Sermon Cloud

Have you had the experience of meeting someone who you knew beyond a shadow of doubt was a person of faith? I still have memories of meeting such people while I was a young child, a teenager, and even as an adult. I marvel even today at the gift some people have to see the divine in the ordinary circumstances of life, and I long at times to have the eyes, ears and faith to recognize it. In fact, at times I'm sure that God has to hit me over the head with something very heavy so that I'll actually pay attention.

The Feast of Pentecost, which we celebrate today, was one of those experiences for the apostles and the early church (Acts 2:1-11) of the power of God to awaken even the most skeptical of Christ's followers, and to give them an experience of the living God who finds his home among us.

Jerusalem at the time was a very cosmopolitan city (Acts 2:5). People from many parts of the known world had made their homes there. In some ways, it was not much unlike places like Paris, London, New York and Toronto today. What was surprising was that the disciples, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, were understood in many languages, even though they had not spent countless hours memorizing vocabulary or grammatical rules.

This miracle continues to take place today, whenever God's word is shared in circumstances or 'language' that we understand. If we look around this city, we will find people of many different ethnicities, coming from many varied educational and occupational backgrounds. We also worship God in a variety of ways, according to various traditions and practices. Is it not possible that God can be present and speak in all the hearts of humanity?

If Pentecost recalls for us the moment at which God sent the Spirit in its fullness to dwell among us, perhaps we should pay closer attention to today's second reading, and put ourselves in the place of the Romans who first heard its words. The wisdom of the early Church teaches us that it is the Holy Spirit, alive in our hearts, that gives us life (Rom 8:9) and all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God ( Rom 8:13-14).

On Thursday evening of this past week, we gathered here in this church to give thanks to God for the gift that Robert Harris has been to our diocese. Coming from the Archdiocese of Montreal, he has found his home among us over the past four years and now the Holy Father has asked him to make his home among the faithful of the Diocese of Saint John, New Brunswick. As he departs this week, we pray that the Lord will accompany him and inspire him to be a living witness to the love of God which unites us.

We give thanks today for the gift of the Holy Spirit which teaches us all to love as Christ has loved us. It is this Spirit, alive in us that prompts us to keep His commandments (Jn 14:15) and in turn the Father loves us as only a parent can love a child. Out of His love, God and Jesus come to us in moments of prayer, in the Sacraments of the Church and in so many other ways, to make their home within us. What a wonderful gift we are given! ... if only we have the eyes of faith to recognize it, the ears of faith to listen for it, and the motivation of faith to put it into action.