May 15, 2005

The great Feast of Pentecost is why we are here today. Saint Peter preached a most powerful sermon on that day in Jerusalem and baptized thousands: proof of the Holy Spirit at work, since Peter would be the first to admit that he was worthless without that supernatural help.

That is history, but we are making history in these days in a most spectacular way. The holy death of Pope John Paul II woke many people up to the mystery of suffering and dying, and the choice of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope is an inspired evidence of God at work. How vain are those remote pundits who disdain the Gospel and say that the Church is out of touch. The Church is God’s instrument for touching his Holy Face. Millions of young people prayed at the late Pope’s funeral and rejoiced in his promised glory, and days later they and countless faithful throughout the world marveled at what God had done in giving us Benedict XVI. Our celebration of Pentecost is a little late this year: In terms of the calendar it is unusually early, but it comes after so many marvelous workings of the Holy Spirit. Holy Week and Easter with the death of a Pope and the appearance of another Pope, and the mystical configuration of the liturgical readings for all those days as if we were living in the first days of the Acts of the Apostles, made us part of the first Pentecost when the crowds were converted by the preaching of Peter and his fellow apostles.

We live in times when our Almighty God is especially vivid and dramatically active. This may be due to our Lord’s decision that our faithless generation needs signs and wonders for our unbelief. Nonetheless, the signs are there and we are accountable to Him for accepting or rejecting them. To do his work on earth, the Holy Spirit gives us the seven gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, and Fear of the Lord. You can read about them on websites (NewAdvent.org for instance — look up “Holy Spirit” — “Gifts”) or read about them in the Catechism. But the reading is frail prelude to the living of them.

Each week we have a goodly number of new people worshipping in our parish. Do find ways to introduce yourselves to our new parishioners, and also pray for the children receiving the sacraments of Confession and Holy Eucharist in these bright days of May. Offer your own communions and confessions for our new Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who has great works to do for us and with us in the power of the Holy Spirit.