Pentecost Sunday 2007

Mass with Neophytes of the Diocese of Paisley

1. Fifty days after his resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from the Father upon the apostles who had seen him ascend into heaven some days before. This is the mystery of Pentecost. This is the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire to breathe life into the Church and to strengthen the Apostles for witness to Jesus and to spread his Gospel to the ends of the earth. And this is what the Apostles did in the power of that same Holy Spirit! They preached the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they won over converts in great number, they spread the faith to the ends of the known world, they gave their lives in witness to the Lord Jesus, and were themselves the foundation on which the Church continued to grow.

2. And we can give thanks today that the Holy Spirit continues to fill the Church. Wherever there is faith, hope and love, there is the Holy Spirit. Wherever the sacraments are celebrated and sins are forgiven, there is the Holy Spirit. Wherever people suffer persecution for their faith in Christ, there is the Holy Spirit. Wherever people serve one another with unselfish love, there is the Holy Spirit. Where there is prayer and true worship, there is the Holy Spirit. Wherever people find the true God, there is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit blows where he wills and the Spirit constantly renews the face of the earth.

3. In our midst today are the people we call “neophytes”, those who have come to new life in Christ, who are newly born in Christ. These are the people who have come to faith, who have been baptised and confirmed at Easter, and who made their first Holy Communion. These are new members of Christ’s Church and people who, already baptised, have freely entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. They are living signs of the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit among us. They are gifts of the Holy Spirit to the Church in our diocese and we give thanks to God. We encourage them to grow in faith and to take their full part in the life of their parishes and of our local Church.

4. The first coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost has been described for us in the first reading today as a dramatic scene of sound and wind and fire. Our experience of the Holy Spirit may be less spectacular but it is no less dramatic. Faith, love, service, prayer, self-sacrifice, self-giving, faithfulness – these are the gifts of the Spirit, these are God’s blessings, these are the core of a dramatically new way of life, which comes from the Lord and from his gospel. We can all testify to the power of the Holy Sprit, and for this too today we give thanks.

5. On the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles the power to preach the gospel with great effectiveness. If there is one thing the Church needs today, it is the Holy Spirit to inspire us to evangelise our own communities and parishes: we need people to come back to Mass and the Sacraments; we need parents to pass on their faith to their children and young people; we priests to be loving shepherds of their people; we need the young to be enthused by the love of Jesus for them; we need more vocations to the priesthood; we need greater prayer and devotion; we need a burning commitment to life, to justice and to the dignity of the human person. We need the Gospel to be fully alive among us. For this, I implore the Holy Spirit to pour out his gifts among us.

St. Laurence’s, Greenock

27^th May 2007