May 23, 2010: Pentecost
Click to hear the audio of homily Several weeks ago I was at the St. Joseph Cathedral to give a talk on Blessed Mother to their RCIA class. Before the talk, I was chatting with some of the newly baptized and confirmed Catholics, and a group of them facinated me. I learned that the whole family entered the Church during this Easter Vigil. I was talking to the mother of the family who was originally Baptist, and she remembered the first time she set her foot in St. Joseph Cathedral. She was at the Farmer's Market on the parking lot across from the Cathedral one Saturday morning when she and her daughter decided to set foot in the Cathedral out of curiosity. They both remember experiencing unexplainable peace inside. It was the beginning of their journey to receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. She showed photos of the family receiving communion, and the mother was moved to tears as she received communion. (Photos by John Ballance)
What do you remember about your own Sacrament of Confirmation? Was your experience anything like what that family experienced or like what Blessed Mother and the Apostles experienced at the Upper Room? When I recall my own confirmation in high school, all I remember was that I had a shaved head when I took photo with the bishop of Dallas. This was of course after having my hair down almost to my neck for a couple of years. The fire of the Holy Spirit did touch that poor atheist with a shaved head. It took some time, but the Spirit certainly transformed a reluctant soul into an instrument of God. The moment the Holy Spirit was given at baptism and sealed at that Confirmation, this body became the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet, the heart in that temple was unwilling to change. This heart did not welcome the Spirit; it was too attached to the old ways of pride and unbelief. Yet now, I'm standing before you as a priest; this all goes to show that the Holy Spirit who came upon the Apostles two thousand years ago is still present and available today, ready to make dramatic transformations. I often meditate on what happened to St. Peter immediately after the Pentecost. What a dramatic transformation did he go through from a man who feared ridicule and persecution, to a man boldly proclaiming what Jesus did for him in the face of persecution. In today's Second Reading, we even hear St. Paul, a man who resisted the Holy Spirit from the beginning proclaiming about what Holy Spirit has done for him. He said, "No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit." This was coming from a man who once despised Christians and sought to kill them. By the transformation of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul knew by heart that there was someone greater than he, someone who deserved to be called and worshipped as the Lord.
These past few weeks, a man that I gave the Sacrament of Anointing kept lingering in my mind. He was dying of cancer in a hospice, and when I was there few weeks ago, he was a bitter man, unforgiving and unforgiven. My first impression was that this was a homeless man who was dealt an unlucky deck of cards. Yet I found out that he was a very well educated man. He was dying however, estranged from his wife and children. During the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, I laid my hands on his forehead in silence and asked the Holy Spirit to transform his life. I heard his confession, then left. This past Sunday, I dropped by the hospice again with the Holy Eucharist, not knowing whether he was still living or have died. The hospice worker said that there was a great change in that man the past few weeks. He was withdrawn at first, but now he was laughing and enjoying the company of the hospice workers. And an hour before my arrival, his estranged children came to visit him. When I saw him, he was a changed man. He was clean shaven with a good hair cut. I did not recognize him at first. I woke him up, gave him the Eucharist, and told him, "Now you are ready to meet Jesus with joy."
What are the lessons to be learned from this man's experience of the Holy Spirit? We are dedicated as the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who freely pours out abundant gifts, especially the gifts of transformation and peace. Yet peace and forgiveness are inseparable. The unforgiving person and the unforgiven person live without peace; they are mutually tied to the sin that divides them. Their willingness to forgive sets them free to live at peace. Forgiveness, then, is the first step in inviting Holy Spirit to transform our lives.
