HOMILY PENTECOST SUNDAY Cycle C May 28, 2023

 HOMILY   PENTECOST SUNDAY      Cycle C  May 28, 2023

 The color for today’s Mass is Red.   Red is a good color.   What do you think of when you see the color red?  Watermelon?  Blood?   Firetrucks?  Why are firetrucks always red?  No blue firetrucks.

Or perhaps you think of a stop light, a red traffic light?   

Or do you think of something more political?  Red states vs. blue states?  Or if you are older, The “Reds”?  Red-China?  Anyone old enough to remember “Better dead than red?” 

Or do you think of the opposite, as in a “red-blooded American”?  And the “red, white and blue”?  Why is red always first?  Why not the white, blue and red????

For our Asian brothers and sisters red means joy and happiness.  Some years ago I did a wedding in South Carolina.  The bride’s mother was coming from Hong Kong, and the young couple asked me to wear red vestments for the wedding, since in Chinese culture white signifies sorrow, but red signifies joy.  So I wore red for the wedding.

In church we wear red for several different occasions.  Red signifies blood; but not blood as a sign of death, like in some horror film with gallons of fake blood over everything, but rather blood in the scriptural sense as a sign of life.  We wear red on the Feast of the Martyrs, like Sts Peter and Paul and John the Baptist.  Also for the Passion on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. 

But today we wear red primarily for the symbol of FIRE and the Holy Spirit.  In the first reading we heard that tongues as of fire came to rest on the disciples, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.    (point to windows.)

TWO                    TWO                    TWO          May 28, 2023

The result of these fireworks is that the disciples went from frightened and confused people hiding in fear, to bold and effective proclaimers of the Gospel, of the wonderful things God had done in Jesus Christ.  An amazing transformation.

The symbols of fire and the “strong, driving wind” are signs of energy, of life, of vitality, of power: and that is what the Holy Spirit brings to us.  Just as when God formed man out of the clay of the ground in the Book of Genesis, and blew into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being, so in the Gospel today the Resurrected Jesus breaths on the Apostles and says “Receive the Holy Spirit” and so they came alive in the Spirit! 

As an aside, did Jesus give the Holy Spirit to the Apostles on Easter Sunday night, as in our Gospel from John, or did the Holy Spirit come on the Apostles 50 days later, at Pentecost, as in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles?    What do you think?

Well, similarly, did you receive the Holy Spirit at your Baptism, perhaps as a baby, OR did you receive the Holy Spirit at your Confirmation, when you were in 8^th grade like me, or in high school, or some other time? 

          The correct answer to both questions is YES.  In our religion the correct answer is usually “both/and” instead of ‘either/or”. 

          Is Jesus divine or human?  YES.  Is God one or three?  YES.  Is the Bible the word of God or the words of humans?  YES.    Both/and.

Human logic is often too limited and inadequate to encompas the mystery of God.

Anyway, back to Pentecost:  The Spirit is all about life: just like when you have team spirit or school spirit, the school is exciting and vital and energized and alive, so also the Church, God’s people, when the Holy Spirit is present the Church is vital and energized and alive.   “No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” St. Paul assures us in the second reading today.  St. Paul is not talking about physical words, but rather to make this statement with conviction and sincerity and deeply lived faith. “No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”  The life of faith comes from the Holy Spirit.   

So, when you see faith-filled Christians who are alive, and filled with concern for others, and generous, and actively putting their Faith into action, who look like they have heard Good News and so radiate the joy of the Gospel, you recognize that these are Spirit-filled Christians.  Amen!  And you praise God for that.    //

But when you see Christians who look grumpy, and are stingy, and think of religion as being all about rules, and don’ts, and radiate an up-tight, constricted sense of narrow-mindedness and small-heartedness, you recognize that they are Spirit-lacking Christians.  The life is just not there.  They are dead in the Spirit.  There is not that burning flame of faith and love.        

The upsetting, disruptive, strong wind of the Spirit that overturns our neatly laid-out tables of rules and regulations and proper expectations is not there.  The Holy Spirit can certainly be messy. 

Spirit filled Christians are bright, brilliant, bold, red Christians: so bright you need sunglasses in their presence.  The Spirit-less Christians are kind of insipid, beige Christians.  They make you yawn, and put you to sleep.

Today, on this Pentecost, we are called to be RED Christians, to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit that we received at our Baptism and were sealed with at our Confirmation.  People should be able to see the Spirit of Christ at work in us.  

Therefore, Look and act like you have heard Good News, not bad news.  Act with courage in living the way of Christ.  Proclaim boldly by your deeds what you believe.  Jesus is Lord!

May you be on fire with the Holy Spirit!  Happy Pentecost!

Homily 5th Sunday of Easter May 7 2023

 Homily    5^th Sunday of Easter    May 7 2023

Stones.   Rocks.   Boulders.  In our second reading this morning St Peter – that is a statue of him holding the keys behind me – Peter calls Christ “a living stone’ a stone rejected by people but chosen and precious in God’s eyes.   Then Peter goes on to say that we, you and me, are “like living stones”.  I confess that on my first time reading this about “living stones” in preparation for my homily, the thought that immediately came to me was the scene in the movie, “everything everywhere all at once” when the mother and daughter become boulders with googly eyes.  Anyone else see that movie?    Well, try to get that image out of your mind now.

Because obviously that is not what St Peter is talking about.  Peter uses this image of living stones to talk about our being built into a temple, or as he says, a “spiritual house”, to be a dwelling place for Jesus in our world today.  We are called, and privileged, to have this special commission to be the location of, or to house, the presence of Jesus active in our world. 

St. Peter states: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  

Pretty neat.  Pretty special.  But also, hard work and sometimes difficult and dangerous.  We announce His praises by the way we live.

In the Gospel Jesus says to His disciples (that is, to you and me): “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”   Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Not easy.  There are plenty of things to trouble us.  The United States defaulting on its debt.  The war in Ukraine and the powder keg that is Taiwan.   Global warming and damage to the planet.  The scary prospects of the misuse of artificial intelligence.  The increase in mindless mass shootings here in Texas and Oklahoma and all over. 

The reckless way people drive.  Not to mention your own personal issues of work, health, and meaning. 

Is it any wonder that so many people seek escape in frenetic activity, in pornography and sex, in alcohol, drugs, and even suicide?   Suicide is on the rise in our country.

How can Jesus blithely say “Do not let your hearts be troubled”?   

How do you not let your heart be troubled when you see, and hear of, and experience so many troubling things?    Maybe we need to be like stones.  //

Listen again to what St Peter tells us who we are: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness (and there is plenty of darkness today) into his wonderful light.”  

[Today at this Mass we celebrate the Baptism of Liliana Renee,

As Jesus, through the Gift of the Holy Spirit, calls Liliana into the wonderful light of being a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own.]

We are to announce the way out of darkness into God’s wonderful light.  We do that by believing and following Jesus, and His way of living and loving.  As Jesus succinctly tells us in the Gospel today:  “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  

          God bless.