Pentecost Sunday
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” The dictionary defines spirit as something that is vital and the principal animating force within a living thing. In terms of vitality, the spirit is needed and is absolutely necessary because it performs an essential and vital function in the living body. Without the spirit, a living thing is unable to function on its own and would be rendered lifeless. Being “principal”, means the spirit is the main, primary and most important element in a living body. It leads and animates a living body giving it lifelike qualities to live, move, breathe. The same is true of the Holy Spirit. He is the vital and essential force in our body. He breathes life into us; moves, instructs and guides us. He helps us to live forever. However, unlike any spirit, the Holy Spirit is a person, a real person, the third person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity. Although the Holy Spirit is unable to be seen by the human eye, He can be seen, heard and experienced through the eyes and ears of our heart. He can also be seen, heard and experienced through a rock solid faith and unshakable belief in God, through a loving obedience and peaceful surrender to the Father’s will, through silent prayer and confident trust in Christ and through a genuine openness and total abandonment to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and inspiration. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God. The promised gift that teaches and instruct us in the Way of Christ and reminds us all what he taught and told his disciples. We are reminded that in God’s infinite love and mercy towards his special creation, he came down from heaven to lead his children back to him but they rejected his loving invitation. In the Father’s infinite love and mercy, he sent his Son Jesus to show the world the extent of God’s love for us. Just look at the Cross. Although this time, God’s invitation was rejected by some, it was lovingly accepted by many. After Jesus returned to Heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to sanctify and consecrate our hearts in Truth. God really loves us and desires to be with us always. If we want to be with God, we must cooperate with his Spirit and allow him to empty us, heal us, renew us, restore us, fill us and inflame us with the fire of his Holy Love. “Come, Holy Spirit, come!”