Our Cross and Pentecost

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“Suddenly, there came from the sky, a noise like a strong driving wind. And it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them as tongues as a fire, which parted and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” Where did the power of Pentecost of this gift of the Holy Spirit come from? It’s important for us today, because we need a new Pentecost, for our Church and for our world. Where did this power come from? Nothing seemed farther from the power of Pentecost. No moment of Jesus life seemed farther from it, then, when He was hanging on the cross. At Pentecost, it was a moment of great inspiration when the apostles were united, bold, energized, strong. And at the cross, they were fearful, weak, divided, doubting, humiliated, despairing, sinful. At the cross, there seemed to be no sign of the power of the Holy Spirit. He seemed to be absent. And yet it was precisely from the cross, from Jesus crucified, that the Holy Spirit was given. And this is extremely important to understand, to understand our situation today, to give us hope. The hard part, the cross is the hard part. Pentecost is not the hard part. Pentecost is the is the great gift. But the hard part that prepares, that is the cross. St. John Paul and his encyclical on the Holy Spirit called Lord and Giver of Life, in Latin, its Dominum et Vivificantem.  I’m going to read you some passages from that, because he emphasizes this point, he says that it’s the night before He suffered at the Last Supper, that that’s the moment where Jesus spoke the most about the Holy Spirit. And just two weeks ago, we read those words at Mass. But one of the key passages is when He says to His apostles, He says, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete,’ that is, the Holy Spirit, “will not come. But if I go, I will send him to you.” And of course, Jesus going, is His death on the cross. And so Pope John Paul, in this encyclical, says the Holy Spirit is the person who is the gift.  Saint John Paul calls Him the person gift. Because He is a person, a divine person. But he is the person who is a gift from the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father. And Pope John Paul emphasizes two passages from scripture, to speak about how the Holy Spirit gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit comes from the cross. The gospel when it says, “When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit, gave up His spirit.” And Saint John Paul saying that that sign also of that being the moment of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Letter to the Hebrews says, “the blood of Christ, to whom the eternal Spirit offered, who the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God.” That is that it’s Jesus offers Himself to the Father, through the eternal spirit, through the Holy Spirit.  So at the at the cross, Jesus is making a gift, a sacrifice of Himself, and it’s by the action of the Holy Spirit. And so St. John Paul has in the encyclical, he has a passage which is called the spirit who transforms suffering, into saving love, the Spirit who transforms suffering into saving love. And he says, “The Old Testament on several occasions speaks of fire from heaven, which came down and burned the ablations that man had presented. By analogy, one can say that the Holy Spirit is the fire from heaven, which works in the depths of the mystery of the cross, in the depths of the mystery of the cross, love is at work. So the Holy Spirit is this at the, even though his flame is visible at Pentecost, but at the cross, it’s an invisible fire from heaven, which comes down and consumes the sacrifice, the sacrifice, which is Jesus himself”. So he says, the love that is the Holy Spirit is at work. And he goes on to say, “the Holy Spirit as love and gift comes down into the very heart of the sacrifice, which is offered on the cross. He consumes this sacrifice, with a fire of the love, which unites the Son with the Father. Jesus alone sends the spirit from the Father, Jesus alone, presents Himself before the apostles in the upper room.” The gospel said today, “And he breathed upon them and says, receive the Holy Spirit.” As John the Baptist had foretold when he said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire.” So the fire of the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus, offering Himself at the cross. And so the Holy Spirit was present in the gift of Jesus. And He was already, though even at the Cross, already acting, in the disciples, even if they weren’t aware of this. And this is a key point, “even if they weren’t aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit.” Some of them were united to Jesus’ sacrifice, beginning of course, with our Blessed Mother, sharing in His sacrifice. And the Holy Spirit was there, giving her the strength to remain faithful to Jesus at the cross. And Mary wasn’t the only one. There were others, especially among the women disciples. And also St. John was there. And so the Holy Spirit was there, giving them the grace to be united to Jesus at that moment. But even those of His apostles and disciples who were weak, and failed at that moment, but even in them, the Holy Spirit was working. He was working with them, to humble them, to change, prepare them for a transformation, to give them the grace to recognize their sinfulness and their need for conversion. It’s like the Holy Spirit within them, first of all, digging a hole that will prepare a space for Him. And so that is key also that even those who, who failed at that moment, the Holy Spirit was still at work. Like we see that, for instance, in St. Peter. He failed at that moment, but he, by his humility, he came back with a much deeper union with God, because of the humility that he had learned. And so after the cross and the Holy Spirit, then Jesus rises from the dead. And this is the Gospel we had today. “Jesus breathed on them, and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.” So right after the cross, two days after the resurrection, but before He did that, the Gospel says, He showed them His hands and side, and His hands in His side, which had the wounds, His wounds from the crucifixion. And we see that in the image of Divine Mercy, the image of Divine Mercy, as we see in the hands of Jesus and His feet, and especially from His side, from His heart, from the wound coming these rays of mercy and grace, of living water, which is the presence of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit coming from the wounds of Jesus, from the wounds of Jesus crucified, and risen. Saint John Paul goes on to say, the risen Christ fulfills His own promise made to the apostles when he said, “if I go, I will send Him to you.” He brings Him at the price of His own departure. This departure through the cross, He gives them the spirit as it were through the wounds of His crucifixion. As the Gospel says, He showed them His hand and side, it is in the power of this crucifixion that He says, receive the Holy Spirit. It is in the power of the crucifixion, it’s from the crucifixion, that Jesus says at the end of the resurrection, received the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit comes from the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. And He’s already active, not just in Jesus, but even in the apostles and the disciples, even though they didn’t realize it at the time. And so that’s a key point, that at Pentecost, the grace of Pentecost, flows from the cross. And it’s important so that we can understand our own times what we’re living, right now. Because if we look at the Church right now, we can see signs of  Pentecost, of the grace of that, the boldness of the Holy Spirit, of His action. But a lot of the Church seems far from Pentecost. A lot of the Church seems more to be living the passion right now, the Church and our humanity, experiencing a lot of darkness, a lot of doubt, a lot of death, physical death and spiritual death. Many are experiencing very hard times, many of us are experiencing very hard times. And many are experiencing the Paschal mystery that we’ve spoken of so often, of experiencing our own weakness, like the apostles at the Cross.  Experiencing our weakness, experiencing temptations in which our faith and our hope, our love are being put to the test. We are being humbled. We are being emptied. St. Paul speaks of Jesus emptying Himself, and many are experiencing this, have been emptied. But that’s what was happening to the disciples at the cross. They were being emptied, like same again, Peter, but not just Peter being emptied of so much of the human ideas and the human confidence that he had, he was being emptied of that. And the Lord right now, for many of us, is emptying us, locking down, removing what is too human in us and calling us to sacrifice. Tomorrow we celebrate Memorial Day, those who offered the sacrifice of their lives for our country. And so many today are sacrificing greatly for our Church and our country. We may not feel the presence of the Holy Spirit like the disciples at the cross. But it’s when we are living the cross and many are today. It’s precisely at that moment that He is present, like never before. When we are united to the Passion of Jesus, though often we only realize that later. And sometimes we can look back at a time of our life, which was extremely difficult, and we maybe even felt abandoned by God. I think of moments of my life which were very difficult. And it wasn’t till later that I realized how the Holy Spirit had been working in my life at that time. St. Paul says, “where sin increased,” and we’re at a time and which sin is increasing, like never before, but he says but “Grace abounded all the more.” So we’re living in a time of sin, but also a time in which the marvels of God’s grace and mercy are being prepared.  The Holy Spirit, Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to living water flowing from the hearts of those who believe in Him. And the Holy Spirit is often sometimes water is apparent. But a lot of times it’s like an aquifer. Like the reason we have water here at the mission is because we have aquifers deep down in the mission. And we spent a lot of money drilling down. There’s a lot of work and a lot of money to drill down to get that water but it makes it possible for us to be here at the mission. And so the Holy Spirit is often like this aquifer, this deep hidden water. And the suffering is often what permits us to drill down deep down to get the access to His water, to not just stay at the surface but to go down deep. The psalm today says “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.” Our world looks very far from this renewal. But the power of the Holy Spirit is infinite.  And the suffering of those who offer the sacrifices with Jesus, lets the Holy Spirit brings this action of the Holy Spirit. And St. John Paul says, and I’ll read this last passage from his encyclical, speaking of hope, he says; he first of all cites the book of Revelation. At the very end, it says, “The Spirit and the bride,” the bride is the Church, “say to the Lord Jesus Christ come, for the Spirit is given to the Church in order that through Hs power, the whole community of the people of God, however, widely scattered and diverse, may persevere in hope, the hope of the definitive fulfillment in God, the hope of the eternal kingdom.” So no matter how bad things look, we know that the Holy Spirit is infinitely more powerful, to bring about the Kingdom of God. And there’s a moment at Mass in which the priest extends his hand, it’s right before the consecration, extends his hand over the bread and wine, and what he’s doing, if you listen closely, what he’s doing is calling upon the Holy Spirit, calling down the Holy Spirit, on the bread and wine to transform them. But if we have offered our own sacrifices to the Lord, and that’s what the Mass is for, to unite our sacrifices to His, then the Holy Spirit has been called down also on your sacrifice, on everything that you have offered. So that becomes part of the offering of Jesus, for the salvation of souls, and a transformation of our world. And to the point, that, in conclusion, the point I want to stress today is that, as at the cross, where it seemed like the Holy Spirit was completely absent, yet that’s when He was acting most powerfully, to prepare His outpouring, through the sacrifice of Jesus, and through His work in the apostles. So today as we share in the Passion of Jesus, and the more we share in the passion, and the more we unite ourselves to His passion, the more the Holy Spirit is at work, like this hidden aquifer, which at the right time, will spring forth, to renew the earth. So, again, I just want to emphasize that point, at the moment, when always spirit seems least present because of our suffering, in the darkness of what we’re experiencing. That’s when we unite that to Jesus, that’s when He can, that can be the most powerful moment for preparing His gift. And we have at the cross was our Blessed Mother, faithful by the power of the Holy Spirit. And she was the one who gathered the apostles at Pentecost, to prepare them for this outpouring. And she is with us today, our Blessed Mother with us today. Especially in our world today, so many signs of her special presence, as she was present as Jesus suffered His passion. So she is present as the Church suffers its passion today. And I pray, and I think that she is present in a special way, at this poor little Mission at Divine Mercy, because we really need, we really need her. So she is with us. And so I want to end by praying that Pentecost sequence, this solemn prayer. The choir will sing it later on at Holy Communion. But if you want to you can close your eyes, as I read this invocation of the Holy Spirit. “Come Holy Spirit. And send from on high a ray of your light. Come Father of the poor, come giver of gifts. Come light of our hearts. Supreme consoler sweetest guest of our souls. Soothing freshness at work be our rest, in fever be our coolness, in tears be our comfort. Oh, blessed light filled to the brim, the hearts of your faithful.  Without your divine power, there is nothing in us that is not perverted. Cleanse, what is soiled, refresh what is arid. Heal what is wounded. Bend what is rigid. Warm, what is cold. Strengthen what is twisted. To the faithful who confide in you give your seven-fold gift. Give merit and virtue. Give final salvation. Give joy without end.” Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Acts 2:1-11
John 20:19-23
Psalma 104: 24, 29-30, 31, 34