Homily
Sunday, May 11, 2008, Pentecost, Year A
Assumption Grotto Parish, Detroit
The Witness of the Uncreated Gift
The Lord said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:20-23). And so we read, on this Solemnity of Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit is the Gift of Christ. Sadly, today so many Catholics consider the Holy Spirit a stranger. They think they can only have a relationship with him if they do something strange, like babble calling it tongues, or make bizarre guesses at things only to call it prophecy. This is not true; you know the Holy Spirit, he lives inside of you, and bears witness to Christ. So today, let us briefly meditate on what this “Gift” is which Jesus promised us, that is, the Gift of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Gift of the Holy Spirit. We shall do so in three parts: the meditation on the Spirit as Gift; then the “testimony” that the Spirit bears; and finally, the effects of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is called “Gift,” or “Personal Gift,” not because it is made to each of us personally, but because he is a Person and he is himself the gift. A gift is given to another out of love. It is a gift precisely because it is gratuitous. I give you a gift, for example, not for any merit which you have earned, but simply because I love you. Now, the Father sent the Son into the world to give us his Holy Spirit. Since the Spirit shares the very substance of God, and is God, the Holy Spirit is God who comes to us as a gift; he is Love, given out of divine love simply because the Father loves us. All the other gifts which the Jesus the Eternal Son gave us were created: his incarnate body was created by the Holy Spirit, the Eucharist was created, Redemption was made by his free sacrifice on the cross. This one gift, that of the Holy Spirit, is not created. Sadly, we sometimes underestimate this gift, because it is precisely “Spirit,” having no bodily manifestation or appearance, and nothing to appeal to our senses. The more we are slaves of our senses and passions, indeed, of our sins, the more insensitive we are to the Holy Spirit, to his sanctifying grace and his motions within our soul.
This leads us, then to the next point of our meditation: the fact that the Holy Spirit bears “witness.” How can he “bear witness,” or “give testimony,” when he is completely invisible to all our senses? We know he bears witness because of the Scriptures. St. John says, “And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one.” St. Paul wrote, “The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God” (Rom 8:16). Peter said to the Sanhedrin “We are (AS)witnesses [b]of these things; and (AT)so is the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:32).
What sort of “witness” or “testimony” is this? Well, when one gives witness, something which is more obvious, for example, a truthful person who was there and saw something, is presented as a proof for men to believe what is less obvious. The Holy Spirit, since he is invisible, and cannot be felt, seems to be what is the least of all obvious things. How can his testimony help us? I think the key is found in the words of the Lord, where Christ says, “The works which the Father has given Me to accomplish – the very works that I do – testify about Me” (Jn 5:36). And so too, the works of the Holy Spirit in your soul testify to his presence within you. And if he is within you, then it is true what St. Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Cor 6:19).
Therefore we move to the third part of this homily, to see what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. For it is in the fruit that he bears in our souls, those “works” which we do, which will stand as a witness that Jesus is the Christ. What does the Holy Spirit do in our lives?
All that is change from worse to better, from sin to grace, is the doing of the Holy Spirit in your soul. Do you have faith? That is from the Holy Spirit. To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God… Now we have received… the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Cor 2:10-12). Do you have hope? That too is a work of the Holy Spirit within you. St. Paul taught Titus that through the Spirit, we have “become heirs in hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:6-7). Do you have charity? That is the supreme work of the Spirit within you; therefore St. Paul writes to the Romans, “The charity of God is poured fourth into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us” (Rom 8:16). Do you repent from your many sins? This too is from the Spirit, and the meaning of those profound words of Christ to St. Catherine of Siena, “In perfect souls, the Holy Ghost weeps tears of fire” (Dialogue, chap. 141), meaning prayers, loving prayers, painful prayers, for mercy on oneself and on the whole world.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, and you hope in the salvation he offered, and you love God and neighbor, then this is the doing of the Holy Spirit inside of you. That is the evidence that the Holy Spirit bears, his testimony in Christ the Lord.
God has given you the gift of himself. Seek not strange and unusual gifts, but seek the gifts which really matter, especially humility, faith, hope and charity. And if these are alive to any degree within your soul, praise the Holy Spirit who is God, and promise him that you will do all you can to spread the faith of the Church to those whom you meet. Amen.