PENTECOST

PENTECOST SUNDAY 

Good evening/morning everyone. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates ‘Pentecost’ Sunday. Today we celebrate the nativity of the Church, the glorious birthday. 

Last week priests from the diocese of Peterborough were doing our one-week spiritual retreat and the director, the bishop from Victoria Bc talked about Burn out. He talked about how priests should be careful of not getting burned out. Then I said, ‘I will never get burned out’ because there is not that much fire in me. 

Today we are talking about the fire...the Holy Spirit that consumed the fear, anxiety, all negativity from the minds of the Apostles and gave them all new life. 

1. There is a beautiful story about the inventor of fire. As he invented fire, he got so excited and went to village to village, town to town spreading the secret of fire-making. And as you know, the religious leaders were not happy seeing the fire maker getting so famous; so, they killed him. But they put a statue of that man in the sanctuary with all the instruments that he used to make fire. Then people began to worship the instruments and forgot how to make the fire. But on the contrary, when the religious leader killed Christ thinking that they could easily get rid of the fire maker not knowing the fire-maker and the fire are one and the same. Yes, Christ is God and the Holy Spirit. As the apostles were timid and afraid, the Holy Spirit came upon them as tongues of fire and soaked them all with His divine gifts. 

2. As the fire came upon them, they were given knowledge and wisdom. Those every day and ordinary people began to communicate so effectively and powerfully. What they said was understood by all. The ordinary Galileans became expert in communication and this all happened because of the Holy Spirit. Once Mother Teresa was asked about her dealing with people, “Was it not difficult to learn the language of these people whom you are serving?’ Teresa said, “No, not at all. It’s because we communicate with our heart, we communicate with our smile and we communicate with love’. That is called the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

3.  Once a man said to a spiritual master, “I don’t know how to communicate with my wife at all’. The master said, ‘Go back home and listen to everything that your wife is saying and come back in a week’. After week, the man complained again saying, ‘I listened everything my wife said, and nothing improved’. This time the Master said, “Now go back home and listen to everything that she is not saying’. Listening is not in the saying. It’s also in the not-saying. The power of the Holy Spirit changed the way the apostles were talking and sharing their faith and thus they could go everywhere to preach the Good News. 

4. Once a little boy said to his mother, “Mom, at Sunday School the priest said that we no need to be worried because we are going to get our quilt”. The mom was confused and asked the priest about it. The priest said, “Yes, the theme was ‘Do not be afraid. You will get your comforter’. The Holy Spirit is coming to remind us all about what Christ our Lord taught us.  Every time we say, ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, yes, as we say the Holy Spirit, we touch our both shoulders which are being ignited by the power of the spirit to put our thoughts and feelings into action. Holy Spirit means action and that’s why the fifth book is called ‘Acts of the Apostles’. It’s all about action. The fire is given to us all. Let us keep the fire burning and let us keep the fire spread everywhere so that the whole world will come to know that Christ is the Lord and God and He is with us always. Amen.