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We Celebrate This Great Feast of Pentecost When the Lord Fulfilled His Promise to Send the Holy Spirit

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We Celebrate This Great Feast of Pentecost When the Lord Fulfilled His Promise to Send the Holy Spirit We celebrate this great feast of Pentecost when the Lord fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, which is the exchange of life and love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity, and this exchange is so real that it is another divine person of the Holy Trinity. And the action and presence of the Holy Spirit is mysterious, yet the Spirit’s presence and effects can be readily experienced. This is why in the Bible one of the great symbols of the Holy Spirit is the wind because the wind is a good analogy for the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. With the wind, you don’t know where it comes from and you don’t really know where it goes. You cannot follow its path, and yet signs of the presence of the wind are unmistakable: the trees bend, leaves move around, you can hear the sound it makes when it blows, especially when it blows hard. So too with the Holy Spirit. St. Paul gives us signs of the unmistakable evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the Fruits of the Spirit. I want to take them one-by-one. Love: all through the Easter season, I’ve been talking about love, following the teaching of St. John which we’ve been hearing in the Easter season readings. Just to recap: at the heart of authentic love is self-denial as it expresses itself in following God’s commands, giving ourselves to God, self-sacrificing for others, and receiving the love of others in mutual exchange. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit which leads us, prompts us, and enables us to live and to grow in authentic love. Joy too is a sure sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Joy could be described I think, as an unexplainable happiness. We are happy in all kinds of situations. We are happy when we do a good job at something or receive a reward. I am happy when I play good golf. Joy is much deeper than this, almost an unexplainable happiness that comes from the presence of God in our souls. As the presence of the Holy Spirit is cultivated in our lives, so is the presence of joy. St. Paul also speaks of peace as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises His peace to us, as in the Gospel of John. Could be described as peace of soul. The one who lives in sin, the one who lives far from God lives, deep down, in anxiety. But the one whose sins are forgiven, the one who lives close to God has the peace which comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in their soul, making them a friend of God. This is a peace which the world cannot give. When the presence of the Holy Spirit grows in our souls we also grow in patience because we begin to see life from a bigger perspective, from God’s perspective and then the little annoying things of life or the things that bother us about others begins not to bother us so much because by the presence of the Holy Spirit we begin to see that little annoyances which many times we get so worked up about, in God’s perspective are not all that important. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit which gives us this perspective and patience is the fruit of this. The presence of the Holy Spirit not only draws us into patience with the little annoyances of life, but the presence of the Holy Spirit imbues within us a patience and a forbearance with the big trials of life. By the presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls, we are led to remain faithful to God no matter what comes and to be generous in offering ourselves to God and for others, even in the midst of trial. Finally, self control. When God created us in the beginning, He puts desires in us but these desires were in perfect balance and perfect harmony, but original sin caused these desires to be out of control. With the presence of the Holy Spirit, will, free choice is strengthened so that we do not have to follow blindly these impulses that might tempt us to sin. So the Holy Spirit draws us away from selfishness, so we can choose to be good and holy. On the day of Pentecost, the Apostles heard the strong driving wind. The power of the Holy Spirit still blows through our lives today. Jesus wishes to fan the flames of the Holy Spirit within us into a great fire. Pray for an increase and just as you can see the evidence of the wind when you look outside, you will continue to see the evidence in your life of the Spirit’s presence: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Given by Father Mark Gurtner at Our Lady of Good Hope Catholic Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, 2012. .
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