To­mor­row is the feast of Pen­te­cost—the birth­day of the Catholic Church and the end of the East­er Sea­son. It’s the day when Chris­tians re­call how, on the evening of His Res­ur­rec­tion, Je­sus ap­peared in the locked up­per room in Jerusalem where the dis­ci­ples were gath­ered with Mary. In­ter alia, he said to them: “Peace be with you. As the Fa­ther has sent me, so I send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Re­ceive the Holy Spir­it.” Je­sus was ful­fill­ing his promise to them. (John 20: 19-23 or John 14: 15-16, 23b-26).

The apos­tles need­ed this “gift” of the Holy Spir­it in or­der to em­bark on their mis­sion to pro­claim the Gospel. Catholics re­ceive this “gift” at bap­tism and con­fir­ma­tion. St John Paul II said: “The sacra­ment of Con­fir­ma­tion is a per­son­al Pen­te­cost for the whole of life...in that Spir­it we shall in­deed be­come the Peo­ple of Pen­te­cost, the apos­tles of our time.” Para 1830 of our Cat­e­chism re­minds us that our moral life is sus­tained by the gifts of the Holy Spir­it.

As bap­tised Catholics, we are al­so sent forth in­to the world as mis­sion­ary dis­ci­ples. This is what God asks of us. We re­ceive the Gifts of the Holy Spir­it for a pur­pose, to bear fruit; to be­come the liv­ing stones; to act just­ly, to love ten­der­ly, to walk humbly with our God (Mic­ah 6:8); to be the Body of Christ in the world.

The Holy Spir­it in­fus­es in us sev­en gifts: Wis­dom, Un­der­stand­ing, Coun­sel, For­ti­tude, Knowl­edge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord (Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church, 1831). And He fills us with 12 Fruits: Char­i­ty, Joy, Peace, Pa­tience, Kind­ness, Good­ness, Gen­eros­i­ty, Gen­tle­ness, Faith­ful­ness, Mod­esty, Self-con­trol, Chasti­ty. (CCC,1832, cf. Gal 5:22–23). Peo­ple will know us by our fruits/be­hav­iour.

In our Arch­dio­cese’s 61 parish­es, while we recog­nise that there are per­sons with dif­fer­ent kinds of spir­i­tu­al gifts, re­mem­ber the words of the Apos­tle Paul to the Corinthi­ans: “There are dif­fer­ent kinds of spir­i­tu­al gifts, but the same Spir­it” (1 Cor 12:4). Dur­ing this Ju­bilee Year, the chal­lenge we have is to dis­cern our var­i­ous gifts, har­ness these and work in uni­son to build the com­mon good. There is strength in uni­ty.

Giv­en the many dis­trac­tions in to­day’s world, we need the Holy Spir­it’s prompt­ings/guid­ance. St Au­gus­tine recog­nised this when he prayed: “Breathe in me, O Holy Spir­it, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spir­it, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spir­it, that I love but what is holy. Strength­en me, O Holy Spir­it, to de­fend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spir­it, that I al­ways may be holy. Amen.”

Pope Fran­cis told us that the Holy Spir­it “opens hearts that are closed. He im­pels the com­fort­able to go out and serve. He dri­ves the self-sat­is­fied to set out in new di­rec­tions. He makes the luke­warm thrill to new dreams.” He urged us to sur­ren­der our­selves to the Holy Spir­it, not to the world: “...we do not give up, but tire­less­ly speak of peace to those who de­sire war, speak of for­give­ness to those who seek re­venge, speak of wel­come and sol­i­dar­i­ty to those who bar their doors and erect bar­ri­ers, speak of life to those who choose death, to speak of re­spect to those who love to hu­mil­i­ate, in­sult and re­ject, and to speak of fi­deli­ty to those who would sev­er every bond.”

If we let the Holy Spir­it work in and through us, we are more like­ly to re­sist the temp­ta­tions of the world eg, drugs, al­co­hol, pornog­ra­phy, the gun cul­ture. Paul’s words to Tim­o­thy are worth re­mem­ber­ing: “I wish to re­mind you, Tim­o­thy, to fan in­to flame the gifts in you, which you re­ceived on the day I laid my hands on you.” (2 Tim 1:6).

Let’s com­mit our­selves to­day to fan in­to flames the gifts that the Holy Spir­it has giv­en to us so that we can use this trans­form­ing pow­er to build a just and peace­ful so­ci­ety.

May the Holy Spir­it give us the strength to be a leav­en in so­ci­ety; to be­come “the light of the world and the salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13–14).

Pope Leo XIV calls us to be a Church that builds bridges, em­braces di­a­logue and reach­es out with love to all. On this Pen­te­cost day, let’s pray for an out­pour­ing of the Holy Spir­it up­on this na­tion.