Pentecost

May 27th 2012   Sunday  Homily:  Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23

For Readings

http://www.usccb.org/nab/052712.shtml

You might have heard this story. Early last century a poor European family was coming to the U.S.A.. On the ship, they had as food the bread and cheese they had purchased prior to sailing. After many days of cheese sandwiches, the son came to his father, "Dad, if I have to eat cheese sandwiches all the way across the Atlantic, I will get fed up with it." The sympathetic dad gave him his last nickel for ice cream. Hours later the child returned. The father noticed his wide smile. He asked what he had eaten. "Several plates of ice cream, dad, and then a steak dinner." "For a nickel?" "No, dad, the food is free. It's part of the passage ticket." He returned the coin to his father.

The Pentecost is like that boy’s cafeteria experience. His family didn’t know of the freely available wonderful food with their already paid ticket till the boy explored it. With our Baptism and Confirmation we are initiated into the Catholic Church with the gifts of the Holy Spirit available to us. Their small boy helped the family to find delicious food without any cost while different experiences and events in our lives help us to explore the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are not given one or two gifts but seven, namely, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord.

The feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Holy Mary on the fiftieth day of resurrection.  It was a Jewish festival day. Israelites were celebrating Pentecost on the first day after seven Sabbaths following Passover. It was known as the Feast of Weeks and also the Feast of Harvest, for it was the feast where the first fruits of the Spring harvest were brought in. Pentecost has been observed in the Christian Church since the days of the apostles, as they received the Holy Spirit on that day and started witnessing to Christ without fear. It was a point of huddle to hustle.

Today's readings make reference to the arrival of the Holy Spirit, being baptized in the Spirit and being sent forth to proclaim the Word of God so others may convert to the living faith. The arrival of the Holy Spirit was affirmed in the First Reading when we heard, "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages". Being baptized in the Spirit was affirmed in the Second Reading when it was said, "In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." And being sent to proclaim the Word of God was affirmed in the Gospel Reading when we heard, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Today the Holy Spirit is working in the Church bestowing all of those seven gifts. Fruits of the Holy Spirit are its signs.

There is a charismatic woman I know, whose name is Philomena. She was a very shy and totally illiterate domestic servant, working in one of the convents in south India and she was seldom known to anybody other than her family and the nuns in the convent where she was working. After attending a charismatic retreat she felt the touch of the Holy Spirit in her. One day being an illiterate she opened the bible just to see it. Then she noticed some difference in her and was able to read it though, she had never learned how to read and write. All of a sudden she started reading the bible. The special thing about this gift, was that she could read only the bible, not any other books or papers. Within a short period, that illiterate and shy woman became an inspiring charismatic preacher and witness to the power of the Holy Spirit.

On Pentecost day we see the Apostles who were hiding inside the closed doors due to the fear of Jews, were filled with the Holy Spirit, felt the power, courage, gift of tongues and began to make bold proclamations. It was the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the same Holy Spirit who made that illiterate Philomena capable of reading the bible and to make proclaim God's word.

From the very day of Pentecost, the Church, has celebrated and administered Holy Baptism. Indeed St. Peter declares to the crowd astounded by his preaching: 'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' Filled with the Holy Spirit the apostles began to proclaim the mighty works of God, and declared this outpouring of the Spirit to be the sign of the messianic age. Those who believed and were baptized received the gift of the Holy Spirit in their turn.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of life, for those who are to be saved, must be born of the Spirit. Consider this gift. Without the work of the Spirit, no Church minister can hope to see dead bones come to life. We can plant and water, but only God can bring forth the harvest. And the same is true for each of us individually with regards to living out faithful lives to God. We received this new life by the work of the Spirit, not some work within ourselves, and we can only complete this work if the Spirit is at work in us. All faithful Christians are Spirit-filled Christians. We need to remain always spirit filled.

When the Holy Spirit is poured out like water on the land, there is a transformation of the whole land, the whole society. Fruits can be found everywhere – even to generations as Peter promised at Pentecost. And this is what happened at Pentecost. By means of the preached Word and the promised Spirit, a new community of believers came into existence. The result of this work was four-fold. The congregation was devoted to the teaching of the apostles, to fellowship, to the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer. Those outside saw the transformation and were astonished. In the midst of the doomed city, the community held all things in common. The community overflowed in gladness together and God continued to add to their number.

