Homily
Solemnity of Pentecost B
27 May 2012
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Readings
Audio
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Most of you recognize this great refrain from Easter Sunday morning. In fact, this glorious refrain is used as the psalm response for the entire octave of Easter. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!
My dear friends, our challenge this morning is to come to Pentecost Sunday, the end of the Easter season, with the same joy that we had on Easter morning. And yet even this is not enough. It is not nearly enough. For to come to Pentecost Sunday with anything less than a more perfect and profound joy than even that joy we had on Easter Sunday, is to fail to appreciate and celebrate the unique and powerful gift of the Holy Spirit.
For did our Lord not tell us what He told those first disciples to whom he appeared after his resurrection - that it would be better for you if I ascend to the Father, for if I do not go, I will not prepare a place for you there, and if I do not go, the Spirit who will remind you of everything that I did and said, and the Spirit who will send you out to do greater things than I do, will not come. If I do not go, the Advocate will not come.
This promise of our Lord gives us no option but to gather with a more perfect and profound joy on Pentecost Sunday, for things have gotten better for us over the last 50 days, profoundly better. The Easter season has not been for the Church a desperate hanging on to the memory of the Resurrection, nor has it been a careful attention to the last remaining ripple effects of the power of Easter morning. No, if this Easter season was worth celebrating at all, it has been a great crescendo of 50 days of witnessing to the power and truth and grace of the Lord's Resurrection redeeming the world from the inside out through the working of the Holy Spirit!
By the power of the same Spirit, you and I have become witnesses to greater things than those who were with the Lord during his Resurrection appearances. The Lord said it would be better for us if He returned to the Father, for his Spirit would do better things, and we have been witnesses not of lesser things, but of greater. Easter has not been a desperate remembering of how nice it would have been to have put our hand in Jesus' side like the apostle Thomas; no Easter has been a proclamation that we have seen greater things than this!
For we have seen our Church filled with the Spirit of Pentecost do everything that Jesus did and say what he said, and in more places around the world. We have seen streams of living water flow out through the baptism of the old and young. We have been touched by the newness and innocence of those being fed from the altar for the first time in holy communion. We have seen the Risen Lord active through his holy spirit in the sacrament of confirmation, and that same spirit stirred up in the graduation of many students. Couples too have come to the Church to call down the Holy Spirit upon each other in the sacrament of marriage, leaving the altar no longer two, but one flesh. Finally, I can testify as vocation director of the Archdiocese, that through the working of the Holy Spirit men even today are being conformed to the living image of Jesus Christ through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
So if those women who were first present at the tomb had reason to proclaim on Easter morning - we have seen the Risen Lord! So much moreso do we on Pentecost, we who have lived through the 50 days of Easter in the year of our Lord 2012, have reason to proclaim - we have seen the Risen Lord. In the power of the Spirit given at Pentecost, we have seen greater things than those first women. Our Lord promised that we would, and we have. Woe to us if we do not celebrate and pray with a greater and more profound and perfect joy on this great Solemnity of Pentecost.
For this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Solemnity of Pentecost B
27 May 2012
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Readings
Audio
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Alleluia! Alleluia!Most of you recognize this great refrain from Easter Sunday morning. In fact, this glorious refrain is used as the psalm response for the entire octave of Easter. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!
My dear friends, our challenge this morning is to come to Pentecost Sunday, the end of the Easter season, with the same joy that we had on Easter morning. And yet even this is not enough. It is not nearly enough. For to come to Pentecost Sunday with anything less than a more perfect and profound joy than even that joy we had on Easter Sunday, is to fail to appreciate and celebrate the unique and powerful gift of the Holy Spirit.
For did our Lord not tell us what He told those first disciples to whom he appeared after his resurrection - that it would be better for you if I ascend to the Father, for if I do not go, I will not prepare a place for you there, and if I do not go, the Spirit who will remind you of everything that I did and said, and the Spirit who will send you out to do greater things than I do, will not come. If I do not go, the Advocate will not come.
This promise of our Lord gives us no option but to gather with a more perfect and profound joy on Pentecost Sunday, for things have gotten better for us over the last 50 days, profoundly better. The Easter season has not been for the Church a desperate hanging on to the memory of the Resurrection, nor has it been a careful attention to the last remaining ripple effects of the power of Easter morning. No, if this Easter season was worth celebrating at all, it has been a great crescendo of 50 days of witnessing to the power and truth and grace of the Lord's Resurrection redeeming the world from the inside out through the working of the Holy Spirit!
By the power of the same Spirit, you and I have become witnesses to greater things than those who were with the Lord during his Resurrection appearances. The Lord said it would be better for us if He returned to the Father, for his Spirit would do better things, and we have been witnesses not of lesser things, but of greater. Easter has not been a desperate remembering of how nice it would have been to have put our hand in Jesus' side like the apostle Thomas; no Easter has been a proclamation that we have seen greater things than this!
For we have seen our Church filled with the Spirit of Pentecost do everything that Jesus did and say what he said, and in more places around the world. We have seen streams of living water flow out through the baptism of the old and young. We have been touched by the newness and innocence of those being fed from the altar for the first time in holy communion. We have seen the Risen Lord active through his holy spirit in the sacrament of confirmation, and that same spirit stirred up in the graduation of many students. Couples too have come to the Church to call down the Holy Spirit upon each other in the sacrament of marriage, leaving the altar no longer two, but one flesh. Finally, I can testify as vocation director of the Archdiocese, that through the working of the Holy Spirit men even today are being conformed to the living image of Jesus Christ through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
So if those women who were first present at the tomb had reason to proclaim on Easter morning - we have seen the Risen Lord! So much moreso do we on Pentecost, we who have lived through the 50 days of Easter in the year of our Lord 2012, have reason to proclaim - we have seen the Risen Lord. In the power of the Spirit given at Pentecost, we have seen greater things than those first women. Our Lord promised that we would, and we have. Woe to us if we do not celebrate and pray with a greater and more profound and perfect joy on this great Solemnity of Pentecost.
For this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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