A Spirit Filled Recharge

The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the Holy Spirit's outpouring upon the apostles, transforming fearful disciples into bold proclaimers of the Gospel. Just as devices need batteries to function, our spiritual lives require the Holy Spirit's power to truly come alive. True power comes not from worldly pursuits like fame or wealth, but through surrendering to the Spirit's movement. The Spirit brings unity wherever present and always leads us outward in mission and service. A Spirit-filled life produces discernment, direction, and fruitful ministry. We must regularly maintain our spiritual connection through prayer, sacraments, and openness to God's grace.

Transcript

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My brothers and sisters in the Lord, many years ago, when I was in my first assignment, I was very close to a family there in the parish, and they had a son by the name of Tim or Timothy, but he went by Timmy. He was about four years old at the time, and it was Christmas, and so I was going to buy Timmy a Christmas gift. Now you have to remember, my friends, I have no siblings, so I have no nieces and nephews, so going toy shopping is just not a normal thing that I do. And so I decided that he liked robots, and so they had this electronic dog that was sort of like a robot. It did backflips, it would bark, it would follow you around. I thought it was a perfect gift for Timmy. So I purchased the gift, I had it wrapped, I didn't wrap it myself, I had it wrapped, and so I brought it over, and Timmy unwrapped it. He was very excited, and he was taking it out of the box to look at this new robotic dog. And at this point, I was speaking to his parents at the kitchen table, and all of a sudden, