The Divine GPS Is Here!

Rev. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday

St. Mary of Assumption Church, Whittier, CA

Sunday May 15, 2016

After arriving in Memphis, Tennessee from Nigeria in 2007,  one of my parishioners, Dr. Ann Hinton, bought me a GPS. As she was giving me the brand new device, she said, “Father Marcel, you came to America to save souls, and as you do that, I do not want you to get lost. Take this GPS and use it. It will help you get around, and direct you to your destination, so that you don’t get lost.” I still use that GPS till today! It’s an amazing piece of technology. Once I type the address of where I want to go, it gives me a voice direction until I get to my destination. It never complains. It does not abuse me or get angry with me for failing to follow its direction. Even when I intentionally ignore what it is saying, it simply recalculates my route without yelling at me. My GPS, like all others has only one purpose: to guide me safely to my destination. 

Today is Pentecost Sunday! Today, we celebrate the birth of the Church, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, the dramatic outpouring of power and courage on the early church. Today, we celebrate the fulfillment of a promise, Jesus’ promise, “I will ask the Father, and he will you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17). We celebrate the love of the Father and the Son among us. The Holy Spirit was first sent to the disciples to empower them to courageously and fearlessly preach the good news of Jesus Christ, to announce to the Jews and their neighbors that the crucified Jesus is risen, that he is the Lord and Savior and that salvation can only be possible by believing in his name. For those of us who believe in Jesus through the preaching of the Apostles, disciples and their successors, the same Holy Spirit was given to us at baptism and then stirred into action at confirmation. He comes to us as Comforter, Helper, Teacher and Advocate. In times of grief, hurt, and sorrow, the Holy Spirit provides comfort and consolation. His consolation assures us that we are not alone and have not been abandoned by the good God. His comfort supplies warmth, healing, and recovery and prevents ugly experiences of life from getting in our way and journey to God. God is our final refuge and destination, and anything that attempts to divert our journey to him is a distraction. The comfort of the Comforter soothes our pain and enables us to keep living and moving in the right direction. Extreme grief or sorrow is capable of hindering our journey to God. It’s capable of deafening us to hear the voice of the divine GPS. If that happens, we could miss our way and find ourselves on the wrong lane of depression. And if no comfort (help) comes, we could get lost. The Comforter comes, not only to comfort and heal us, but to recalculate our way back to God. The chief purpose of the Holy Spirit is to lead and guide us to the One who is the Truth, to bring us safely to our destination—our heavenly homeland. 

The Holy Spirit was sent as the Helper. He is to help us in every aspect of our lives, to realize our dreams, aspirations and to fulfill our destiny. He is to help us get saved. In times of weakness when we do not know how to pray, he prays on our behalf (Romans 8:26-27). He reveals the will of God to us (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), helps us to build our faith and to live a victorious Christian life. He also helps us to boldly and courageous declare on whose side we are. In this day and age when people are no longer shy or ashamed of declaring who they are, what they are, what they do, what they believe in, and on whose side they belong, the Holy Spirit helps Christians not to shy away from declaring to the world: “I believe in God!” “I belong to Jesus!” “I am a churchgoing person, and it is nothing to be ashamed of.” I have met some Christians who tell me that when they are in the midst of their unbelieving friends and colleagues who take pride in bashing our Christian belief and any belief in God, that they are usually intimidated or ashamed to say, “I believe in God.” Recently I quoted to a young man what Jesus said about those who are ashamed of him: “If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in this adulterous and sinful world, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 32-33). As the Teacher, the Holy Spirit teaches us the truth of God—that God is greater than what we say he is; that God is a wonderful Daddy, that he is the Father of the prodigal son, that he is full of love, mercy and compassion; that God is not a cop, but a loving Daddy who is deeply interested in each of us. He teaches us that God is not someone we should be afraid of or run away from, even if we have fallen into sin, rather, someone we should long to approach, yearn for just as a deer yearns for running streams. The Holy Spirit reminds us that each of us, like a sick person, needs God’s healing. A sick person who avoids seeing a doctor, going to hospital or taking a medicine cannot get well. We need God just as a sick person needs a doctor or medicine. The Holy Spirit is also our Advocate. An advocate is someone who looks after one’s interests in a court of law, speaks and answers on the person’s behalf. The Holy Spirit is our Advocate in heaven. He looks after our interests in the heavenly court. He does not attempt to provide evidence or proof of our innocence. He knows that every accusation of the law of God against us is true, but he pleads on our behalf by pointing at the wounds on Jesus’ side and hands and begs the Father for mercy, clemency and leniency for us.

Sisters and brothers, everything the Holy Spirit does for us demonstrates among other things, that we are not alone. In the gospel of John 14:16-17 & 18, Jesus made a promise: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God.” “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.” None of us is alone. In this journey of faith, we are not alone. As we walk to our homeland, we are not alone. In the struggles of this earthly life, we are not alone. Even when we think we are alone, we are not really alone. We cannot walk alone. We have a Companion from the Father and the Son.