Pentecost (Gospel: John 20:19-23) The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything

 

Stain Glass of the Holy Spirit in St. Peter's Basilica

 

There is a priest friend of mine—one of my classmates actually—who does a lot of work with the Legion of Mary going from door to door, speaking to people about faith. He was a quantity surveyor before he became a priest and he is the most amazing organizer. He often said to me that the hardest places he found to work in, were usually the wealthier areas. When people felt they had all they needed they were generally not as open to hearing about God. In the poorer areas people were usually more open to what he had to say.

 

From all the upheaval in our world at this time, one of the good things that is coming from it, is that it is making people ask a lot of questions and to search for God in a new way. Economic crisis and wars help us to realise how vulnerable we are. Religious crisis and terrorism—such as we are seeing at the moment—help us to remember that while religion is really important, it can be deadly if it is misused. Any religion is simply a way to help us live out what we believe in, but unless it is completely focused on God and unless God is at the centre, it can become an end in itself and a very dangerous one at that.

 

There is one crucial thing that is needed for faith to be alive and that is the gift of God’s Spirit. For me the best way of explaining it is to compare the Spirit to electricity. In any building like this one, we have all kinds of useful equipment, such as microphones, lights, projectors, but none of these things would be of any use to us if we didn’t have electricity. The power that goes into them is what transforms them into something wonderful. You could say that the Holy Spirit is the electricity that makes us alive.

 

Without God’s Spirit we are dead, the Scriptures are just words in a book; the mass is just an empty ritual; marriage is just a legal way of being together, but with the Holy Spirit our faith comes alive, the Scriptures become the living word of God, which speaks to our hearts and challenges us to grow; the mass becomes the living presence of Jesus among us in the Eucharist, where we can have the most intimate encounter possible with Jesus. With the Holy Spirit marriage involves a third person, present to support, strengthen and encourage every couple, as they try and live out their married life together.

We are nothing without the gift of God’s Spirit. We would not be able to believe, or pray, or even know God. I could stand at the altar and pray all day long, but nothing would happen if the Holy Spirit didn’t transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. The same is true with confession. It is the Spirit who forgives people. The priest is just an instrument, an important instrument, but only an instrument. It is an extraordinary thought that the Holy Spirit acts on the words of a human being! When a priest says the words of consecration at the mass, ‘This is my Body which will be given up for you,’ the Holy Spirit immediately and humbly transforms the bread into the body of Christ. And when the priest says the words, ‘I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ the Spirit blots out the sins of that person. Such is the amazing generosity and humility of God.

 

When we see scandals coming to light in the Church, that is also the work of the Holy Spirit, purifying and renewing his people. That is happening because the Lord loves us and won’t allow his people to be overcome with disease. All the poison is being taken away and this is painful, but essential. We are always better off because of the purifying work which God is bringing about. God is forcing us to rely much more on the power of his Word and of his Spirit, something which we should have been doing all along. And perhaps one of the most important things to remember is that God’s work is always beautiful and God will make things beautiful again, because God is the master craftsman.

 

The Lord doesn’t wait until we are ready either. God acts when the time is right. He doesn’t just wait for the hierarchy of his Church to decide what to do. God sends his Spirit, who inspires people and moves people to act. That’s not to say that God doesn’t work through his bishops and priests, but God knows how best to act and so He 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.

Despite our best efforts we continually need to be helped back on the right track, no matter what we are doing. This is why Jesus told us before he ascended into heaven, that the Father would send us this ‘Helper,’ who would be with us forever, and who would teach us everything. The Lord 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 God teaches us through the example of people He inspires, through the Word of God, through prayer, and in many other ways we will never even be aware of. The Spirit is very gentle and that is why we don’t notice him sometimes.

 

Jesus said to the Apostles, ‘I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at this time. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.’ (John 16:12)

 

God keeps revealing himself to us in deeper and deeper ways. God wants to teach us everything, just as we want to teach the next generation what we have learnt. The more open we are to the Holy Spirit, the more that will happen. How do you become open to the Spirit? Just tell him your desire. ‘Holy Spirit of God, please come into my life. Teach me and reveal yourself to me and make my faith alive.’

