St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.
In
1999, in preparation for the second millennium, Pope John Paul II
invited representatives from 54 different groups around the world to
come to Rome. These groups were started over the last several decades
and were all started by lay people, under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. To give you an example, some of the groups were, the Focolare
movement, Marriage Encounter, Cenacolo, Charismatic Renewal,
Cursillo. All of these different movements within the Church have
been started by lay people and are really about different ways of
living out the Gospel in daily life. These movements have been so
fruitful, that most of them have spread all over the world. For that
meeting in Rome, there were 400,000 people present representing these
54 different movements. This event was a celebration of what God is
doing all over the world.
It
is good to hear about these things every so often, because it would
be easy to get the impression that the Church is dying, or that
religion is on its way out. We won’t hear about this sort of thing
on the TV, or in the papers, but it is happening all around us.
Just to give you an example closer to home of the power of God’s Spirit working among us. For many years I was part of a prayer group of young people in Galway, started by a young lay woman. From that group there are currently four people in religious life (two contemplative sisters and two priests), and there are about twenty married couples, but more importantly it has helped many people come back to their faith and grow in their faith. Most of the group are now in their 50s but they are people who are really trying to live out the Gospel in their daily lives. It was thanks to that group that I came back to my own faith, because I had also drifted away, and then later I became a priest. That is the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work, and praise God for it.
God doesn’t wait until we are ready. God acts when the time is right. He doesn’t wait for the hierarchy of his Church to decide what to do. I don’t mean that they are not important, but think of the times that Peter and Paul came to pray with people and before they had even started, the Holy Spirit came down on them. The Lord sends his Spirit to inspire and move people to step out in faith and live the Gospel, and they in turn move others, until soon the people are alive with faith again. In the Gospels Jesus says to the Pharisees, ‘The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit’ (Matthew 21:43). God doesn’t wait until we are ready. God inspires people to act when the time is right and that’s why new movements and religious orders keep springing up.
One
time when I was working in a hospital in Ireland, I came into one
area where I was going to visit patients who were newly admitted. One
of the nurses told me that a man had been admitted who had taken an
overdose of poison and was going to die. She said that he probably
wouldn’t be too receptive to me. I decided to visit him anyway and
prayed to God for guidance. When I got to the door of his room, which
was open, I could see a young man by his bedside, who turned out to
be his son. I stood at the door and I just said, ‘I heard what
happened and I’m sorry. Do you regret it?’ The man said that he
did regret it. As soon as he said that, I felt this strong prompting
inside me saying, ‘That is a confession, so don’t ask for one.’
I really felt that was the Spirit speaking to me. I asked the man if
he would like to talk, but he emphatically said that he did not want
to make a confession. I told him that he didn’t have to. I spoke to
him for a few minutes and he told me that on the spur of the moment
he had taken a drink of a weed killer called Paraquot. The doctors
told me that they could do nothing and that this would just burn
through his insides and kill him. He now had to face his family. I
asked him if he would like me to anoint him. Again he said that he
didn’t want to make a confession. I told him that it wasn’t
necessary and that the anointing included the forgiveness of his
sins. And so I anointed him and left. He died a few days later.
Some
weeks later a friend of mine was talking about a man in hospital who
had taken an overdose of poison. He had refused to see two priests,
but eventually he did see a priest, was anointed and died peacefully.
It was the same man, but my friend didn’t realise I was the third
priest. If I had known that he had refused to see two other priests,
I probably would not have gone to him. But the Lord sent me to that
man, he made his peace with God and died reconciled. That was the
power of the Holy Spirit guiding me to him, just as we read of the
Apostles being guided to different people.
Another
time I was in one of the hospitals here in Fort Myers. While I was in
the elevator a young woman asked me if I was a priest. Then she asked
me how I could get a priest to come and visit her husband. I offered
to go right way and we went to his room. He had fallen and broken his
back and was still unconscious. I asked her if she would like me to
give him the sacrament of the sick (anointing). She awkwardly told me
that they were not married in the Church. I told her that this wasn’t
the time to worry about that and I anointed him. She was in tears and
then asked me to bless her and her children which I did. That showed
her that God was with her and looking out for her. What a privilege
it is for me to be that instrument that God uses and this happens to
me all the time.
