Father Kerry Prendiville
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2024

When we hear the events of the Pentecost, especially how Jesus comes through locked doors or later how he sends the Holy Spirit upon them as tongues of fire, we think of impressive fireworks and really exhilarating things. And yes, that first Pentecost had to be spectacular, but it isn’t always where we live now as a church. We live in and of the power of the Holy Spirit.

The apostles and the other Christians were gathered there in one place together and were waiting for something they couldn’t have experienced before. They are waiting for the promise of the Father to be fulfilled, and they weren’t alone in that room. They were most likely in the place where the apostles had eaten their Last Supper and when they saw wind and flames and languages and other things happening, the proclamation of the Gospel, they could say this is the power that we first experienced today.

But in fact for us it’s often the very opposite. God’s action in our life is almost always gentle and sometimes even hardly perceptible at first. How does Saint Paul describe the action of the Spirit on the Church? He said it’s like the soul of a body – powerful, essential, invisible, and subtle. 

For us often the Holy Spirit works quietly in our lives. Take the example of Mary. She was most likely there in the upper room. The Bible has said she was there waiting with the apostles for the coming of the Holy Spirit. What would she have been doing? Praying with them obviously, but there’s also time for her to be serving them. Serving them like a mother. Calming their fears. Maybe it’s helping explain things in their confusion. Taking care of their nervousness. Maybe at this time she shared with them the story of the Annunciation. Maybe that hadn’t been told to them before by Jesus. She maybe held many conversations with them and like Mary we can take these things that have happened in the power of the Spirit at Pentecost, and we can contemplate them in our heart, hold them in our heart in a listening way. To contemplate is to go over an idea in the silence of our minds again and again, and then to converse about it with God. That’s what Mary would have been doing.

Becoming a spouse of the Holy Spirit didn’t always bring fireworks but it brought virtues, virtues that take root and grow. In the quiet center of the soul this growth takes place unseen and unheard. Quiet and gentle yet powerful, transforming, everlasting. That’s the life of the Spirit in the Church.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it beautifully when she said “God is a God of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grow in silence. See the moon and stars, the sun; how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” 

Not only be in touch with our own and the intimacy of our love of God but also to be able to reach others. To come to them with real discernment. To say what they need to say and do what we need to do for them, with them. 

In this experience we remember that we had one command, one real thing to do and that is to do what God commands us. “Whoever loves me,” Jesus said in the Gospel, “whoever loves me will keep my word.” 

Today in the life of the church let’s profess to keep the Word alive. How do we know what God’s will is? By listening and by receiving the teaching of the Church — do the commandments, read the catechism, instruct yourselves and encourage yourselves with the examples of the saints. The Holy Spirit is using all kinds of ways including your family life and your church service to bring about the powerful gift of the Holy Spirit. And most times in places it’ll be as simple and subtle nudge. One that you hear and are aware of because like Mary we’ve pondered the life of the Gospels in your heart and you’re ready to act upon what you have received.