 And like Pentecost, even today the Spirit is being poured over all receiving lands, individually and collectively. To remain always overflowed in gladness together we need to be one in Spirit as a worshipping, loving and sharing individuals and communities. God bless you.

Ascension of our Lord

 May 20^th,   2012 Sunday  Homily:  Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Mk 16:15-20

For Readings

http://www.usccb.org/nab/052012.shtml

Last week when I visited a homebound person who is in his 80s said that he likes to visit his native town in Ireland and wants to meet some of his family members whom he hasn’t met for long time. Every time when I visit him, he tells some stories of his Irish town and its wonderful memories. A native place and home is always dear to everyone. Now when I say this some of you might have already planned or in the process of planning to visit your native places during this summer. Homecoming is always exciting. No matter how many homes we have lived in, home is always that place where those particular people are. Be they parents, grandparents, family members or friends, as they have etched a memory in our hearts. Today we celebrate the grand homecoming, the Ascension of the Lord.

This Feast commemorates the elevation of Christ into Heaven by His own power in the presence of His disciples on the fortieth day after His glorious Resurrection. The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven completed His earthly work of our redemption. Through His many apparitions to His disciples and hundreds of people between the Day of His glorious Resurrection and the Day of His Ascension, Jesus proved two things in a special way. First of all, He proved that He was the promised Messiah, the Son of God. Secondly, He proved that He has overcome death and those who persevere in their living faith shall also overcome death and inherit the Kingdom of God.\

The first reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles gives a description of the Ascension of our Lord. Luke describes the way the Ascension took place as Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight and the Angels appeared immediately after the Ascension, reminding them of His coming again. The return of Christ to heaven at the presence of His disciples was the culmination, the sign and seal of the accomplishment of His Salvific mission on earth. St.Paul in the second reading is praying that God would enlighten our minds to try to understand and appreciate the marvelous things God had done for us through the incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

As we reflect on today’s scripture readings, we might wonder about Jesus’ homecoming. He returned in His glorified body after accomplishing the salvific plan through the incarnation, preaching the good news, passion, death, resurrection and commissioning of His disciples to continue the mission promising His continuous presence and support to enable us to reach our heavenly home. His Ascension reminds us that there is still another place we can claim to call our permanent home. Here we don’t have anything to remember of our eternal home other than our faith experience, but it was there, it is there and it will be there.  A few days ago while talking with a lady, she told me that her parents and grand-parents migrated from a small city in Italy and so far she hasn’t visited that city but hopes to  make it there one day. At the present time she has little to remind her of her parents’ home city, but she considers that city, as her original city and believes many things based on her parents and grand-parents words and expressions. Today we have nothing to remember of our eternal home in Heaven, but we have many things to believe based on Jesus, our Elder Brother’s words and teachings about our Heavenly Home. He taught us of the beauty of our future home. The most wonderful thing is that he is still with us to teach us how to get there and to lead and strengthen us in our faith journey.

He ascended after commissioning his disciples with a mission and promising His continuous presence and support. After witnessing the Ascension of Christ, the disciples didn’t scatter as they did earlier. All of them remained united and did what Christ told them to do. The Gospel says, “the Lord was working with the disciples and confirming their preaching by the signs that accompanied it.”

With the Ascension, the Lord did not distance himself, but became closer to us. He wants us to be in heaven with Him and His Father. That is why He remains with us till the end enabling us to accomplish it. It is the mission He entrusted to His followers. Because, this earth is our home away from home and our eternal home is heaven. The disciples experienced and proclaimed it with great zeal. Now it is our turn and our mission. One day we will be taken away from this world to our eternal home. We need to make the heaven to wait for us with joy, on our departure from this world. It is for this purpose He is with us always in different forms and roles, with signs confirming our heavenly membership and reminding us of our progress. 

Today’s feast then is more about presence than about absence, arrival than departure. Even this Holy Eucharist is a celebration of Lord’s presence with us. His Spirit has been poured into our hearts and, together, we are his Mystical body. As the second reading reminds us today, the Lord ascended in order to give gifts to his followers, “for building up the body of Christ.” Let us build up the Church, His mystical body as this feast directs our gaze to the body of Christ here on earth in and through which Christ is ever-present, and toward heaven, where one day we all hope to reach, and are longing for. God bless you.