Homily for the Solemnity of the Pentecost

Signs That The Holy Spirit Is Active In You

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Solemnity of the Pentecost 

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Last weekend, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. On that day, something of the earth goes into the heavenly realm. Today, we celebrate the Pentecost, something of heaven— the Holy Spirit comes down and invades the earth. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the love that connects the Father and the Son. He is the invisible soul of the visible Church. The Holy Spirit is the animating principle of the Mystical Body. Without the presence and involvement of the Holy Spirit in the Church, the Church wouldn’t have lasted beyond the first century. Think of the Holy Spirit as the soul of the Church. And when you look around, you can see his work all over the place. In all the three readings, we see the effects, works and signs of the Holy Spirit. 

Today, I want to preach on some of the signs of the Holy Spirit. In the first reading, we are told that upon receiving the Holy Spirit, the disciples of Jesus, who were all Galileans, spoke in different foreign languages and the people from those foreign nations understood what they were talking about: “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?” (Acts. 2:7-8) Aside from speaking human languages, what is one language that if you speak it today, everybody will hear and understand you? The language of love! So, the first sign of the Holy Spirit is love. If the Holy Spirit is active in your life, you want to be a teacher, preacher, believer and agent of love. What is love? It is to will the good of the other as other, and to do something about it. To love is to continuously find delight in the existence of another. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. He is the love that connects the Father and the Son, the love into which we have been invited. Therefore, the most important sign of the Holy Spirit is love. You could be a prayer warrior, you could be gifted with some or all the spectacular charisms of the Holy Spirit like speaking in tongues, healing, prophecy etc.; you could also be gifted with some or all the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit like administration, kindness, generosity, teaching, service etc. but if you don’t have love, the Holy Spirit is not at work in you. That’s why St. Paul can say there are three things that last— faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. You can have faith enough to move mountains, but if you don’t love, you are nothing, so says St. Paul. That’s it! That’s the first mark of the Holy Spirit. We are Catholics! We are both spiritual and religious. We come to Mass regularly, say our prayers regularly and perform certain spiritual exercises. But if we are lacking love, the spirit dwelling in us isn’t the Holy Spirit. End of discussion! At the sunset of our life, love is the basis we are going to be judged. It comes down to love, everybody. In one of his songs, Don Moen sings, “When it’s all been said and done; all my treasures will mean nothing; only what I’ve done for love’s reward; will stand the test of time.” After so much earthly accomplishments, after so much success, after realizing your dreams and aspirations in life, it will come down to one thing: Did you love? Did you honestly will the good of the other? Did you delight in their very existence? 

The second sign of the Holy Spirit is bold speech. By bold speech, I don’t mean screaming and yelling and having an “in your face” attitude. Bold speech implies announcing the good news of Jesus Christ with clarity, precision and distinction. In Our second reading, St Paul says, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3b). If the Holy Spirit is active in your life, you won’t hesitate to announce the good news of the Lord when the opportunity arises in both words and deeds. Yes, in our culture today, we have been told not to talk about religion publicly. We have been told to keep and make religion a private thing. Although the First Amendment to the US Constitutions says that everyone in the United States has the right to practice religion or not to practice religion at all, people are still told or expected to not come out publicly with their religion and religious views because it’s just going to cause trouble. Due to this, many American Christians including immigrants to the US line behind “don’t talk about religion in the public space.” But St. Paul is saying that if the Holy Spirit is active in your life, you won’t hesitate to say “Jesus is Lord” even if those around think you are odd. In fact, authentic Christianity is odd. If your life, beliefs and utterances are not seen as odd, something is missing. Be odd! Be weird! When the moment is right, say the word. Announce that Name. Give a reason for the hope that is in you. Lots of people have questions about the faith, they are wandering away from the Church, and sometimes they ask questions. St. Peter enjoins us to “Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you.” If somebody asks you about your faith and convictions, be ready to speak boldly and give a clear reason for the hope you have. From the early Church, from Peter, Paul, John, James, and all the way up to Archbishop Fulton Sheen, St. Pope John Paul II etc., people filled with the Holy Spirit can’t keep Christ to themselves. They have to speak it. It was St. Paul who said, “Woe to me if I do not evangelize.” St. Paul couldn’t keep his experience of the Risen Lord to himself. The short prayer I printed on my priestly ordination souvenir card reads, “My zeal to your house O God burns in me like a fire,” therefore, “Lord, to whom else shall we go to, since you have the words of eternal life.” Like Paul, I was on fire; and almost sixteen years after, I am still on fire to proclaim Christ. So, the second sign that the Holy Spirit is active in you is bold speech to announce the word. As a baptized person, if you don’t have bold speech, the Spirit has been cooled. There is a need to now fan into flames the spiritual gifts you received at baptism. 

