I really love to listen to music. And I am finding that I like all different kinds of music. I like country music, I like rap, and I like classical. I like old rock, hard rock, soft rock, and alternative rock. I like Christian music and I like secular music. I like it all. I might not know a lot about it, and I might not be a musician, but I still enjoy music. Recently, I heard a recording of a “sonata” by Beethoven that I really liked. Now, up to recently I thought a Sonata was a car by Hyundai. But friends of mine, who know music a lot better than I do, tell me that Mr. Beethoven wrote these complex, little collections of songs that had three movements to each one of them. These are called “sonatas”. In the first two movements Mr. Beethoven would establish a certain theme and then he’d play with it. He would transpose it into different keys. He would split the music and mix it up; sometimes he would even sneak the same music in backwards. Who knew that Beethoven was the first Hip-Hop D.J.? Then in the third movement of the sonata, Beethoven would complete the song by restating the various themes and parts in an even larger way. In this way, he would bring the individual sonata to a grand resolution. It would all come together in the third movement during a recapitulation of the song. And so the third movement of the sonata became indispensable because it brought the whole song together and made it make sense.

I mention all this fun, musical trivia to you today because isn’t this exactly what the Holy Spirit does? As we gather here together to celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost, isn’t the Holy Spirit the third and final movement of God’s great revelation to us? Of course, He is. This beautiful example from music reminds us of just exactly what the Third Person of the Holy Trinity is all about. The Holy Spirit is the continuing presence of Jesus in our lives, Who makes God known. God didn’t want the story to end with Jesus. Everyone thought that Jesus was God’s masterpiece, His ultimate revelation of Himself! Now, of course, we see that Jesus was God’s second movement of His sonata. But God went on to compose the third movement of His sonata, the Holy Spirit, so that He could always remain with His Church.

Today we celebrate the Holy Spirit. Today, we the Church ask for that same Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us! The Holy Spirit completes the revelation. The Holy Spirit makes it all make sense! All of the Old Testament, all of the New Testament, all of the Gospels, everything that we know about God the Father and everything that we know about Jesus, His Son, it all comes together in the Holy Spirit. We know that Jesus went home to His Father. We celebrated that last week. Jesus mission, however, was given to the Church, to His people. But that mission is so big, and so powerful, that we can’t do the job on our own. We can only build this Kingdom that Jesus asks us to build, if we let the Holy Spirit do it through us! Heaven help anybody or any church who is trying to build the Kingdom without the Holy Spirit, because it won’t work. It’s not going to happen. If we’re not giving it up and giving it over to the Holy Spirit, then we can’t really be followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is that essential to Christianity!

When’s the last time you said a prayer to the Holy Spirit? When’s the last time that you asked the Holy Spirit to come into your heart? When’s the last time that you prayed for the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Our answers to those questions scare me to death. A lot of the time, we are not doing this Christianity thing, this Church thing, right. This is God’s Church, not ours, not mine, not Fr. Dale’s, not the Parish Council’s, not the steel company’s that’s building the new church – they just think that they’re in charge! The Church is the vehicle of the Holy Spirit. We need to keep it that way.

In particular, now more than ever, we need the courage to be Catholic. Courage comes from the Holy Spirit. If we are ever going to truly be able to stand up and give witness to Jesus and His Church, we are definitely going to need to have the courage of the Holy Spirit, because it so easy to be weak. It is so easy to give in and not ruffle any feathers. Today it takes a lot of courage to be Catholic. We ought to be asking the Holy Spirit for it and for all of the other Gifts and Fruits every single day.

The truth is that the Holy Spirit really created the Church on that first Pentecost. Things were never the same after that day. God’s masterpiece of revelation was completed. The third movement of His “sonata” was beyond everyone’s wildest imaginations. The spontaneity of Pentecost opened the Church up to a whole new world of possibilities. Today we must be open to that same spontaneous Spirit. There’s a new song that must be sung today by the Church. It is the Holy Spirit singing through us, the Church. Let’s do it. Let us let go. If we let Him, it will all make sense. And it will be beautiful, even if we can’t sing.

God bless us on this Feast Day, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN!!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us!!!