 

Every time I am about to preach, I ask the Holy Spirit to anoint the words I speak, so that they will speak to your hearts and that you will hear what the Lord wants to say to you. Every time I go to visit someone sick, or in any difficult situation I always ask the Holy Spirit to guide me and give me wisdom. Wisdom is one of the gifts of the Spirit. Keep praying for wisdom and that the Lord will make himself known to you. Every time you read the Bible, ask the Lord to teach you, because He wants to teach you, but He also wants us to ask him for it.

 

Think of a time one of your children, or any young person, asks you to explain or teach them something. Usually we are happy to do so. There is a joy that comes with passing on knowledge, but the student has to be open. There is a Chinese proverb that says, ‘When the student is ready, the master will appear.’ It is much harder to pass on knowledge if the other person is not interested or open to it, but once they open their heart to it, then it is easy to teach. It is the same for all of us. The Lord wants to reveal so many things to us, and the more open we are to him, the more He will show us. God does this through the teachings of his Church, but also individually. Keep asking God to reveal himself to you.

 

When I was nineteen, I was searching for God and someone put in my path a book called Power for Living. This was a Protestant book and it gave a series of personal testimonies of people who had opened themselves up to God and how it had transformed their lives. At the end of the book it said, ‘If you want God to become part of your life, ask him now to make himself known to you’ and I did exactly that. I remember I was in my bedroom and I sat on the end of my bed and said, ‘Lord if you are there, please make yourself known to me.’ Then I put away the book and forgot about it.

 

Several days later I met a classmate who told me that a mutual friend of ours called Louise, had gone to Medjugorje on pilgrimage and had had an awakening of her faith.  His description of her was, ‘She has become all religious and holy.’ Louise was my own age and from a very similar background to myself. So I called to her and asked her what had happened. I can’t remember exactly what she said, but I listened to her for about an hour and a half and I could see that something profound had happened to her. At the end of the conversation she asked me if I would like to go to a prayer group in another friend’s house. I wasn’t that interested, but she asked another girl who I had a crush on, to ask me. Naturally I went. Now those two ladies are married and I am a priest!

 

When I went to the prayer meeting I was surprised to find about fifty young people, singing hymns, praying the rosary, praising God out loud and reading Scripture. I was intrigued and I could see that their faith was alive. I knew I wanted what they had. So I began attending these meetings and it got me praying and going to mass more often.

 

After a few weeks they had what is called a Life in the Spirit seminar. Over the course of about six weeks there are teachings on the reality and power of the Holy Spirit. I heard different testimonies from other young people of how their lives had been transformed when they really invited the Holy Spirit to come into their hearts. On the fifth night of the seminar they always pray with people individually, that they will experience an outpouring of the Spirit. When they prayed with me, nothing really happened and I was disappointed. I felt very peaceful, but not unduly so. However, in the weeks and months that followed I suddenly found that my faith was coming alive. I had a profound desire to spend a lot of time in prayer. I found that the Bible had also come alive and was speaking to me as I had never experienced before. I also found that I began to hear the words of the mass as though I had never heard them before. I had received an outpouring of the Spirit. That was in October 1988 and it was when my faith really came alive. I continue to pray to the Holy Spirit to teach me and God continues to reveal things to me. The more open I am the more I receive.

 

The conviction of our faith is also a gift of the Holy Spirit. ‘I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at this time. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.’

 

The gift of God’s own Spirit is really the greatest thing God can give us after life itself, because when we have the Holy Spirit we have everything. Keep praying to the Holy Spirit asking him to set your hearts on fire. This is the Lord’s desire for us, but God never forces himself on us. The more open we are, the more God gives himself to us. If you find that your faith seems dry and uninteresting, ask God to give you the gift of his Spirit and you will be surprised what will happen.

 

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.

 

 

 

The Ascension of the Lord

 

Mary, Mother of the Church

 

The feast of the Ascension is a reminder that heaven is a real place and that it is our destiny. Since Jesus ascended body and soul, with a real human body, it means that it must be a real place. He also allowed the apostles to see him ascend into heaven. That was deliberate, to help them believe. The angels that appeared to them specifically mentioned heaven.

 

Today as we celebrate mother’s day, even though it is not a religious holiday, I want to talk about our heavenly mother and maybe try and clarify a few misunderstandings that often come up.

