PENTECOST SUNDAY

It has happened to all of us at one time or another in our life, a breathless moment, the time you get the wind knocked out of you.

For myself, the first time it happened was when I was playing hockey in high school. I could see him out of the corner of my eye as he came skating toward me at full speed. He lowered his right shoulder and checked me into the boards with full force. My hockey stick went into the air, and I landed flat on my back. And then I could not breathe. A momentary sense of panic! Luckily, I recovered my breathing and was back to breathing normally within a minute or so.

It could happen playing football, soccer, basketball or a dozen other sports. But it could also happen when you get shocking news that someone you love has died; you just cannot seem to catch your breath. It could be a huge wave that crashes to shore while you are standing there with such unexpected force that it knocks you to the sandy beach and you cannot breathe.

Here are a couple of examples of positive breathtaking moments:

I am standing next to a groom who is holding back tears as his bride walks down the aisle to meet him. “Take a deep breath,” I whisper to him. He responds, “She is so beautiful, Father. I suggest you also take a deep breath.”

Or when a nurse hands you your firstborn child and you cradle your baby as your heart is racing and you struggle to breathe because of the miracle you are holding.

Or you are standing on the Rim Trail overlooking Lake Tahoe. The beauty of God’s creation just takes your breath away as you realize that you are in the majesty of God’s environment and presence.

Now imagine being with the apostles, hiding behind locked doors in the Upper Room when a gust of turbulent wind, like that of a major hurricane, comes whipping through the room. It is so strong that it forces all of you to gasp for breath. Then comes fire in the shape of tongues without thick black smoke, volcanic ash or sulphur dioxide, just the flame.

“How can that be?” you all wonder. It must have been a breathtaking and mind-blowing experience to have the glorified Christ standing inside the bolted room.

The Resurrected Christ then, in a prayerful tone simply says, “Peace be with you.” Again, all of you take a deep relaxing breath. The glorified Lord shows you His hands and side and says it again, “Peace be with you.”

Listen to Him, ‘PEACE BE WITH YOU…PEACE BE WITH YOU.”

Then, as John’s Gospel states, “He breathed on them.” The glorified Christ lets you catch your breath.

After you regain your regular breathing pattern, Jesus gives you this gift, “RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. WHOSE SINS YOU FORGIVE ARE FORGIVEN THEM.”

Wow, we are each given the spirit of forgiving! Talk about a breathtaking moment!

Jesus gave you His breath,

Jesus gave you His spirit,

Jesus gave you His power,

Jesus gave you His love and life.

These breathless first Christians were now full of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean, “To be full of the Spirit?” I assume the meaning is based on your personal symbol of who the Holy Spirit is to you.

The most common symbol for the Holy Spirit is a peaceful graceful dove. Recall the story of the flood during Noah’s time. Noah sent out a dove to find vegetation and the dove returned with an olive branch indicating that the waters of the flood had subsided. The dove became a symbol of God’s mercy and peace.

A dove is also associated with the Baptism of Jesus. All four Gospels include the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of the image of a dove for the Holy Spirit. Doves are small birds belonging to the pigeon family and are known for their low, soft cooing.

The image that I like is the one that the Ancient Celts chose: the symbol of a wild goose to represent the Holy Spirit.

A goose is a large bird and noted for its honking call. A goose is wild and jolts us out of our complacency. People get annoyed with not only its noisy honking, but also its droppings. At Lake Tahoe’s Burnt Cedar Beach, the geese cause such a problem that there is a Geese Patrol made up of trained dogs to control them.

Regardless, the Holy Spirit moves us to renew the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit gave the first apostles the courage to make disciples.

More than ever, this is also our mission today. The Holy Spirit energized those first Christians to come out from behind locked doors, and they could not stop speaking to others about the Risen Christ.

They were on fire with their message of forgiving and loving one another as Christ forgave and loved us. They were filled with the zeal to share their faith and hope. Their passion and eagerness resulted in people joining their community on that Pentecostal day. They were amazingly capable of sharing this good news with people with whom they could not even communicate. Language was not a barrier. They saw the opportunity to go out and make disciples. And they did it.

I often think the Feast of Pentecost should be known as the feast of Limitless Possibilities

It is like the story of two different salespersons sent to a foreign country to sell shoes. The pessimistic one wrote back to the Corporate Headquarters, “This is a hopeless situation; the natives don’t wear shoes.” The optimistic salesperson wrote just the opposite, “This is an incredible opportunity; the natives don’t wear shoes.”

To be a people for Christ, we need to be more than “Pew People.” We must be intentional disciples on fire, disciples filled with passion for Christ, willing to renew the face of the earth. If not, Christianity will die.

It is like what happened in the watch and clock industry. The Swiss dominated the world in manufacturing timepieces until the mid-1970s. They controlled 90% of the entire watch industry. Then something happened called the quartz movement, the invention of a watch with a battery instead of a main spring, knobs or gears. The Swiss refused to change and lost their industry dominance to the Japanese watchmakers. They forgot that their primary purpose was to help people tell time.

The inability to change when change is needed can be disastrous.

If we, as intentional disciples, forget that we are all called to make disciples for Christ, we will become obsolete. The last 50 years have seen the most accelerated social and moral changes in human history. What worked in the past for the Church does not work today. We can no longer just be passive spectators or consumers at Mass and call ourselves committed Christians.

We must never forget is what Christ has done for us. He has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christ calls you and me to go and be intentional missionary disciples. I judge that as Catholic Christians, guided by Pope Francis, our mission is to be concerned with the least among us by ministering against anything that exploits another person.

We may get the wind knocked out of us because we choose to live like Christ, but we will get our wind back by believing that Christ breathed on us with His gift of the Holy Spirit, giving us peace within us and forgiveness to others.

A Blessed Pentecost to each and every one of you.