Homily

Sunday, April 27, 2008, Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Assumption Grotto Parish, Detroit

The Holy Spirit, Power of Love

            In today’s readings, twice we read about the Holy Spirit. First, the apostles give the Holy Spirit, after Baptism, by the laying on of hands; this is one of two places where the Acts of the Apostles describe the sacrament of Confirmation. Second, the Lord promises to ask the Father to send us the Spirit.

            The whole world, or at least the young people of the whole world, have been meditating all year on the Holy Spirit at the prompting of Pope Benedict XVI, who will meet them in Sydney, Australia this summer, in a about ten weeks. He has given them as the theme of the encounter that verse of Acts 1:8 where it says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

            Let us, then, in preparation for the solemnity of Pentecost, also meditate on the Holy Spirit.

            The Lord promises to send “another advocate.” Other translations say, another “comforter.” Christ himself is the first Comforter, because he is Savior and Mediator; the Holy Spirit is another Comforter, because he is the Union of Love and he intercedes for us, as it says in Romans 8:26, “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us.” The Son of God is the Savior; the Spirit of the Son is the Saving Spirit, who transforms our souls into divine love and justifies us before the Father.

           St. John Damascene, the last of the Fathers of the Church, has much to say to teach us about the Holy Trinity; and in his writings about the Trinity, he teaches us about this Holy Spirit. He says,

Think of the Father as a spring of life begetting the Son like a river and the Holy Ghost like a sea, for the spring and the river and the sea are all one nature. Think of the Father as a root, and of the Son as a branch, and of the Spirit as a fruit, for the substance in these three is one. The Father is a sun with the Son as rays and the Holy Ghost as heat. The Holy Trinity transcends by far every similitude and figure.(1)

            And so the fruit of divine love in our lives is really the presence of the Holy Spirit, who brings us his seven gifts and twelve fruits.

            How can we apply, then, some of these teachings about the Holy Spirit to our lives? I think we can do so by returning to that line of Christ in Jn 14, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.”

            You have an advocate before God the Father, and this is the Holy Spirit. You have a mediator before God the Father, and this is the Son. The Son and the Spirit go together; think of it as this, that God speaks, and the breath of his Word is the Spirit, but the Word itself is the Son. So the Spirit and the Son work for your salvation.

            This is important, because often we can become very discouraged in our spiritual lives. It’s so hard to make progress, it’s much easier to just sink into our sinful habits and not care. It’s easy also to become disheartened or despair because of our own failings. It’s easy to not care.

            But there is this divine fire of love inside of us, the Holy Spirit, given to us from the Father by the Son. This Spirit remains in you.

            My invitation today, then, is to come to know this Divine Love which is inside of you. Turn into your interior especially by prayer, and contemplate this Divine Love. Speak with this Divine Love, Who is the Spirit. Ask him to help you to know and Love Christ. Ask him to help you overcome your sins and problems in life. Ask him for help in loving your neighbor, even in loving your enemy. For the Spirit is the one who works all these changes in your soul to make you more into the image of the Son of God, and so prepare you for heaven, and the eternal union with the Holy Trinity. Amen.