 

Sometimes Catholics are accused of worshipping Mary. To worship Mary would be idolatry, as Mary is a human being, like any of us. We do not worship Mary, but we do venerate her and show her great honor, for the huge role that she played in the history of our salvation. To give her honor does not in any way take from giving glory to God. Since Mary is God’s masterpiece and chosen instrument, honoring her is honoring God and recognizing his wonderful work. If someone began complimenting you for your beautiful child, you would hardly say, ‘You should not be talking about them, only me.’ To acknowledge a masterpiece is to acknowledge and give praise to the artist, the Creator.

 

The fourth Commandment says that we must honor our father and our mother. Jesus kept all the Commandments perfectly and that means that he also showed honor to his earthly father and mother. He spent 30 years in the care of Mary and we don’t know how long in the care of Joseph too. He loved them both dearly, just as any son would and treated them with great honor and respect. We are called to imitate Jesus, which means we are also called to honor his mother and St. Joseph. If God gave Mary this remarkable role of being Mother of the Son of God, she must have a very exalted place in heaven. From the book of Judith, Mary is often spoken of as, ‘The highest honor of our race.’ (Jud 15:9).

 

Since Mary was without sin, she did not experience death, which is a result of sin and so like Jesus, she was taken body and soul into heaven. How do we know she was without sin? When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and asked her if she would become the mother of Jesus, he started by saying, ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.’ If she was full of grace, that implies there could not be any sin in her. It also makes sense that the one who was chosen by God to bear the Son of God, would be as pure as was possible. If you had a say in the creation of your own mother, what gifts would you not have given her? God did create the mother of Jesus and this was his gift to her, that she was preserved from sin from the first moment of her existence. Since Jesus is both God and man, that means that Mary was the mother of God too.

 

We say that Mary is Queen of heaven. In the Old Testament there is a line in Jeremiah (7:18) which talks about worshipping a false god who was called, the Queen of Heaven. This has nothing to do with Mary, as the Queen of heaven.

 

In ancient Israel the queen was not the wife of the king, but the mother of the king. Any king may have had several wives, so who would the queen be? The queen was always the king’s mother. In 1 Kings 2:19, Bathsheba comes to ask a request of her son, King Solomon. It says that he bowed down to her and had a throne brought for her so that she could sit at his right hand. Bathsheba was Solomon’s mother, but she was given a seat at his right hand because she was queen.

 

Jesus is the king of heaven. Since Mary is his mother, that makes her the queen of the heaven. How would God not give Mary an exalted position considering the role she played?

 

You could be given the impression that it would have been easier for Mary than for other people because she was without sin. However, the fact that she was without sin means that she would have been more sensitive to evil and would have suffered more because of it than anyone else. From what we know in the Scriptures, she suffered from the time that the Angel appeared to her and told her that God was asking her to be the mother of God. She was pregnant before she came to live with Joseph in a way that was impossible to explain or understand, from a human point of view. According to Jewish law, to be betrothed to someone meant that you were already legally married, but weren’t yet living with them. So how would Mary explain this to Joseph? What embarrassment, fear and tension there must have been for her and the terrible grief it must have caused Joseph. The birth of Jesus was in very difficult circumstances. They had to flee for their lives from Herod and became refugees in Egypt. Later on, Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for three days and finally the arrest, torture and death of Jesus. But Mary never gave up hope. She continued to believe that God would make sense of it. After the resurrection she stayed with and encouraged the Apostles as they waited for the gift of the Spirit before Pentecost.

 

At the wedding at Cana, Mary interceded for the couple when they had run out of wine. She made it known to Jesus and even though He questioned why she was asking him to work a miracle before his time, He did come to the rescue of the couple and worked one of his first public miracles, which it says helped his disciples to believe in him. (Jn 2:11)

 

What could Mary ask of Jesus that He would not grant? And so we ask her to intercede for us for Jesus’ help. Who could be a more powerful intercessor?

 

When Jesus was dying on the cross, He entrusted Mary to St. John and John to Mary as his mother. ‘Woman behold your son… Behold your mother’ (Jn 19:26). St. John represents the model disciple, what we are all called to be and we understand that giving of Mary to St. John, as giving her to us as our spiritual mother and our heavenly mother.