Do
you know what God’s Spirit is doing in the Church all over the
world over the last few years? He is stripping it down so that it can
become beautiful once again. Because of the scandals, He is removing
all the prestige, power and respectability which we had come to
depend on. We had become too powerful, too prestigious and it was
causing us to wander away from what the Gospel is really about. The
scandals have brought us to our knees and that is not a bad thing.
God is, ironically, forcing us to turn back to depend on his Word and
his Spirit and to get away from what we don’t need. God is
rebuilding his Church because He loves us. When someone is
sick with cancer, you remove the cancer so that the person becomes
well again. When the Spirit’s work is finished the Church will be
beautiful again. The Spirit is removing the cancer of sin and
corruption, so that God’s Church can bear fruit again and God does
this because He loves his Church.
Before
he ascended into heaven Jesus told us that the Father would send us
the ‘Helper’, who would be with us forever, and who would teach
us everything. He knew that we would need help and so He sent us the
best help that we could have, his own Spirit, to guide us and teach
us. And He does teach us constantly, through the example of people He
inspires, through the Word of God, through prayer when we are open to
him, in fact, through many ways we will never even be aware of.
But the Spirit is very gentle and that is why we don’t notice him
sometimes.
Think
of this: in each mass, nothing would happen when the priest prays
over the bread and wine, if the Spirit didn’t come down and
transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ. Sins would not be
forgiven through the priests if the Spirit didn’t act, because it
is the Spirit to takes way the sin, through the instrument of the
priest. Baptism and Confirmation would be meaningless if the Spirit
didn’t anoint the person receiving the sacrament; marriage and
ordination would mean nothing, if the Holy Spirit didn’t act.
Because of the presence of the Spirit, when a couple get married in
the Church, God becomes involved in that marriage. It is no longer
just the couple, but the couple with God helping them and blessing
what they do. We wouldn’t know how to pray, or even feel the desire
to pray except that the Spirit is prompting us continually. Our
preaching would have no effect if the Spirit did not anoint the words
we speak.
Here
is something that happens to me quite often. I preach a homily that I
feel disappointed with, or that I thought I did not do well.
Afterwards people come up and thank me for such a powerful message.
That is the Holy Spirit and it is also God reminding me that it is
his work, not mine. I do my part and prepare as best I can, but
ultimately it is the power of God at work through me. That is also
why it is so important for me to pray for the anointing of the Holy
Spirit on the words I speak. God will speak to your heart if you are
open. I think it is always good to ask God to help us to hear what He
wants us to hear, every time you read the Scriptures, or listen to
them at mass. God has plenty to say to us if we are willing to
listen.
The
gift of God’s own Spirit is really the greatest thing God can give
to us after life itself, because when we have the Holy Spirit we have
everything. It is also good to remember that the anointing of the
Spirit does not depend on how brilliant, or learned we are. It simply
depends on us being open to the Spirit. If you look at so many of the
characters God used in the Bible, most of them were very
insignificant people. God seems to delight in using ordinary and
indeed ‘useless’ people, according to the world’s thinking; the
kind of people the world casts aside as being irrelevant.
In
the first book of Samuel, it says that Samuel was sent to Jesse’s
house to anoint God’s chosen instrument who would be the next king
of Israel. God tells Samuel He will show him whom to anoint. Samuel
comes to Jesse’s house where there are seven sons. He looks at
everyone in the household, starting with the eldest, but God did not
choose any of them. Having seen all of the sons in the house, Samuel
asks if there is anyone else. They tell him there is just the
youngest who is out minding the sheep. He is the least important, who
was not even considered, but he is the one God anoints and he turns
out to be one of the greatest kings of Israel, king David. That tells
us something. We don’t have to be great for God to use us, just
open. The more we root ourselves in God’s life, through his Word
and through the Eucharist, the more the Lord will use us.
Come Holy Spirit and
fill the hearts of your faithful people,
send forth your Spirit
and we will be created,
and you will renew the
face of the earth.
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