By Father Rich Tomkosky
The Holy Spirit helps us to be devout and to grow in the virtue of love for the Catholic faith. Pentecost is the birthday of the Catholic Church, the completion of Jesus’ own Paschal mission to save the human race and establish the Church as the Ark of Salvation.
The Holy Spirit who is sent on Pentecost is the One to lead the Church into all Truth, the saving truth that leads us to Heaven if embraced in love, in the hearts and lives of individual believers. The Holy Spirit is “the soul of the Church,” the protector of the Catholic faith, the One who ensures that the faith is handed down authentically from generation to generation, despite the weaknesses and sins of Church leaders, which is something we need to recognize in our time when the leadership hasn’t been great in many quarters, but hopefully is getting better.
It is from the Holy Spirit working through the Church that we have received the splendid spiritual gifts such as the Liturgical life of the Church, especially the Holy Mass, the seven Sacraments, the devotional life of solid piety and prayer, the Canon of Sacred Scripture, the Catechism, and the canonization of saints. Let’s ask Him to help the human race to grow from hostility or ignorance or indifference toward the Catholic faith to a place of devotedness and gratitude.
The Holy Spirit gives us the help we need to persevere in the Catholic faith until our earthly death. Again, how this is sorely needed in our time which is becoming increasingly hostile to our Catholic faith. The reality is some of this dysfunction we Catholics have brought on the faith because far too many Catholics are “Catholics in name only” in terms of living the faith.
But on the other hand, some people have been looking for an excuse to throw off the Catholic Faith and to live in a more worldly way since it is hard to live the authentic Catholic teaching when it comes to faith and morals.
To persevere in the Catholic faith in the face of opposition from the world and other people, as well as dealing with our own internal temptations to take the easier path of doing what we want to do on a selfish level, is not easy but is part of the Cross we must bear in docility in a spirit of obedience to Jesus.
It’s not an accident that many young adults fall away from the practice of their Catholic faith when they go off to college or get into the secular work world. It’s often the first time, on their own, they have to really deal with people and professors who are hostile to the Catholic worldview and who also try to entice them with the sinful pleasures of the world, especially in the areas of sexuality, alcohol, and drugs, and self-will – the things that can give immediate gratification and numb us to the pain of human existence – a real trick of the devil – since he knows the only way out of the pain of life is through embracing the faith.
Patience: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. The Holy Spirit wants to help all of us live the new life Jesus won for us through His life, death, and Resurrection for our salvation in every aspect of life, but we need patience to do so. He gives us seven special gifts in our Baptism, which are renewed and deepened in our Confirmation.
The gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, fear of the Lord, piety, counsel and fortitude are like sails that lead us to the port of Heaven if we patiently cooperate with the Holy Spirit and are docile or open to His daily inspirations to do good and avoid evil, and to love like Jesus by making of our life a self-gift to our Heavenly Father, through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As Saint Paul puts it so well in Romans 12:1-2: “And now, brothers and sisters, I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies (your lives) as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship. DO NOT conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.”
This doesn’t happen automatically; in fact, our fallen nature often rebels against the Holy Spirit. We must be open to the Spirit coming down on each one on us in a tongue of spiritual flame, to help us fulfill our individual divine mission – why we were put on earth by God at this time in history.
We need to pray daily for that gift. For as Saint Hilary, put it, “Unless the human soul absorbs the gift of the Spirit through Faith, the human mind has the ability to know God but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge” Come Holy Spirit; Come and transform us! God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
