Pentecost - C 2025

Many of us have too narrow an understanding of the Holy Spirit.  We frequently box Him in, regulating Him to the realm of emotion and the spontaneous.  And because of such a narrow view, those who earnestly ache for and desire the presence of the Holy Spirit can grow frustrated.  “After all,” they might ask, “why does the Holy Spirit seem to operate so vividly and powerfully in the lives of others and not my own?”

Of course, the Holy Spirit can and often does work in dramatic and perceptibly powerful ways, stirring up our emotions and driving us to virtue.  But perhaps more frequently He operates in quiet ways, often acting behind the scenes.  The Holy Spirit is much more than spontaneous divine inspiration.

What we see in the event of Pentecost is not merely a spontaneous act of God, unleashing the Holy Spirit who had not yet been unleashed on the world.  Rather, Pentecost was the culmination of a careful plan that for millennia had built up to this point.  But the Holy Spirit was active well before that Sunday morning in the upper room.  In Genesis we hear about the Spirit of God hovering over the waters as God began to create the world (cf. Genesis 1:2).  The Holy Spirit was also active in the writers of the Old Testament as they put pen to parchment to compose Sacred Scripture.  He was present before Pentecost.

What we see in Pentecost, therefore, is not the first visit of the Holy Spirit upon the earth but rather the concentration of the Holy Spirit in a new body.  Prior to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit seemed to work here and there and everywhere – almost like a river that covered the whole earth.  After all, the Holy Spirit is the love of God that overflows into all His creation.  But Pentecost was like taking that river and concentrating it through a narrow and immensely powerful channel.  Christ had formed a body of followers, a body of believers, in the Church.  And on Pentecost that body received its soul – the Holy Spirit.  And wherever that body lives and acts, we have the assurance and guarantee that the Holy Spirit is there, powerfully concentrated.  God has designed it so that where the Church is, there is His Holy Spirit.

Throughout history the Church has been through good times and bad, ups and downs.  She has produced champions in her saints and has been wounded by her traitors.  She is at one and the same time holy and in need of purification.  And through all her high points and low points, Pentecost assures us that where the Church is, there is the Holy Spirit.  Through the Church’s Sacraments, through her preaching and the handing on of the Word of God, through her forms of worship, we receive the Holy Spirit.  There is no more guessing where the Holy Spirit may or may not be.  He animates the body of Christ on earth.

This means that if you are connected to the Church, if you make use of the different gifts of grace she gives us, then you have the Holy Spirit.  When we are baptized, we are assured that the Holy Spirit lives in us.  When we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, we are assured that that presence of the Holy Spirit has been renewed and strengthened.  When we receive the Eucharist, we are assured that we have received those graces poured out on Calvary.  When we have forfeited the Holy Spirit through our sins, we are assured that He enters our souls once more when we hear the words “I absolve you from your sins.”  When we are joined to the Church, we know we have the Holy Spirit.

Again, we must not think that the Holy Spirit only works by inflaming our emotions and giving us strong feelings of the presence of God.  Of course, He often does.  But He is not boxed in to only working with our emotions or subjective experience.  I often think of St. Therese of Lisieux.  She powerfully experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit through deep consolation and peace.  But in the last months of her life she experienced very little when it came to consolation and the feeling of God’s presence.  And yet she was faithful.  She continued to pray despite the darkness she went through.  She was faithful in receiving the Sacraments.  Of course, we would not say that the Holy Spirit was not active in the last days of her life.  He was.  But He was working in more subtle, hidden ways.

It is a wonderful gift when we can clearly perceive the presence of the Holy Spirit through our emotions.  It’s a wonderful surprise when He seems to act in our lives with sudden spontaneity.  But make no mistake: If you are joined to the Church and are in a state of grace, you have the same Holy Spirit that the apostles had at Pentecost.  And if you are earnestly trying to grow closer to our Lord and receive more of the Holy Spirit, it is happening.  Perhaps the emotional experiences are rare for you.  But that’s ok.  He is still at work, changing you.  As you listen to this homily right now, you are undergoing changes.  You are growing older.  Your hair is growing (well, for some of you anyways).  Your nails are growing.  You are changing even though you don’t immediately perceive it.  It is the same with the Holy Spirit.  He often works subtly in the background of our lives.

Because the Spirit often works invisibly, we must remind ourselves of His presence and act accordingly.  We’ll be more peaceful if we regularly call upon Him – in the small things and the great.  We’ll be more confident if we surrender to Him, as the apostles did that Pentecost morning.  Because of Pentecost, we have the assurance that the Holy Spirit is with the Church.

So, ask for the Holy Spirit.  Rely on Him.  Trust that He is already working in you.  And remember: if you belong to the Church, you don’t need to search far and wide.  The Spirit of God is with you and He is not finished with you yet.