HOMILY FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. There is a true story told of Mother Teresa and her sisters who were living and serving the poor in a very challenging part of Calcutta. The needs were overwhelming, and the sisters were struggling to cope. In response to the crisis, the sisters approached Mother Teresa with a suggestion to ease the pressure. Their idea was that instead of dedicating an hour of Eucharistic adoration each day, they would pray for half an hour instead, freeing up an extra 30 minutes to finish their work. Mother Teresa gave it some thought and gave her answer. She ordered that instead of the sisters spending an hour of silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament each day, they would now spend an hour-and-a-half. She made this decision not because Mother Teresa was spiteful or didn’t care that the sisters were exhausted. In fact, it was because she cared that she made this decision. She was beginning to see that the Lord’s work was beginning to replace the Lord of the work and that their first vocation as joyful witnesses to the Gospel was being eroded by constant demands.

I share this story on the feast of Pentecost because it speaks powerfully to us as the Church today. Here were a group of broken and fearful people gathered in a locked room, not knowing where to turn after their leader had been brutally killed by the Romans. Not knowing what to do, they began to pray and to wait as Jesus asked them to do in last Sunday’s Gospel account of the Ascension: ‘Stay in in the city until you are clothed with power from on high’. Then, something extraordinary happened. While they were at prayer, the Holy Spirit came and possessed these people, transforming them into courageous witnesses, preachers and proclaimers of the Gospel. None of them were perfect but that did not stop them. None of them had the means to travel much but that didn’t stop them from bringing the Good News of God’s love and mercy to the ends of the earth. Within a few centuries, Christianity had become a major cultural movement that began to shape cultures and change lives.

Despite the enormity of their task, they were clear on what was their agenda: to being the Gospel of Christ to the world. But think too of how little resources they had to do this:

Bishops? – 12; Priests? – same; Deacons? – none; Religious Orders – none; Christian believers?  - a few hundred; Church buildings? – none; Schools and universities? - none; Written Gospels and books – none; Money? – very little; Influential contacts in high places? - none; Attitude of the majority to Christians? – Ignorant to hostile; Faith and a sense of mission? Lots!

Friends, these facts speak for themselves. At the beating heart of this parish and every parish ought to be a Spirit inspired joy because of the gift of God’s presence and love that we have come to believe in, come to know and want to share. If we are full of the Holy Spirit, we are not just content to be disciples of Jesus Christ – we want to make them too. We want to reach out beyond our fears and beyond our comfort zones to connect with all kinds of people to find ways of telling them they too are loved, needed, necessary and chosen.

We also need to tell them that we mourn their absence in the Church, that we miss them and invite them to re-connect today with the gift of faith that offers among many things, the gift of peace which is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Look at the Gospel today where Jesus breathed on his disciples and gave them the gift of peace with the gift of the Spirit. Notice he offered this gift not just once but twice.

This is what Wexford needs right now. It is what the Church needs right now. This is what we all need right now, for ourselves and for our world. And the first thing we do for it to happen is to pray for it - to pray for a New Pentecost in the Church today. As Mother Teresa taught her sisters, we need to pray for renewal before we work for it. It is always in response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit that action and mission flow. And so we pray:

‘Come Holy Spirit, renew your wonders and this our days by a New Pentecost; that being one in mind and in heart and steadfast in faith with Mary the mother of Jesus we may advance your divine Kingdom of justice and peace, of truth and of love Amen’.