St. Maria Goretti

Today, we often take power and energy for granted. We don’t think about where our energy comes from. For example, summer is almost here. It’s getting warmer. People are buying air-conditioners and fans to beat the heat. But nobody is thinking about blackout, or brownouts, or what happens when the electricity goes out. You don’t think about that when it’s 90 degrees outside and you’re hot. Isn’t that the most amazing thing, when the power goes out during a storm, and you realize, just how many things that we have that are dependent upon that electricity. Without electricity, many of our things are useless. Or how about gas? Let’s talk about gas. When you bought your car, you pretty much assumed that gas was going to be available and that you’d be able to buy a tank full whenever you wanted. Haven’t all of us had to re-think this in the last couple of weeks? Gas goes over $4 a gallon, and pretty soon we’ll be spending more on gas to make our vehicles run, than what we do on our vehicles themselves. And we could pretty much say the same thing about our food, our energy for our bodies. For most of us, there’s pretty much always food around. The vast majority of us have never been so hungry, that our lack of energy in our bodies, caused us to slow down, or get sick, or shut down. We take our food for granted too. We know from our knowledge of other parts of our world, that power, energy, fuel, even food can’t be taken for granted, we take it for granted, and it can affect our very life.

Today we come together to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, and the end of our Easter season. And today, what we really celebrate is our power source, our energy from God. And just like our energy, our fuel, even our food, to be followers of Jesus Christ, we need this Holy Spirit. We can’t do it on our own. This is truer for us as Catholics then any other denomination of Christianity. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. The Holy Spirit keeps us running, and growing, and becoming more and more what God wants us to be. Being Church is so important to us as Catholics precisely because it is in the family the Church, that the Holy Spirit works best. The Church is the vehicle of the Holy Spirit. We need this gift of the Paraclete as a community, and as individuals, and even as the big, international conglomerate that we call the Universal Church. Just as today we need electricity, and gas, and food for life, as Catholic Christians we NEED the Holy Spirit. This is not some option. It’s not that it would be nice to have the Holy Spirit. It is so essential that we can’t be Church without the Holy Spirit.

And how do we get and keep this Holy Spirit with us? We stay close to Jesus. We live by the truth. That means that we stop lying to others, and to God, and to ourselves. We obey the Commandments. We become more and more people of prayer. We grow in the knowledge of our Faith. We love and serve others. There are very specific ways and things to do to stay open to the Holy Spirit. Are we doing them?

Or are we going through the motions? This Pentecost it is time to ask ourselves just how serious are we about being a Catholic Christian? Because if we’re not living in that Holy Spirit, if we’re not letting God direct our whole lives, then we’re really not following Jesus, are we?

The Holy Spirit changed everything for the Apostles two thousand years ago. Their lives were completely different after they received that Holy Spirit. What would your life look like if you opened yourself up even more to the power and the energy of the Holy Spirit? I don’t think you that you can begin to imagine. One thing is for sure: It wouldn’t be boring.

May God bless us on this Feast of Pentecost, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!