HOMILY PENTECOST 2025
PROMISE OF THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, LOVE, PEACE
Jn 14.15-26 AA 2.1-11 1Cor 12.3-7,12-13
And now for the kick start to getting out there and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus, continuing his mission of preaching, teaching, with words of hope and promise, accompanied by good deeds, with the tall order to go to the ends of the earth!
We had 150 or so grade 2’s and 3’s at St Therese’s for Mass on Friday, with a Pentecost theme. I find it a challenge to try and connect complicated theological concepts with where their thinking is at, but focus on the concrete reality of encouraging then to live as people who see the message of Jesus as a practical way of living a happy life, trying to make good choices and do the right thing, and to say sorry and seek forgiveness when they don’t, and isn’t that the case for all of us?!
While we all can remember the rote learned 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, being “wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord”, I prefer to emphasise the fruits of the Spirit, which Paul presents in Galatians: “love, peace, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and patience”, as I reckon they sum up well the way in which we should take these virtues to heart, in aiming to live a good Christian life, guided by the Spirit Jesus promises. Nor is this to forget the importance of forgiveness when we fail to live up to our hopes and expectations for ourselves, and others.
We speak of God’s Spirit being ever-present in our world, in a mysterious way, but our role is to respond to that Spirit by taking the Gospel to heart and believing in a God of life and life, revealed to us in Jesus as he walked this earth with his friends, and showed us the way to live as people of faith. As people who believe we are guided by the Spirit, we gain strength from that hope, but it’s obviously up to us to make the right decisions about how we live our lives.
Luke’s presentation of Pentecost in Acts of the Apostles has to be taken metaphorically, with the wind and tongues of fire symbolic of the Spirit coming from God as an unlimited force, as in God’s creative Spirit in Genesis, present in the darkness over the waters of chaos, bringing light and life and order into a world, which evolves from that moment. Then the fire signifies light and warmth coming into this world as a result of the Spirit’s enduring presence.
The speaking in different languages and people understanding each other is likewise a reflection of human diversity, and the universal nature of Jesus’s message for all who are prepared to listen and respond in faith, with no boundaries or limitations of race, colour, culture or creed. If only, this were taken to heart in our world today.
And when we come to today’s Gospel, in describing Jesus’s long, long farewell discourse (chapters 14-17), scripture scholar, Raymond Brown SS, puts it thus: “This Discourse is a unique composition, comparable to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount or to Luke’s collection of Jesus’ words on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem… This atemporal, non-spatial character gives the Discourse an abiding value as a message from Jesus to those of all time (thus including you and me!) who would believe… He recalls his past life, words and deeds, urging the addressees to emulate and even surpass these (in terms of expansion), to keep the commandments and to keep unity among themselves (always a challenge, given human nature and our diversity)… (The) mutual divine indwelling leads, in turn, into the theme of how the Spirit, Jesus and the Father will all dwell in the Christian… The paraclete (‘the one called alongside’)… dwells in all who love Jesus and keep his commandments and is with them forever.”
This is our faith, and prepares us to reflect on the significance of Trinity, which we focus on next weekend, about which there was so much confusion and unnecessary conflict in the early centuries of Christianity!
Then we have Paul outlining the wonderful diversity of human gifts, to be applied in practice in Christian communities, the Spirit “working in all sorts of different ways in different people.” So let’s rejoice in, and appreciate diversity, rather than highlighting differences as a means of exclusion, for which the Corinthians were notorious.
To conclude, I quote Claude Mostowik MSC’s insight for today’s feast: “Let us train ourselves to see creation and our place within it, with new eyes. Let us look for God’s creative presence and dynamic Spirit at world in the universe and its action throughout the broader community of God’s creation. The gift of speaking the gospel of Jesus Christ did not end on that day of Pentecost. It is ongoing.”
john hannon 8th June 2025