HOMILY ON PENTECOST SUNDAY

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7 & 12-13; John 20:19-23

On one bright Sunday morning, Bensen’s mother hurries into her son’s
bedroom and tells him, “Benson, get up, its time for the holy mass”. Then
Benson from under the covers mumbles saying, “Mom, I donot want to go”.
Then mother replies, “what does it mean that you donot want to go, Now get
up, get dressed and go for the mass”. Then Benson says, I shall give you two
reasons why I donot want to go to church and get sits up on the bed and says,
first.. I donot like them, second.. they donot like me”. Then the mother says,
“ This is plain nonsense and I shall give you two reasons why you must go to
church, one.. you are 40 years old and two.. you are the pastor!”.

Sleepy Benson could be any one of the apostles, whom Jesus has sent to be
the testimonies inJerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.
But what did they do? They hid themselves behind the closed doors, in the
upper rooms for the fear of the jews. They said, they donot like them and we
are scared of them. Their message is different from the populare message of
then days and they were scared of the society. Until when? Till Pentecost.
On Pentecost everything changed when the Holy Spirit descended upon them
in the form of wind and tounges of fire.

Wind is unpredictable. We donot know from where it comes and to where it

goes. So also the holy spirit is unpredictable in wonderful sense. When we
hand over ourselves to the Holy Spirit,it is not we who control the Holy
spirit but it is the Holy spirit who controlles us.

Wind is powerful. It knocks over the mighty things. And the Holy
spirit knocks over the mighty obstacles on our way to God when we
handover ourselves to him.
The next powerful symbol of Holy Spirit is fire.

Fire clenses. Fire burns away all the old things and makes the way for the
new things. So also the holy spirit burns away the old life of sin and makes
way for the new life when we handover ourselves to him.

Fire illuminates. In the biblical times before the electricity they used the fire
to illuminate their way. Holy spirit illuminates our way. St. Paul says, “
noone declare that Jesus is the Lord except through the power of the Holy
spirit.”.

There are seven gifts of the holyspirit. What are they!

1.Understanding, 2. knowledge, 3. Wisdom, 4. counsel, 5. Fortitude 6. piety

and 7.fear of the Lord. The first 4 gifts such as Understanding, knowledge,
Wisdom and Counsel direct the intellect and the last three gifts such as
fortitude, piety and fear of the lord direct the will toward God.

Gifts are not virtues. Virtues are operated under the influence of the human
reason while the gifts of the holy spirit are operated under the influence of
Holy Spirit. Virtues are like Oaks of the boast and Gifts are like the sails of
the ship.

Like the aposteles before the Pentecost we too quietly go to church, quietly
receive jesus in our hearts, quiety go back home and quietly do our morning
and evening prayer. But what about the charge that we have received on the
day of our baptism, when we were baptized in the lord with the holy spirit
and got confirmed in the sacrament of Confirmation.

Holy Spirit still in us.. indwelling in our hearts. Today is the day which
reminds us this truth. We are expected to handover ourselves to him, then he
like the wind takes control of us in a wonderful sense, and powerfully
knocks over the mightly stumbling blocks on the way to God and like the
fire clenses the old life of sin and evil and makes way for the new life and
illumines our way to God.