Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-11, Gal 5:16-25, Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

 

The Holy Spirit! Finally, we come to celebrate this great solemnity honoring the Holy Spirit of God. We complete the great 50 days of Easter. We have celebrated 7 weeks of 7 days to show that the Spirit is the perfect completion of all that happened to Jesus in His death and resurrection.

Today’s readings give us a clear message: God the Father and Jesus continue to be with us and guide us in the Holy Spirit. The guidance that they give us is a concrete and clear direction for our lives. First, we can understand from the Acts of the Apostles that we have a capacity for understanding one another that goes beyond the languages that we speak. This is so very important today when there is such strike and animosity between different peoples and a difference of beliefs. The secular answer to this strife and animosity would have us believe that religion is the cause of the problem and the answer is to give up religion and its practices. For us who follow the Lord Jesus, the answer is true charity and living in the Spirit.

The letter to the Galatians gives us more concrete advice which is against the standards of today’s world. We who follow the Lord Jesus are asked to give up the works of the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.

These works are so strong in our world today! Our modern culture almost teaches that these works of the flesh are wonderful gifts of goodness. If we watch television, go to movies, listen to radio or use the internet, so much of what is described here as works of the flesh is exalted and proposed as good.

How much we need the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us! Only when our hearts and minds are open to the presence of the Spirit do we have the strength to struggle against the works of the flesh. Only this inner focus on the Spirit gives us courage to stand against the values of our present world.

The letter to the Galatians gives us a description of the person who lives in the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is so different from the works of the flesh! Today, let us commit ourselves again to live in the Spirit and to walk in His ways.

Peace and all good!

Fr. Valery Burusu

Parochial Administrator