 

Over the centuries Mary has appeared in many parts of the world, many of which have been approved by the Church. It is interesting that in each place she has appeared she says more or less, the same thing. She tells us that we cannot exist without God, that we need to turn away from sin, to read Scripture, go to Mass and to pray and fast. She is always pointing us to Jesus. It is never about her. She tells us that we need to go to confession often, yet sadly very few people feel the need for this. I wonder who convinced them that it is not necessary? She also tells us that we cannot live without God. Our life makes no sense without God. We are only on this earth for a short time, so we need to be careful how we use our time. It is also interesting that everywhere she has appeared (to my knowledge) she has always shown the seers heaven, hell and purgatory. In Fatima the children she appeared to were just 7, 8 and 10. Why would she show something so terrifying to young children? to help us believe that they are real. Heaven is real, but so is hell and the decisions we make in this life have eternal consequences, which is why she is trying to warn us to live our life well, so that we will go to heaven when we die.

 

It always makes me sad when I see or hear of people who get obsessed with money and material things, as if that was the answer to everything. They are looking down, instead of up. It is also sad to see how people can become obsessed with power, which so often leads to the suffering of others.

 

The fact that the heavenly Father continually sends her to us, is an indication of how important a role she continues to play in our salvation. God sends our heavenly mother to guide us, and warn us, just as any mother would. We are blessed that God has given us such a beautiful and powerful intercessor.

 

The life of Mary is a wonderful witness to us for several reasons. One, it is a reminder to us of what God can do through a human being; a 14/15 year old girl. Mary is fully human and we should never worship her as that would be idolatry, but we give her great honor, just as Jesus did. We ask for her intercession as we continue on our journey to heaven. She has been through dreadful suffering, so we can ask for her help, knowing that she understands our suffering. When we find ourselves losing hope, remember that Mary never lost hope, in spite of what she had to go through.

 

‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.’

 

6th Sunday of Easter Year B (Gospel: John 15:9-17) The mercy of God

You have often heard me say this prayer after Communion, which begins: ‘In the comfort of your love, I pour out to you my Savior, the memories that haunt me, the fears that stifle me…’

People always ask me for that prayer, which, incidentally, is on the main page of our website. I think it resonates with many of us, especially that phrase, ‘The memories that haunt me.’ Memories of the past often haunt us and I’m sure there are probably few people here over twenty who don’t have some regrets, often deep regrets.

 

One thing that goes with those fears is the question of whether God will really forgive me for them. Even when people have confessed them, the memories remain and people often wonder if that means they haven’t been forgiven, but not so. When we sin, it’s as if we wound our soul and even when the wounds are healed, scars remain and we experience those scars as memories. When you see a scar, you remember what happened, even though the wound is healed. It is the same when we have confessed sins, especially serious sins. God has forgiven them, but we are not always convinced of this, since the memory of them keeps coming back. I always say to people that when the memories of past sins come back, sins that you have confessed, don’t focus on the sin, rather, focus on God’s mercy and thank God for his mercy, because if you have confessed the sin then it has been forgiven.

 

It is easy to feel that the sins of our past disqualify us from ever being fully pleasing to God. How could I be pleasing to God with what I have done? How could God work through me, because of what I have done? Perhaps this is also true because we seldom experience that kind of mercy from other people. We often experience, ‘I forgive you, but I still remember...’

 

Maybe if I become good enough, I may be acceptable to God. This often carries over from our childhood, where we may have picked up the understanding that mom or dad love me when I am a good boy. That often affects how we see God as well, but it is not what God teaches. It says in Romans, ‘What demonstrates God’s love for us is in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8).

God sought us out first. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Our sins are not an obstacle, so long as we sincerely repent of them and try to change. To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus ends up saying, ‘Woman, has no one condemned you?’ The woman replies, ‘No one, sir.’ Jesus replies, ‘Go and do not sin anymore’ (Jn 8:10-11). This kind of mercy is hard for us to understand, but Jesus keeps showing it to us in different ways to assure us of his infinite mercy, if we sincerely repent. ‘I did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world’ (Jn 12:47).

