Commandments to
Moses by God on Mount Sinai, which happened fifty days after the Passover. They
called it the feast of weeks (in Hebrew language, ‘chang ha shevout’). Second,
on the day of the Pentecost, the Jews also celebrated their agricultural feast,
the offering of the first loaves from their farm to God. They called it the
festival of Harvest (in Hebrew language, ‘Yom ha-bikkurim’). These two great
Jewish feasts, which the Jews celebrated on the Pentecost, drew a good number
of Jews from all over the world to Jerusalem to identify with their religion
and their country. It was on account of this that many people from all over the
world were present the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as we
read in the first reading. So, Christ chose the best day to send the Holy
Spirit upon his disciples and to inaugurate his Church, the day when the whole
world would be gathered in Jerusalem, so that the message of the resurrection
will reach the whole world.
The feast of the Pentecost is very important in
the life of the Church because of the impact of the Holy Spirit in the life of
the early Church, in the life of the present Church and in the life of all of
us. It was the Holy Spirit that changed the apostles from men who were afraid
into men who were filled with strength and courage to preach the Good News to
all humanity. Recall that before the day of Pentecost, the disciples were
afraid of going out to preach the Good News, but when the Holy Spirit came upon
them, they dashed out of the House and started proclaiming the message of the
resurrection without fear. The presence of the Holy Spirit made the difference,
and has continued to make a difference. Let us, therefore, pray for the
presence of the Holy Spirit in our own Churches and Homes, to free us from fear
and to empower us with the courage to be good testimonies of Christ wherever we
live and wherever we go.
The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles
also signified that the hand of God has once more taken control of humanity. In
the book of Genesis chapter eleven, as we read in the first reading of the
vigil mass of this feast, which told us the story of the tower of Babel, God
used the power of different languages to confuse and disperse humanity all over
the world when humanity wanted to build a tower of equality with Him. But on
the feast of Pentecost, God used the same instrument of many languages to unite
humanity again. The first reading of today told us that the disciples spoke
many languages, but people of other languages understood them in their own
tongues. What a great unity through language. Dear friends, what that unity of
language tells us is that the Pentecost is a feast of unity and new life. It is
the celebration of the outpouring of new life into the church and into the
world because the hand of God has touched humanity once again. It is a feast
that challenges us who have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit to live the
life of unity and newness. If the hand of God has touched you through the Holy
Spirit, your life should bear the fruits of unity and newness.
Dear brothers and sisters, we should also
remember that on the feast of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit broke the wall of
division and misunderstanding among human beings by creating a common
understanding between many different languages. On that day, those who spoke
Italian understood Arabic, and those who spoke Russia understood Aramaic, those
who spoke English understood French; there was no misunderstanding. We can say
that the Holy Spirit, the author of unity, spoke our language on the day of the
Pentecost, and created unity among men. Hence, the same Holy spirit wants us to
speak His own language too. This is the challenge for all of us. But then, what
is the language of the Holy Spirit. The language of the Holy Spirit is clearly
written in the second reading of today. It says the fruits of the Holy Spirit
are love, joy, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
These fruits are the languages of the Spirit. The church wants us to start
speaking this language. Speaking this language means living our lives according
to these wonderful fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you are living your life
according to these fruits of the Holy Spirit, you are already speaking the
language of the Holy Spirit
It is however sad that many people in our world
have chosen to constantly speak the language of the devil instead of the
language of the Holy spirit. The second reading also told us what the language
of the devil is. It says: ‘now the works of the flesh are immorality, impurity,
licentiousness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the
like, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. These evil
things listed above are the languages of the devil. Those who live their lives
according to them are speaking the language of the devil.
Let us pray in today’s Mass that the seven gifts
of the Holy Spirit which have been poured on us and on the church, the gifts of
wisdom, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, understanding, piety, and fear of the
Lord will help us to speak the language of the Holy Spirit everyday of our
life. Amen
Happy Feast Day
Fr Isaac Chima
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