POSSESSED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. (Homily for May 15, 2016. Pentecost Sunday, Year C.)


Bible Study:  Acts 2, 1 to 11. 1ST Corinthians 12, 3 to 13 and John 20, 19 to 23.


It is exactly fifty days now since we celebrated the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, hence, we call this day Pentecost which simply translates as fifty. As we see in the first reading, the feast of Pentecost did not begin the day the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles, it was already being even hundreds of years before Christ was born.

The actual feast of Pentecost recalls the event of Moses receiving the tablets of the Ten Commandments from God fifty days after the miraculous Passover. This feast was also called feast of weeks and it was one feast that brought a lot of people from different parts of the world together. Just as a lot of people travel home for Christmas and New Year so also the feat of Pentecost brought so many people to Jerusalem.

It was on this Pentecost day that God decided to send the Holy Spirit upon the Church. God chose this particular day because he wanted as many people as possible to benefit from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As such, the first manifestation of the Holy Spirit was in the Apostles ability to speak in tongues such that all the people who had come from all over the world could hear them speaking in their own native languages.

It is not the case that speaking in tongues is the most important mark of the Holy Spirit and we would not be fair to say that unless a person speaks in tongues, he or she does not have the Holy Spirit. It was just the case that this was the particular gift needed at that time to enable the apostles spread the Gospel message.

To speak in tongues is not the same as making unintelligible sounds and it is not something you go to bible school to learn, it is not the same as babbling to give people the impression that you are a prayer warrior. In the real sense, to speak in tongues is to speak in a language that someone can understand and if there is no one who understands what you are saying, then you are wasting your time.

To speak in tongue is to speak in my language, it is to put yourself in my shoes and be able to feel what I am going through, thereby making it easy for you to introduce me to Jesus. Hence we may say that the language of the Holy Spirit is Love. It is a language that everybody understands and a language capable of uniting the whole world. To really speak in tongues is to enter another person’s world, become empathetic with him or her and show him true solutions to his fears, worries and anxieties. That is exactly what we are called to do from this forward; to love one another.

As the apostles recalled, the coming of the Holy Spirit felt like the rush of a mighty wind filling the house and there appeared to them tongues as of fire resting on each one of them.  The Holy Spirit is described like a wind meaning it is invisible in itself but you can feel its effects. No one can see the Holy Spirit but when you see a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit, you will know immediately. As St. Paul says in the second reading, even though no one can see the Holy Spirit, it clearly manifests itself in the variety of gifts which are ordinarily impossible left to the power of the flesh alone.

These gifts include Wisdom, Knowledge of God, Understanding, Fear of God, Counsel, Fortitude and Piety. For a person to possess any of these gifts, it means he has the Holy Spirit living inside him or her. It means that person is possessed by the Holy Spirit. When you see the way people behave, it is easy to tell which particular spirit has taken possession of them. There are a lot of persons in our world today who are possessed by demonic spirits and this manifests in their way of life; a way of life which is totally contrary to the Gospel values.

We cannot say we possess the Holy Spirit if our lives are not characterised by Christian virtues. If may ask, where does the Holy Spirit reside? Does he stay in the air? No. He lives right inside your body. And if you really acknowledge the Holy Spirit as present inside your body, why then do you fail to respect it as a temple of the Holy Spirit? The first step to a life of virtue is knowing that the Holy Spirit lives in me.

Again, the fact that they saw tongues of fire resting on their heads shows what the Holy Spirit does inside of us. Like a fire, it burns off impurities, it burns off the canal desires of the flesh and sets our spirits on fire with the word of God. The Holy Spirit itself is a Gift that comes with gifts. We do not qualify to receive it but when we are so privileged to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we must then do our part to open the gifts that he brings. These gifts are not a once-and-for-all kind of gifts, we must constantly renew them. Hence St. Paul would advise Timothy to fan into flames the fire of the Spirit he received at his baptism. This is why we celebrate Pentecost every year, this is why we do novenas to the Holy Spirit again and again.

Just like the disciples were gathered, we all are gathered today and we shall join the Psalmist to pray; Lord send forth your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. Let us rise to our feet now and pray fervently for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. . . Come Holy Ghost, Creator Come. . .

Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may live above the works of the flesh. Amen.


Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Sunday.

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