Pentecost Sunday: Come Holy Spirit, Fill the Hearts of the Faithful!

On this Pentecost Sunday we need to open our hearts to the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  But, of all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the one we really need to always work on, and allow to bear rich fruit in our daily lives, is the gift of charity, or love.  Charity is the essential virtue of Christianity and perfects all the others.Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. 

align="justify">CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (CATHOLIC ONLINE) - Pentecost was a feast day for the Jewish people.  On this day, many Jews were known to have made a special pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.  At first, the feast was celebrated as a day of thanksgiving for the harvest and subsequently it also became a commemoration of the Ten Commandments that were given by God to Moses.  Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after the Passover. 

Jesus' return to his Father makes it possible for God to come to us in a way more active and more powerful than before, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus lives, loves and continues his mission through the Catholic Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, is at work in the Church and bringing all of us to new life.  From the Church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ now sends us into the world to continue His redemptive mission. 

Many people assume that some rather deeply emotional and visible experience needs to take place when we pray to the Holy Spirit.  Too many people think that they have not experienced the power of the Holy Spirit unless they have had such an emotional experience. Perhps, been made to fall on the ground or to begin speaking a strange language.  Because of this expectation, for some, the Holy Spirit - and the working of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives - can be misunderstood. 

Although it is true that the Holy Spirit can make his presence known through external signs and special gifts, our personal Pentecost began with the Sacrament of Baptism and is deepened  through the Sacrament of Confirmation. 

Through the Sacrament of Baptism, original sin is washed away. We are set free to grow in a life of love and holiness of life. We become living temples of the Holy Spirit. Through the Sacrament of Confirmation, baptismal grace comes to completion.  It is through this Sacrament that we are bound more perfectly to the Church and endowed with a special strength of the Holy Spirit to fulfill those promises made at Baptism and go into the world, as a member of the Body of Christ, on mission.

Through these Sacraments, the Holy Spirit enlightens us with ten special gifts.  The three gifts that we receive at our Baptism are faith, hope, and charity.  The seven gifts we receive at our Confirmation are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

The gift of faith allows us to see the invisible in the visible world.  Hope gives us the ability to trust in God who is our Father.  Charity provides us with the grace that we need to love God above all things and to love our neighbor just as Jesus loves us.

Wisdom detaches us from a disordered affection toward the things of this world and causes us to desire the things of Heaven.  The gift of understanding helps us to penetrate the truths of our Catholic Faith so as to incorporate them in our lives.  Counsel enables us to see and choose correctly those actions that will help us give glory to God and ensure our own eternal salvation.  Fortitude gives us the strength to overcome those obstacles and difficulties that present themselves during our sojourn on earth. 

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The gift of knowledge shows us the path to follow and alerts us to the dangers that we must avoid in order to attain eternal life in Heaven.  Piety enlightens us with a tender and filial confidence in God and allows us to joyfully embrace all that pertains to our discipleship with Christ.   Finally, the gift of fear of the Lord fills us with a deep respect for God and makes us dread anything that may offend Him.

Along with the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to us through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, we need also to remember the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we experience as consequences of the gifts. We are invited to participate in an ongoing relationship with the Lord. When we do, we grow in these fruits and virtue is manifested in our lives.We become more like Jesus Christ; those new creations St Paul writes of in his letter to the Corinthians. (2 Cor. 5:17)

The fruits are signs or manifestations of his presence in our soul.  St. Paul enumerates these fruits of the Holy Spirit as charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity (Galatians 5: 22-23).  Certainly, as we read this list, we can see how beautiful our lives can be when we allow the action of the Holy Spirit to permeate our entire being.

On this Pentecost Sunday we need to open our hearts to the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  But, of all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the one we really need to always work on, and allow to bear rich fruit in our lives, is the gift of charity, or love.  Charity is the essential virtue of Christianity and perfects all the others. 

As we consider the virtue of charity, we should recall St. Paul's celebrated definition:  "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7).  It is here, in this text that we find the components of the virtue of charity. 

Charity, like all other virtues, is also meant to be something very practical for our daily lives.  Let us take a close look at St. Paul's definition and apply each part of it to our daily circumstances.  To do this we must take a close look at ourselves. As we examine our daily actions, we can ask ourselves these questions:  Have I been patient and kind to everyone?  Have I been arrogant and rude?  Have I been irritable?  Have I been harboring resentment against anyone?

There are two obstacles which we often experience in living out and growing in this virtue: our ego and our moods.  We need to be selfless and we need to get our moods under control.  Too many people in our contemporary society only live for themselves and too many people live from one mood swing to another.  Authentic Christianity is only possible when we are not ruled by our ego. 

A healthy family life is the best way to develop the virtue of charity for most Christians. Interaction among family members takes place most frequently at the dining room table. The family has been called "the domestic church" for good reason. There we learn to love.

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Now, to be practical, two suggestions. Families need to have dinner together most nights of the week.  Excessive involvement in sports and after school activities can rob a family of the intimate social life that helps to keep families alive and together. 

Aside from excessive activities, too much television viewing can cause family members to isolate themselves into their own little shells.  This is particularly true when parents allow children to have their own television set in their bedrooms. 

There are two effective ways to change the quality of family life; the first is to have dinner together every night and the second, to control the use of the television.  If you are not doing these two things, try them, and you will be amazed with the results. Remember, the Lord wants to be present in the real stuff of your daily life. It is there where you find Him - and there where you grow in holiness.

On this Pentecost Sunday let us join with the whole Church and pray this familar prayer:

Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.

V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,

R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Father James Farfaglia is the pastor of Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Father has a hard hitting blog called Illegitimi non carborundum.  He has also published a book calledMan to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men about Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life.  You can contact Father at fjficthus@gmail.com. 

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