Homily on the Solemnity of the Pentecost, Year B

Signs of the Holy Spirit (Part Two)

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Pentecost, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Today we come to the Solemnity of the Pentecost. We come to the end of the Easter season. We come to celebrate the birthday of the Church. Today, we celebrate something of heaven, the Holy Spirit, coming down to invade the earth, to pour down gifts on the disciples of Jesus Christ. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the love of the Father and the Son. He is the love that connects the Father and the Son. If God the Father is the hand, and Jesus the finger, the Holy Spirit is the touch. I hope you know that if you are baptized, the Holy Spirit is in you. But the fact that the Holy Spirit is in you does not mean he will always be active in your life. How do we know this? In his letter to the Thessalonians, the great St. Paul warns, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul warns again, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). As you can see, the Holy Spirit can be present and at the same time be inactive in the life of an unserious Christian. In all the three readings, we see the effects and signs of the Holy Spirit. So, permit me to continue to preach on some of the clues and effects of the Holy Spirit.

First Sign of the Holy Spirit. In the first reading (Acts 2:1-11), we read that on Pentecost day, the disciples of Jesus were gathered together in one place praying. Not individually in their homes doing their thing. Then suddenly there appeared on each one of them, tongues of fire. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. What does that mean? They spoke in languages that weren’t theirs. They praised God in foreign tongues. You might be tempted to say that what happened here is a unique event that only happened in the early days of the Church. But from ancient times to the present day, there are Christians who spoke in tongues. Even the genius St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about speaking in tongues and acknowledged it as a gift given to some for the praise of God and for the propagation of the faith. A few years ago in Nigeria, I was invited to preach in a gathering of Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) —Catholics, Anglicans, Baptist, Pentecostal Churches etc. were there. After preaching, I led the group in prayer. As we prayed, the Spirit fell and some Christians in the assembly started praising God in tongues. Speaking in tongues is not alien to the Catholic Church. Attend any Charismatic prayer meeting, and you will find people with genuine gifts of speaking in tongues. The problem with this gift today is that some conmen and conwomen are now teaching others to speak in tongues. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is never taught. If yours is taught, it is fake. Stop it now and stop mocking the Holy Spirit. More to it, you can also receive the gift of speaking in a foreign language of radical compassion. 

Second sign of the Spirit. In his simple but infinitely profound words, St. John gives us the most central hint of the Holy Spirit. He says, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). Here you have it! In the Old Testament, the name of God is Yahweh (I AM). When God was sending Moses to Egypt, Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” God said, “I AM WHO I AM,” and from that comes the wonderful tradition of naming God as Being itself. But in the Middle Ages, St. Bonaventure argued that there is an even higher name for God and it is delivered to us here in John’s letter. God is love! The being of God is love. Love is not just something that God does. Love is not just one of God’s activities or attributes. All religions in some ways believe that love is God’s attribute and activity. But only Christianity says that God is love. That means within the unity of God, there has to be someone who loves, someone who is loved, and the love that they share. The Holy Spirit is the love that God is. So, by loving one another, we demonstrate that our knowledge of God is not a detached scientific venture, rather a real participation in him who is love. If you love, you are begotten by God and know God. Authentic love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit operating in you. When we really love, that’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is operating in you. 

Third sign of the Holy Spirit. The night before he died, at the very climax of his life, Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love” (John 15:9-10). We believe that God’s love is unconditional. There’s something called “love of pre-election” and it is littered everywhere in the Bible. Speaking to Jeremiah God said to him, “Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). That’s love of pre-election. In his letter to Romans, the great St. Paul said, “God proves his love that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That’s love of pre-election. From the lips of Jesus himself we hear, “It was not you who chose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). That’s love of pre-election. God’s love is unconditional. We have been loved into being, into existence. God makes us “ex nihilo,” from nothing, meaning that our very existence is an act of pure love of God. But if you want to remain in God’s love, you have to keep God’s commandments. So, the love of God is both unconditional and conditional. Is God playing hard to get? No! Is God being difficult, being overbearing and acting as a taskmaster? Not at all. God has given us the Holy Spirit. But if you want to remain in the Holy Spirit, you have to keep God’s commandments. In the Catholic Church, we believe that keeping God’s commandments gives us the privilege to participate in the love that God freely gives us. 

Fourth sign of the Holy Spirit. What’s the purpose of all this? Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). In my almost 17 years of pastoral ministry, I have met Christians who view God as being a tyrannical figure, who is putting us to the test all the time, who is unhappy with us, who is sucking joy out of us, and making impossible demands from us. Please, if that’s your view about God, impeach it from your mind and heart. Jesus wants his joy to be in us and he wants our joy to be complete. When St. Thomas Aquinas was asked what God does all day, his answer was that God enjoys himself. Yes, God delights in his own goodness. But God wants to share that joy with us. The flag of the Holy Spirit is joy. If you are a joyless Christian, something is wrong somewhere. Even if you know all the moral teachings of the Church, and have the correct doctrine, if you are joyless, you are not living in the Holy Spirit. Period! End of discussion! I tell you this, it is utterly anti-evangelical when a Christian, even if they are right about doctrine and morals, is radiating unhappiness. Jesus comes so that we might have life and have it to the full. He comes so that his joy might be in us. 

In his high priestly discourse of the Last Supper, Jesus says to his disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father” (John 15:14-15). I tell you, this is one of the texts in the Bible that sets Christianity apart from other religions and philosophies. This text expresses the totality of Christian revelation. Every religion talks about becoming God’s servants or obeying God and following his commands. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Christianity talks about those too. But then there is this text too, this declaration from no other person but Jesus himself. He’s saying that he no longer calls us servants, but friends. If someone had said to the ancient Greek philosophers, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato etc. that they can be called God’s friends, they will consider such an idea a crazy and outlandish one because you cannot be the friend of someone who is infinitely and qualitatively superior to you. But by giving us the Holy Spirit, by sharing his inner life with us, God makes us worthy of real friendship with him. Now, what do friends do? They love each other; they accompany each other; they obey each other; and they listen to each other. If you are a friend of God, you are not going to live a wild, irresponsible and immoral life. You will live in accord with God’s will.

Veni Sancte Spiritus!

 Happy Pentecost!