Homily
Solemnity of Pentecost
28 May 2023
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
AMDG
Will I play my part?
St. Paul says in the 2nd reading from 1 Cor that to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. I have received the 7-fold gifts of the Spirit, first in baptism then deepened and strengthened in Confirmation, and today stirred up by the celebration of Pentecost, so that I can complete my mission.
None of us exists for our own sake. It's the most evil lie destroying lives in the world around us. It's not my privacy, my truth, my choice, my body. I don't make sense on my own, for I am relational by nature. My life is a gift with a responsibility. This is the worldview stamped into our nature, yet also a truth drawn out so beautifully by the celebration of the Christian mysteries that reach their culmination today in Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
As Travis Kelce said to the trash-talking mayor of Cincinnati after the Chiefs beat the Bengals in the AFC Championship game - know your role!
Will I play my part? It's a dramatic question that lies at the heart of every life, every story. It's a question to be discerned in relation to the Holy Spirit, who is sent today to reveal all things, including the meaning of my life. What is more, the Holy Spirit descends as a fire that puts my soul in anguish until my purpose in accomplished.
Will I play my part?
I pray that through the Holy Spirit you can say a confident yes to this question! The courage to act with faith in God - to act with confidence - is another gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives through His Spirit in the upper room to the fearful disciples a courage and peace that will compel each of the apostoles to play his part. The peace and unity manifested is that no matter how hard the circumstances, there is confidence that through the Holy Spirit each apostles has everything, certainly everything he needs, to empty himself and make a gift of His life.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you. For my own sake, Jesus invites me through His Spirit, into a cooperation, participation and incorporation into his redemptive mission. It is through my playing my part, that my own soul is saved, and I arrive at the new, different and abundant life of the Resurrection.
Here we are on day 50, with our Lord saving His best gifts, the 7-fold gifts of His Holy Spirit, for last.
May I confidently answer the question on this year's Pentecost - will I play my part?
+mj