The third sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in your life is unity. The Holy Spirit by definition is the gathering Spirit. He is drawing and bringing all the followers of Jesus in unity. Although there is diversity and variety of personalities and cultures, in the Church, the community of Jesus is meant to be united. It is only when we are united that we can possibly unify the world. At the Last Supper, before he died, Jesus prayed to the Father “that they may be one, just as you, Father, and I are one” (John 17:22). The second reading today says, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13). If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are going to be a promoter of unity in words and deeds. Where there is disunity, you will sow peace, and work towards unity. You are not going to be the one working against unity in God’s house. But if division and disunity is your preference, you have kicked the Holy Spirit to the back seat and have allowed sin to fester in you. 

The fourth sign of the Holy Spirit is freedom from evil and wicked spirits. Not all spirits are holy. St. Paul reminds us that we are, in fact, involved in spiritual warfare. Just as there are good people and wicked people, there are good angels and wicked angels. These fallen angels who constitute dark spirits do their work in the world. They work through temptation, suggestion and so on. We battle powers that we can see, but we also battle powers that we cannot see. If the Holy Spirit is active in you, if you have not bewitched the Holy Spirit, he gets rid of these dark spirits. The Holy Spirit has expulsive power. He cannot dwell alongside evil spirits. He kicks them all out and makes you his dwelling temple. He takes residence in you. 

The fifth sign of the Holy Spirit is joy. In today’s Gospel, we are told that after Jesus greets his disciples “Peace be with you,” and shows them his wounds, “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” Joy is the principle flag of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you and is very much active in your life, joy will not elude you regardless of what the world throws at you. Of all the signs and indicators of the Holy Spirit, the clearest one is joy. You might be attending Mass regularly, you might be right about the moral life and about lots of things, but the mark of the Holy Spirit is joy. An unhappy Christian undermines and undercuts the Christian faith. By joy I don’t mean merely smiling or laughing, although it includes those but goes beyond them. The joy of a Spirit filled Christian is radiant and contagious. If an encounter with someone makes you feel more alive, that’s it, everybody. That’s a sign of the Holy Spirit in that person. If their joy latches on you and animates you afresh, the Holy Spirit is around. Watch your own life. If joy has eluded you, and has become far-fetched, it might be that the Holy Spirit has taken the back seat. 

Finally, the sixth sign of the Holy Spirit is spiritual and intellectual curiosity about the faith. If the Spirit is working in you, if you are filled with the Love that links the Father and the Son, you want to know Jesus as much as you can. You are eager to find out all you can about the Lord. What you learned during the catechism class won’t be sufficient for you. You want to know more and more. And as you know through the great writings and sermons of the saints, church figures etc. you fall in love with Jesus in a new way. The more two lovers get to know each other, the more they are passionate about each other, so it is with Jesus. If suddenly you realize that you don’t care anymore, don’t ask questions anymore about faith and morals, you have become indifferent, convinced yourself that the Church is becoming corrupt, just know this— you too are becoming corrupt in your faith. Spiritual and intellectual curiosity will lead you to read, study, and pray over a biblical text, a sound spiritual and theological book that will aid you to understand the faith more and more. If you have this desire, that’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is active in you.