Today,
we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles
and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Out of fear of being persecuted, the
apostles had all gathered in the Upper Room and prayed for 9 days for
the coming of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly there was a strong gust of
wind and flames of fire appeared above their heads and all were
filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave the Apostles the
gift of courage to bear witness to Jesus throughout the world now
they would be even willing to lay down their life for Him, whom they
loved above all things.
The
Holy Spirit has many titles, such as the Advocate, the consoler,
giver of life, enlightener, Spirit of truth, sanctifier, purifier,
revealer, uniter, reconciler, spirit of adoption, Spirit of Christ,
second person of the Trinity, Spirit of God, Spirit of promise,
Spirit of glory. He is pictured as a fire, a cloud, the finger of
God, the wind, a dove, the hand of God, and anointing.
The
Holy Spirit is known for seven-fold gifts: wisdom, knowledge,
understanding, courage, counsel, fear of the Lord, and piety.
There
are also fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patient
endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity.
The
Holy Spirit acts in the sacraments, especially Confirmation. The very
first sacrament of Confirmation was on the day of Pentecost, when the
Apostles and the Virgin Mary were filled with the Holy Spirit and
when tongues of fire resulted
in them becoming courageous, where as before, they were hiding out of
fear. Confirmation makes firm baptismal graces, so that we may be a
witness for Christ, a soldier for Christ, and
fearless in proclaiming the truth.
What
I would like to do is give you some examples of how the Holy Spirit
works. One day, when I was an associate pastor at St. Francis parish
in Wichita, I went to visit a Catholic patient
at a rehab center. When I was
at the parish and before I went to the rehab center, I said a prayer.
I said, “Lord, I haven’t heard any big
confessions for while, I would sure like to hear some.”
When
I arrived, I went to the Catholic’s
room and heard her confession,
and, as I was leaving, a
nurse grabbed me, and said, “We have a Catholic in this
room too, and she would like to see a priest.”
I visited the patient, who said, “Father, I haven’t
been to confession for a long time, will you hear my confession?”
It had been 25 years since the person went to confession. Then as I
was leaving, a woman was
hollering
at me from another room
I was passing by. When I went
to see what she wanted, she said, “Father, I would like
to go to Confession.” It
had been over 40
years since she went to Confession. When combining all three
confessions, in a period of 15 minutes, the Lord washed away a
combination of over 75 years of sins. How
wonderful the Holy Spirit inspired me to pray
that prayer and how wonderful the Holy Spirit inspired them to want
to go to Confession.
It
is the Holy Spirit, who inspires people to be sorry for their sins.
The Holy Spirit inspires people to want to go to Confession. The Holy
Spirit helps each person to know their sins. And its the Holy Spirit
who gives advice through the priest and then its the Holy Spirit who
washes their sins away through
the absolution of the priest.
Once,
when I was doing hospital ministry at St. Francis Xavier Hospital in
Tulsa, I was walking down a hallway,
and was in a hurry to see another patient. There was no reason to be
in a hurry,
but I was.
I
happened to notice an elderly woman, who appeared to be lost. But,
being in a hurry, I zoomed past her and kept going. Then I
felt guilty for not helping her,
and went
back to see
if I could
help her.
When
I came up to the woman, I said, “Are you lost? Do you
need help?” She said, “I
can’t find my way out of here.”
I gave her directions, and then said, “Are you visiting
someone?” She said,
“Yes, my husband. He’s dying.”
I said, “I’m sorry to hear that, would you like me to
visit him?” She said, “Oh,
yes, but he doesn’t know Jesus.”
I said, “Do you
want to come with me?” She
said, “No, I need to go home to
take care of the mule and the chickens.” I
said, “Oh, so you live out in the country?”
She said, “No, we live in Tulsa.”
I chuckled to myself. She
gave me his room number and
when I arrived at his room, I
explained how I
met his
wife in the hall and how she
thought it would be good for
me to visit him. He said, “I’m dying.”
I said, “I’m sorry to hear that. Would
you like me to pray with you?”
He said, “Sure.” I
said, “What religion are you?” He
said, “I don’t have a religion, but I know Jesus and I
love Him.” I thought, “Your
wife doesn’t know you love Jesus.”
I said, “Are you baptized?”
He said, “No. But I have always wanted it.”
I said, “Would you like me to baptize you?” He
said, “Oh, yes, please, I would love that.”
I said, “Do you want me to call your wife, so she can be
here?” He said, “No,
I want to do it, as a surprise for her.”
I asked a Catholic nurse to
be his godparent and baptized him. He died a few days later. All of
his sins and the punishment due to his sins were washed away and it
was all due to the inspiration the Holy Spirit, to
cause me to want to help the
woman who was lost. Had I not
went back to help the woman, he may never have received the
sacrament.
Also
in Tulsa, I accidentally went to a
wrong room to visit a
Catholic patient. I had misread the room number. When I entered the
room, I said, “Are you, Sally?” The
patient said, “No, but I’m Catholic.”
I looked at the paper and realized I was in the wrong room. The woman
wasn’t listed as Catholic, and so I said, “Oh, you're
not listed as Catholic.” She
said, “Yes, but I am.”
She said, “Can I go to Confession?”
I heard her confession, anointed her, and gave her Holy Communion.
She had surgery, but didn’t do well and died shortly afterwards.
Had I not gone to the wrong room, she may have never received the
sacraments before she died. It was the Holy Spirit, who led me to her
room, so she could be reconciled with God and
receive Jesus in Holy Communion before
she died.
In
Mulvane, Kansas there was a
Catholic boy about the age of
10, who invited his
non-Catholic friend to attend Mass with him on
Sunday. The non-Catholic boy
said his family were not
attending their protestant
church. The non-Catholic boy kept attending Mass with the Catholic
boy and then one day, he told his friend, “I want to be
Catholic”. Soon the
non-Catholic boy’s family started to attend Mass too and within a
few months, the parents decided they wanted their entire
family of
five children and the parents to
become Catholic. They went through RCIA and became Catholic, simply
because the Catholic boy invited his friend to attend Mass with him.
It
was the Holy Spirit who inspired the Catholic boy to invite his
non-Catholic friend to church and it was the Holy Spirit who inspired
the family to want to also attend church and then become Catholic.
The
point is, the Holy Spirit works through simple, yet small
inspirations, that can have a tremendous impact in our lives.
I
will tell you one more story and you can determine if you think this
was the Holy Spirit or not.
One
day, before I became a
priest, I was working in the
purchasing department of a hospital in
Hays, when a ward sectary
from a
nursing unit called and was frantic.
When
I answered the phone she said, “Come to the third floor
medical unit, right away. The card machine is smoking and is
on fire.” I said, “You
need to call maintenance.” She
said, “I tried, but they won’t come. Please come here
right away.” I dutifully and
quickly took the stairs, as your not supposed to take the elevator in
a fire. When I arrived, I saw the unit had become filled with smoke.
I said, “Turn off the machine.” She
said, “It doesn’t have a switch and I can’t unplug it
because the cord is in the corner of the counter top.”
She was right there was not on/off switch. So in order to shut if
off, I had to remove the
bottom drawer from the
console desk and crawl inside to pull the plug. Since I couldn’t
fit inside, I tried to reach for the cord, but couldn’t. Finally,
after some twisting and turning, I was able to get the top part of my
torso in the hole and pull the plug.
But,
I was stuck. No matter how I turned my shoulders and my arms, I
couldn’t get out. I began to panic, and said, “Call
maintenance, I’m stuck.” She
said, “I ain’t calling them. Do you think they will
come up here to get you out, when they wouldn’t come up here if we
have a fire.” I kept
trying every which way to back out and my chest and arms were getting
bruised.
She
said, “I have an idea.”
She grabbed my two legs and put her foot on the top of the counter
and began yanking. It was painful as she tried to pull me out. I
became angry, and said, “Mary Ann, don’t do that!”
Finally, after a few minutes of turning this way and that way, I was
able to finally back out.
Now
do you think it
was the Holy Spirit, who inspired her to call the
purchasing department to turn
off the machine? Do you think
it was the Holy Spirit who inspired me to crawl in the hole and pull
the plug? Do you think it was the Holy Spirit who caused her to pick
up my legs and yank? It
certainly wasn’t the Holy Spirit, who inspired me to say something
out of anger.
The
point is, everything we do is not the Holy Spirit inspiring us to do
something, but if we are inspired to do something charitable for
others, most likely it was the Holy Spirit.
Today,
let us pray to
the Holy Spirit, asking Him to guide and enlighten us in our daily
life and let us ask
the Virgin Mary to be open to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.