 

There is a story of a young priest in a hospital visiting a parishioner he was asked to see. It was not a hospital he normally visited. As he is walking down the hallway a nun stops him and says, “Father, can you go into this room? There is a man on his deathbed. He has been here for days. We have asked priests to go in, but he chases everyone away. He doesn’t want to talk about Jesus, but he’s dying. Could you please visit him?” The priest goes in and introduces himself to the patient. The guy erupts and starts cursing at him. He is so angry: “I don’t want anything to do with you. Get out of here!” The priest says, “Okay” and goes out into the hall. The nun is still there. She says, “Could you go back in?” The priest replies, “He doesn’t want anything I have to offer.” “Just give it another chance,” pleads the nun. The priest reluctantly reenters the room. “I’m not going to ask if you want to go to confession. I’m not going to ask if you want Holy Communion. But is it okay if I just sit here next to your bed and pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy?” The old man replies, “I don’t care. Do whatever you want.” The priest sits down and begins softly praying the words of the Chaplet: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world....”

 

Suddenly the man bursts out, “Stop it!” Startled, the priest looks up and asks, “Why?” “Because there is no mercy for me!” “Why do you think there is no mercy for you?” asks the priest. “It doesn’t matter,” responds the old man. But the priest persists: “Why do you think there is no mercy for you?” “I’ll tell you... Twenty-five years ago, I was working for the railroad. My job was to lower the crossing guard arm when a train would come, to prevent cars from going on the tracks. But one night I was drunk. I was struggling with alcohol addiction. Because I was drunk, I didn’t lower the crossing guard arm, and a couple and their three young children were on the tracks as a train came, and they were all killed instantly. That was my fault, so there is no mercy for me. I have failed. It is over.” The priest just sits there staring at the rosary in his hands. Finally, he asks, “Where was this?” The man tells him the name of the town. The priest looks up at him and says, “Twenty-five years ago, my mom and my dad were taking my little brothers and sister on a trip. I couldn’t go with them. They were driving through this small town. For some reason, the railroad crossing guard arm wasn’t lowered. As they were crossing the tracks, a train came and killed them all. I lost my whole family that night. That was my family. The old man is stunned. The priest gazes intently into the man’s face and says, “My brother, God forgives you. Not only that, but I also forgive you.” The man realizes that God’s mercy is for him. The priest goes on to ask if the man would like to go to confession, which he does and he also receives the Eucharist. Two days later he died.

 

After giving the man Communion, the priest goes into the hallway in search of the nun. He can’t find her. He goes to the hospital administrator. The administrator tells him, “We don’t employ any nuns at this hospital.” For years the priest does not know who this nun is. Eventually, he goes to the town of Vilnius in Poland, which is where Saint Faustina lived. He goes to the convent to say Mass for the nuns there. He sees a painting on the wall of Saint Faustina, and he says, “I’ve met that nun. A couple of years ago.” “No, Father, you did not,” replies one of the nuns. “She’s been dead since 1938.” The priest then realizes it was Sister Faustina who had appeared to him and told him to go into the patient’s room.

 

Sister Faustina Kowalska (St. Faustina) was the nun to whom Jesus revealed the Divine Mercy Chaplet and encouraged people to pray to his mercy, assuring us that the smallest effort on our part wins the infinite mercy of God. If you don’t know the Divine Mercy prayers I would recommend them. We have the statue of the divine mercy here in the chapel, depicting Jesus as he appeared to St. Faustina. I really believe that this devotion is for our times, when people find it hard to believe that they can be forgiven.

 

The words of the chaplet are:

‘Eternal Father, I offer you, the Body and Blood, soul and divinity, of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.’

If you think about it, that is what the mass is, the offering of the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus to the Father. Jesus promises his infinite mercy to anyone who sincerely asks for it.

 

I have also been very moved by different people I have come across, who have helped people whom the rest of the world have written off. People who have committed serious crimes and been imprisoned for, or people who have caused public scandal. When their time is over, they seem to have no chance of a new beginning, but I have met people who will employ them and people who have gone out of their way to help people start over. That is another way that God reveals his mercy to us and it is going on all the time.

 

The sins of our past do not disqualify us from God’s love and mercy, nor of God continuing to use us in different ways.

 

‘Eternal Father, I offer you, the Body and Blood, soul and divinity, of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.’