Pentecost 2024

In these weeks and months, I have the great joy of going around parishes in the Diocese administering the sacrament of Confirmation. There is always a wonderful atmosphere on those occasions. On the one hand, of course, this atmosphere, is because Confirmation Day is a special family day, a big moment in the family seeing young children take new steps. But the special atmosphere is, I’m sure, also linked to the Holy Spirit who is so much honoured on Confirmation Day. The Holy Spirit brings the atmosphere of heaven, the atmosphere of love, the atmosphere of peace. It is the atmosphere of love for one another. The Spirit is the “wind” of unity in diversity that the First Reading of the Acts of the Apostles put before us today.

The Holy Spirit isn’t confined to Confirmation Day. It is good for us to get it into our heads that we have the Holy Spirit to help us, inspire us, comfort us. In the Sequence for Pentecost, we read that the Spirit is “the best of comforters”. In life, we might look for comfort in all kinds of ways– from comfort eating to pain relievers when we have ailments that help us, but when we have deep down issues such as a wounded relationship, a betrayal, an injustice, an anxiety or grief or fear… then we need a deep down comfort that reaches the inner pain and that comfort comes from the Holy Spirit who reaches the depths of our soul. The Spirit is the comforting love of God poured into our hearts.

That’s why it is so important to call regularly on the Holy Spirit. And to “listen to that voice” within us as we make decisions big and small each day. The Holy Spirit is there to help us and comfort us and console us. The Holy Spirit, as the Second Reading reminds us, helps us do what is right and positive and avoid what is negative and damaging.

One of the saints, John Vianney used an image that is striking: “Take in one hand a sponge full of water, and in the other a little pebble; press them equally. Nothing will come out of the pebble, but out of the sponge will come abundance of water. The sponge is the soul filled with the Holy Spirit, and the stone is the cold and hard heart which is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit.” We need to let our hearts be filled with the Holy Spirit who will do what the Gospel tells us – remind us of what Jesus did and said so that we can live fulfilled lives.

It is good for us to recall in this month of May that there is a special link between Mary and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came upon her at the Annunciation and again at Pentecost. It is good to ask Mary to help us personally to be open to the Spirit but also to ask her to help the Church today experience the New Pentecost that recent Popes have said is coming in the Church. We need a New Pentecost also in our Church in Ireland, also in our Diocese, also in our parish. Let’s ask for the grace that the Holy Spirit will “pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for God’s greater glory” (Pope Francis’ letter on holiness, Gaudete et Exsultate, n. 177) as well as a new evangelising drive that helps our Church go out in service of others.

I started by referring to Confirmation Day. Let me return to it. The children at Confirmation time are young but are growing. We know none of us stays young physically for long. Our body ages. But the Spirit keeps our hearts young.  The Spirit prevents the kind of ageing that is unhealthy: namely, growing old within ourselves. No, we must stay young spiritually and that’s what the Spirit can do.

So, to summarise, let’s call on the Spirit every day, let’s listen to his voice day by day and let’s ask Mary to obtain this gift for us.