Pentecost Manifestation

To each individual, the manifestation of the spirit is given for some benefit. I am going to read that again, this is The Second Reading. To each individual, the manifestation of the spirit is given for some benefit. To each individual, the manifestation of the spirit is given. I want you to think about that. God has given you the Holy Spirit. Each individual, every baptized person of the Church, has received the manifestation of the Spirit.

I want you to think about what manifestation means. I looked it up in the dictionary. To manifest means to make visible to the eyes and to the mind. Each and every one of you has had God made manifest. You have seen God either with your eyes or with your mind. The Holy Spirit has been manifest in you. It is given for some benefit. The Reading from St. Paul goes on to say that there are different kinds of benefits. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts that we receive, but the same Lord. There are different workings of the Holy Spirit in each of us, but the same Lord. There are different ways that the Holy Spirit manifests himself in our lives, but the same Lord.

I want you to think about that first of all in your life. How have you seen God with your eyes and with your mind? Because every individual, every one of you has seen God. If you had not, I do not think you would not be here today. How have you seen Him? I want to go over a little bit of the sequence that we just heard, because those are all manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I invite you, if you want to, to close your eyes and think about it. Try to meditate on that right now. How has God been manifest to you? How have you seen Him with your eyes? Or with your mind?

In the Sequence we hear this calling of the Holy Spirit, “Veni Sanctu Spiritus. Come Holy Spirit, shed the ray of light divine.” I am just going to give you some of the litanies of how God may have manifested Himself to you or in you. “Comforter the best.” Have you ever been comforted by God? Have you felt His comfort? That is the Holy Spirit. “Refreshment here below.” Have you ever felt refreshed in your spiritual life? “In our labor rest, most sweet.” Have you ever found, even when you are working, that you feel a rest and a sweetness because you know you are doing God’s will? “Grateful coolness in the heart.” Just a simple gratitude in your heart. “Solace in the midst of woe.” Has God ever comforted you during a difficult time in life? “Most blessed light divine, shine within these hearts of yours. Fill our inmost being. Heal our wounds.” Have you ever experienced the healing of God? “Renew our strength. On our dryness pour your dew.” Have you ever gone through a time of spiritual dryness and then all of a sudden you felt again the Holy Spirit? “Wash the stains of guilt away.” Think of the last time you went to Confession and you walked out of there and just felt so light. I love this line, “Bend the stubborn heart and will.” Has God ever been able to get through and bend your heart or your will? “Melt the frozen, warm the chill. Guide the guide the steps that go astray. Give them virtue’s sure reward. Give them Your salvation, Lord. Give them joy that never ends.”

Alright, you can open your eyes. Having known this manifestation, having seen God in some way and felt and seen Him in your own mind, the reality is you have had an experience of God and now, on Pentecost, you become a manifestation of God for others. What that means again is you become a way for other people to see God in their minds and in their eyes. To actually visibly see God before them. That is what the celebration of Pentecost is. Once Jesus ascended into heaven, that is the last time we would ever see Jesus in the flesh on Earth.

Then He sent His Holy Spirit, and now in your flesh, in my flesh, in all the baptized flesh God is manifesting himself. That means that other people are going to see God in you. He is going to manifest Himself through you to them. Other people will see God with their eyes and their minds through you. What an amazing thing that we celebrate on Pentecost. I really believe that if each and every one of us were true to that call within us, if we really experienced this union with God, then the world be set on fire. Imagine if everyone at St. Gabriel’s Parish, or even if everyone in this Mass alone, if everyone right here realized God is manifest in you. If other people could see God in you, the Church would be alive. There would be no atheists today. There would be no people who did not believe in God because they would see Him in us. Just realize that on this Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, that we celebrate today that God has manifested Himself to every individual. Not only that, he wants to manifest Himself to every person throughout the world through you. If you do not have anything that you remember, ask the Holy Spirit to give you that memory, or even a fresh experience of the manifestation of God. When we live in that, all of a sudden you will become a manifestation of God’s love to the entire world.