Happy Birthday everyone! Do you know why it’s your birthday? Pentecost. Pentecost is the birthday of the church. This is the day that the church was born. It happened at this moment when the disciples were gathered together in one place, the Holy Spirit came down upon them, and tongues of fire came down upon each and every one of them. And then, after these tongues of fire came upon them, they immediately went out and proclaimed the gospel, and that day, three thousand people were baptized.
It’s the birthday of the church because just as the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and at that moment she conceived and bore in her son Jesus, Jesus would go into the world, He would work his miracles, he would suffer, he would die, and he would rise. And after he rose, his disciples would experience him. He ascended into heaven, and after he ascended into heaven, He sent forth his Spirit onto the earth. By that, he made the church this new Body of Christ. So, the way that Jesus encounters the world right now, in this era, is through the church. The way that people will come to see touch and hear the voice of Jesus is through this Body of Christ that is gathered together. So, today, on Pentecost, this is the church’s birthday.
So, when the disciples were gathered together, tongues of fire came upon each one of them. Then, when they went out to the world, people didn’t see the tongues of fire anymore because the disciples were on fire themselves. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.
We heard in the gospel, Jesus says that as the Father has given me everything, I will give you everything. And by everything, he means the Holy Spirit. He will give us everything in the Holy Spirit.
Saint Paul says, “We need to live in the spirit.” What does it mean to live in the spirit? How do we live in the spirit? Because he says if we don’t live in the spirit, we will give in to the desires of the flesh. And I think these are worth repeating because these are some of the core sins we can experience if we are not living by the spirit. So, he says, “The works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury.” Does that one ring a bell for anyone? “Acts of selfishness, dissension, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like.” He says, “I warn you as I warned you before, do not do these things or you will not enter the Kingdom of God.”
Saint Paul will say, further on in the letter, that the flesh and the spirit are always fighting against one another. And so, he is saying that we need to choose one or the other, to live in the Spirit and if we don’t, we are going to live in the flesh.
So how do we live in the Spirit? Well, here’s where we get the fruits of the Holy Spirit and he says the fruits are these: “Joy, Love, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Self- Control, Gentleness, these are the fruits of the spirit.” And I think it’s just good for us to examine. Are the fruits of the Spirit evident in my life? Or are the works of the flesh evident in my life? And the truth is, we are in need of conversion so there may be some of this happening to all of us.
We are now in the time of living in the Holy Spirit. The primary way that we live in and experience the Holy Spirit are through the Sacraments of Initiation. So that if we have been baptized, received communion, and confirmed, when the Holy Spirit was sealed upon us, we are living in the Holy Spirit. But the truth is, sometimes in our lives we can fall away from that. Sometimes in our lives we can give our lives over to the flesh. That’s why we have the great Sacrament of Confession. The Sacrament is there so we can be healed once more and open ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit.
How else practically can we live in the Spirit? Well. It’s primarily this, through coming together as the Body of Christ, and celebrating and worshiping God, and receiving the gift of the Eucharist. That’s when Jesus gives us everything. We receive his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into us and we are living in the Spirit. Just as the disciples went out into the world and they were on fire, you will be on fire by the end of this Mass; each and every one of us will be on fire. And in order for the world to be baptized, just as the disciples baptized three thousand that day, that fire must show in us. When we go out to the world, people should see the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives. They should see the Holy Spirit working in us. They should look at us and say, ‘I don’t know what you have but I want it. I want to be whatever it is you are being.’
And finally, I think it’s good when we are outside of church that we have people that we gather together with as the Body of Christ. I want you to think about that. Jesus promised where two or three are gathered in my name. he’s present among them. Do you have good friends that you can pray with? Do you have friends that you can get together with every so often and just pray, two or three people? There’s somebody who is going through an illness, or somebody that needs healing, or somebody that needs deliverance? Would you know who to call to come together and pray over them? It’s so important that we realize that not only have we received the Holy Spirit, but when we come together as Christ’s body, we live it.
So, from the moment of Pentecost on, Jesus would not appear to the disciples anymore because He had made them His Body. We are the Body of Christ on earth. And our Lord wants to set the world on fire through us. Just as he was in the world and people could finally see all of creation, God was waiting to send His only son so that people could see Jesus. And Jesus said, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. Well, after His Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, it could be said of us. If you have seen me, if people see you, they have seen the Father because we live in the Spirit. So let us just take a moment after the homily to examine ourselves. Are we living in the flesh? Or are we living in the Spirit?
Then, together, we open our hearts to beg and ask God to send the Holy Spirit upon us. So that when we receive the Eucharist today, we become his Body for the whole world. My dear brothers and sisters, may we not live in the flesh but live in the Spirit.
