Pentecost Sunday 2021
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
OLR, NOLA
Audio File
The
disciples lock themselves away, terrified of being found by the
Jewish and Roman authorities. They are heretics, rebels, outcasts.
They have not only defied their religious leaders by following
Christ, they have also conspired to subvert the political power of
the Empire. In the eyes of the Temple and the Imperium they are
criminals, deserving nothing less than execution. Their savior is
dead, buried, and his body is missing from his tomb. Whatever courage
they may have had when Jesus was with them is long gone. So is their
trust, their strength, and their desire to carry on. And just as
despair begins to eat its way through their final resolve, Jesus
appears to them and says, “Peace be with you.” They rejoice when
he shows them the wounds on his hands and feet. And he says again,
“Peace be with you.” As his peace settles on the once-frightened
disciples, Jesus gives them a new identity, a new mission: “As
the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The disciples become
apostles, those sent to do his will: to preach his word; to teach his
truth; and to accomplish good works that give all the glory to God.
Jesus does all this through the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Some
fifty days later, the Holy Spirit will descend again on the apostles
and on those disciples gathered with them. We mark this day as the
birth of the Church. Created by God the Father, Re-created by the
sacrificial love of God the Son, and given new life by God the Holy
Spirit, the Church bursts out onto the streets of Jerusalem,
proclaiming the Good New of Jesus Christ in every tongue spoken by
the pilgrims visiting the great city. The crowds were astonished and
amazed. Some thought the Christians were drunk. Others thought them
possessed. A few may have thought them insane. But none could deny
that the Church spoke one Word in many languages, one clear message
in a multitude of tongues. The Church proclaimed – so that all may
know – the mighty works of God! The covenant is fulfilled. You are
free. A slave to sin and death no more. Christ is risen and ascended.
And the Holy Spirit is among us. The kingdom of God is here. Repent
and believe the Gospel. Your inheritance as a child of God awaits
you. Do not allow the Enemy to steal what the Christ died to give
you. Take off the flesh and put on the armor of righteousness. Live
by the Spirit. And obey the Law of Love.
How
do we live by the Spirit? First, what is it to live w/o the Spirit?
Paul tells us that the works of the flesh are obvious: “immorality,
impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions,
occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies,” basically, all the
things we humans love to do. These works of the flesh have something
in common: they are all selfish, self-centered; obsessed with I,
me, mine.
They are all perversions of the appetites, disordered hungers that
take control of the person and drive him/her to sin. When we indulge
these disordered hungers we usurp the Holy Spirit from the throne of
our hearts and replace Him with the Self. We make the flesh our
Savior. And the flesh is temporary, quickly passing away. What use is
a Savior that passes away as quickly as it arrives? With a Savior
made of flesh, we will inherit the world, which also quickly passes
away. If we will live by the Spirit, then we will put away our
disordered desires, our perverted appetites, and submit ourselves to
the Law of Sacrificial Love. To live by the Spirit is to participate
fully in the love that the Father has for the Son and the Son for the
Father. IOW, we will produce the fruits of the Spirit.
Paul
tells us opposed to the sins of the flesh are the fruits of the
Spirit. And they are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Notice that
each one of these fruits of the Spirit points away from Self and
toward the Other. Love is sacrificial. Joy is what happens when we
love. Patience defeats the need to control. Kindness always assumes
the best. Generosity acknowledges that nothing is my own.
Faithfulness submits doubt to trust. Gentleness subdues anger. And
self-control proves reason over passion. Each of these fruits of the
Spirit pulls us out of the Self and demands that we treat the Other
as a person created in the image and likeness of God. And as such,
offered the gift of eternal life through the repentance of sin and
baptism by water and the Spirit. So, to live by the Holy Spirit, we
put aside fear, anxiety, and despair. We take up sacrificial love,
the works of mercy, the forgiveness of sins. We bear witness to the
workings of the Spirit in our lives, and proclaim the Good News of
Christ Jesus wherever we are. To live by the Spirit is to become
Christ for Others. To live by the Spirit is live and die as Christ
lived and died for us.
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