Pentecost

Graduations will start soon! Graduations from High School, University, and apparently kindergartens now. We will start getting those notices, those cards and pictures; it is always nice to get them. It means though our kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, are growing up, and life is changing for them. Kind of exciting, and a little sad too.

Graduates too get excited. They are “released” into the world. They have it all! They can go and do whatever! Nothing more is needed… They think REAL life will start.

Well we know that may be the fantasy, but reality has a different view.

Learning and growth continues really for all of our lives. We always need to be updated and grow in our knowledge. School, University, Seminary provides the groundwork and teaches us how to think and grow. We will need to also take the initiative and continue our own formation.

This risk is that if we do not, we stagnate, we get left behind, or worse we cause harm to others with faulty understanding. None of us would want to go to a doctor who has not progressed beyond leeches and bleeding, right?

Pentecost comes like graduation. The actual event is told to us in a couple of ways: one full of energy that Luke tells in Acts; the other more sublime as John tells us in his Gospel. Yet the disciples receive the Holy Spirit and they are sent out. They are sent out to spread the good news. They are sent out to live the good news.

And still these disciples will learn and grow. Peter will be dramatically changed from his experiences after the Pentecost. He will learn about accepting Gentiles, Romans, into the faith. He will learn about new dietary understanding. He and the other disciples will learn to accept Paul, the former persecutor. The disciples will face the challenge of how to receive Gentiles into the faith, they will learn how to adapt to the cultures they enter into.

The early Church, because of the Spirit, easily adapted and spread throughout the Lands. It was an amazing period.

We baptized Catholic-Christians, we who are living some 2000 years after, we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it was full of energy, or something more sublime. We have the same Holy Spirit within us; the very Love of God that those original disciples received.

And we too are sent out, to spread the good news, to live the good news and allow ourselves to grow and change, and come to a deeper understanding of God, of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, and our salvation.

I have witnessed persons move from learning that they are horrible sinners, as they were taught in their youth, to realizing that despite any sin, they are incredibly loved by God and they find such joy! They spread that Joy to others too.

I have witnessed people who were suspicious of others, especially those not Catholic, to be able to see people as beloved by God. They were able to overcome their suspicions, their fears, and begin to see the world as God sees the world.

I have heard from people who considered this world a horrible place, to understanding that this world is in reality very good, as Genesis declares. They begin to live in this world differently, more in harmony.

People learn to forgive. People learn to be generous and kind, and compassionate. They learn gratitude, humility and they encounter true peace. All because they opened themselves to that Spirit, that Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts, and they responded.

We have before us a community, a parish, a world open to us to live in, to experience, to help transform. Our Catholic Faith, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, can and will move us forward. When we ourselves open our minds and hearts to that love.