Transforming Fire of the Holy Spirit

By Sr. Sara Kowal
Office of Pastoral Ministries & Faith Formation

Pentecost is one of my favorite feasts of the year. I am not exactly sure why, but much has to do with the transformation that happens in the Apostles. Prior to Pentecost, the Apostles were often lacking, to say the least. They regularly did not understand Jesus; they betrayed Him, abandoned Him during his darkest hour, and denied they even knew Him. Even after the Resurrection, they were chastised for not believing that He rose from the dead; they went back to fishing, and they didn’t recognize Him when they saw Him. Even at the Ascension, they still asked when He would come back and restore the kingdom to Israel. Though they have their shining moments, they are generally uneducated, unformed, and somewhat lacking in wisdom and courage.

But all that changes with Pentecost. Just read the first few chapters of Acts of the Apostles. They no longer run from danger; instead, they almost run to it. They are no longer fearful, but bold and courageous. They are imprisoned, beaten, and persecuted, and they rejoice. The transformation is so radical that upon hearing them speak, the chief priests and other leaders “were astonished” (Acts 4:13). The Apostles after Pentecost were simply not the same men. They were transformed.

We make a mistake if we think that the event of Pentecost was only for the Apostles and the other disciples who lived nearly 2000 years ago. The grace of Pentecost is perpetually available to the whole Church. The Holy Spirit wants to transform our hearts just as He transformed the Apostles. The question is whether or not we will allow Him. Why isn’t the Spirit doing wonders of transformation in us like He did the Apostles? We could list quite a few reasons, but I would like to focus on just two.

First, we don’t ask Him to. Recently canonized St. Elena Guerra, the “Apostle of the Holy Spirit,” wrote, “The mystery of Pentecost is a permanent mystery. The Spirit continues to come to all souls who truly desire Him . . . If they only want Him, if they only invoke Him, if they only prepare a place for Him in their hearts. Who is hungry enough? Who is thirsty enough? Who is humble enough? Who is zealous enough? It is necessary that we return to the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit may return to us.”

Second, we think too little of ourselves. We often don’t believe that God wants to transform us. We believe He can; we know He has the power to, but I think we often doubt his desire to. We think the grace of transformation in the Holy Spirit is for someone else. But not for me. In a homily during the most recent Vita Christi retreat, Fr. Christensen asked a pointed question: We believe and trust that in every Mass, God transforms bread and wine into his Body and Blood; if we believe this to be true, how much more does He desire to transform us, who are his children? If He easily makes the miracle of Transubstantiation happen daily for bread and wine, how much more does He desire an even greater transformation for his children? The only reason a radical transformation does not happen to us is that we resist Him and his grace; bread and wine do not resist. As we approach Pentecost this year, let us stop resisting and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work of loving transformation that He ardently desires to do.

When we do allow Him to live fully in us, we help to transform the world because the Holy Spirit transforms the world. We participate by allowing Him to act in and through us.

When St. John Paul II first became pope, he asked to return to his home country of Poland, which had been crushed under the weight of communism for decades. His first day in Poland, June 2, 1979, was the Vigil of Pentecost, and he celebrated a Mass in Warsaw’s Victory Square for one million people. At the end of his homily that day, John Paul II, with all the authority of the Vicar of Christ, implored the Holy Spirit to come down: “Let your Spirit descend. Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.”

That trip – and that homily in particular – was considered to be the first lethal blow to the Communist empire, and the beginning of its eventual demise. When papal biographer George Weigel visited Poland for the first time in 1991, he came desiring to understand what led to the fall of communism. He writes, “Like all epic historical events, this singular revolution was a complex affair and I wasn’t interested in one-size-fits-all explanations. What I did want to know was when the Revolution of 1989 had been ignited. So I asked people, ‘When did this really get started?’ And without exception, believers and unbelievers, Catholics and Jews, agnostics and atheists, conservatives, liberals, and radicals all said the same thing – it began during Pope John Paul II’s nine-day pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979.”

The Holy Spirit changes history. It impelled 12 men from a backwater city in the armpit of civilization out into the world…and the world was never the same. It peacefully brought down a worldwide empire that ruled one-third of the world’s population. Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to change our personal history? Our hearts and lives? The Holy Spirit is not just “for them.” He is for me. And He wants to do great things through me, but I must choose to invite Him in and give Him freedom to work in my heart and life.

The Church needs a new Pentecost. We need a new Pentecost. In these days and weeks before the feast of Pentecost on May 24, we invite you to join to pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ourselves, our parishes, our diocese, and the whole world. Come, Holy Spirit!

“Pentecost is not over. In fact, it is continually going on in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit desired to give Himself to all men and all who want Him can always receive Him, so we do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers; we only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive Him well, and He will come to us as He did to them.” (St. Elena Guerra)

If you would like to prepare for Pentecost in a special way this year, we invite you to use the following set of prayers.