Pentecost, 2016

John 20:19-23

Listen to Saint Basil the Great: “From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of the faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts. Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we enter into eternal happiness, and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God, indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations – we become God.”

Jesus promised this Spirit to His Church and his people; the early Christians relied on the Spirit to guide them. We are told by Saint Paul that the Spirit gives each of us a gift for the building up of the Church. Every time we receive a Sacrament we partake of Jesus' spirit, especially in Baptism and Confirmation. It would seem that the Spirit would be obvious to each of us. And yet, when we think about the Spirit, sometimes we have in our minds the image of people speaking in tongues – Holy Rollers, perhaps – and being Catholics, we tend to resist that kind of spirituality. And so with all those wondrous promises about the Spirit, we kind of blunder through life not even aware that the Spirit is constantly giving Himself to us.

I don't think you have to be a mystic or a monk to experience the Spirit. You and I, are, after all, beings who experience everything through our senses. We have the five physical senses and the four mental senses – the ability to know, memory, emotion and imagination. Even if we have mystical experiences, they need to be translated into sensory information if we are to experience them at all. And that's where I think we become confused. Have you ever had an impulse to do something, something unusual, outside of your normal pattern, which if done might have resulted in something good? That's one way the Spirit works. Have you ever had a moment when someone popped into your mind, someone you hadn't thought about in years? That's another way the Spirit works. Have you ever had a moment when you felt like you were part of something much bigger than yourself? Maybe on top of a mountain, or sitting beside a seashore, or holding a newborn infant? That's the Spirit; one of his gifts is joy, and Jesus wants our joy to be complete. Jesus told us that the Spirit would teach us everything and remind us of all that He taught his apostles. Sometimes when you are in prayer or reading scripture, an insight will come, or a prompting. That's the Holy Spirit. He doesn't reveal our whole future to us, but he is always working in the present moment.

Now, you say, doesn't modern psychology tell us about the unconscious? Don't certain sensory stimuli trigger the recall of memories that were buried deep in our brains? We all know that we do things and fail to do things for reasons which aren't always clear to us. And just as we have impulses to do good things, we also have them to do evil things. And sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Is the Spirit whispering in one ear and the devil in the other? Not really. Jesus told us that his followers would have power over Satan, and he could not harm us where it really counts. I think we get an inkling of what's going on when we read the story of Adam and Eve. We blame the serpent for the sin of our first parents, but all he did was suggest to Eve that in forbidding them to eat of a particular fruit, God was keeping them from becoming like Him. When Eve looked at the fruit, it says that she saw that it really looked delicious; she listened to her own voice rather than God's.

There are no coincidences for a Christian. And Jesus gives us the Spirit so that we can tell good from evil. And the Spirit is always interacting with us – always. Our task is to recognize the Spirit and become more sensitive to His presence.

Pick up any Life of a Saint and you will see where that sensitivity gets you. There are many examples, but Mother Angelica comes to mind. At a very early age she began listening to the Spirit, and more important, acting on what she believed the Spirit was telling her to do. With great confidence, she would step out; and if she was on the wrong track it would become apparent quickly, Because the Spirit protects us from error. Likewise, if she was on the right track, the Spirit would confirm that. And as time went on she learned to tell the difference between the voice of the Spirit and her own wishful thinking. The biggest problem we have is that most of the time we don't act on the impulses given to us by the Spirit, so we don't learn to tell the difference between His voice and the voices of others or of ourselves. But it's within your reach and mine to be on intimate terms with this third person of the Blessed Trinity.

When I was young a common belief was that we human beings only used about five percent of our brains. It turns out that that isn't really true; But I think we could say something like that about many Christians; we have this wonderful gift from God, the Holy Spirit, who is a person, who interacts with us, whose mission is to make us saints, who wants to give us joy, who has given each of us gifts to give each other.

So on this Feast of Pentecost, think about these things. Jesus promised to give you and I the Spirit He told us what the Spirit could do in us and through us and for us. The early Christians and the Saints all showed us that the Spirit is active in the lives of his people – even up to today. And there isn't any reason you and I can't have what Jesus promised. So pray that the Spirit help you hear Him better; and then do what the great Saints did, what the First Christians did, and look for the Spirit in your daily lives, and when you think you hear Him, act on what He is telling you; and count on the promise that he will show you if you are wrong and confirm your action if you are right. And always remember that when you experience joy, the Spirit is there.