June 9, 2019 - Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost Sunday

“Don’t Be Afraid of Being Scorched”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

The Holy Spirit is rather mysterious to us. In our Catholic iconography, our art, we depict his presence and action in unusual ways—a dove, wind, water, rays of light, and clouds. They all represent the Holy Spirit in some way.   Yet however mysterious, we know the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church and indeed within us when we open our lives to him.
 
Today’s Solemnity of Pentecost invites us to profess our faith in the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. Today we join the Church in crying out: Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit! It is a prayer that comes from the heart of Christ. At the Last Supper, Our Lord said, “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever" (Jn 14: 15-16).  
 
Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit! Do we really understand what we are asking for when we say those words? Ah! “Be careful what do ask for” goes the old saying. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came as fire! To be possessed by the Holy Spirit is be “on fire.” On Pentecost, the disciples received the fire of the Holy Spirit that kindled in them the new ardour of God, fulfilling the words of the Lord: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" (Lk 12: 49).
 
Pentecost began the Church’s work to renew the face of the earth. The disciples’ fear and trepidation turned to courage and confidence. They were transformed! How has our Baptism transformed us? What effects have the gifts of the Spirit received at our Confirmation been effective in us?
 
I think the power of the Holy Spirit may frighten us. Pope Benedict said, “We are afraid of being ‘scorched’ and prefer to stay just as we are.” Afraid of faith’s demands, we retreat, we content ourselves with doing the minimum. On the one hand, we want to follow Jesus, and on the other, we are afraid of the consequences involved.
 
St. Paul urged St. Timothy: “Fan into flame the gift of God.” Do we do this with the gift of our Baptism and Confirmation? Do we have any of the nerve, the energy, the drive and the zeal of the apostles at Pentecost? Pope Francis warns us not to become “arm-chair Christians” or “Christians stuck-halfway.” He warns us too about “whitewashing” our faith with no real conversion inside.
 
Today is often called the birthday of the Church. Today, within a culture that is increasingly sceptical and secularist, within our Church beset by so many problems, our temptation is to “shut down” or “draw back.” But this is the time we need the fire of the Holy Spirit more than ever.
 
“Come, Holy Spirit! Enkindle in us the fire of your love” is a bold prayer! Let’s never be afraid to be scorched by that flame. Let it move all of us, priests and people, not to be content with the minimum but to be strong enough to change our habits and attitudes, to become more prayerful, more generous in our charity, more forgiving, and more vocal about the beauty of our faith which forms us into passionate disciples. Wouldn’t that bring about the renewal of the Church we all hope to see?
 

O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours
And our inmost being fill!

Heal our wounds, our strength renew.
On your dryness pour your dew.
 Melt the frozen, warm the chill.

On the faithful who adore
and confess you evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend.

Give them your salvation, Lord.
Give them joys that never end!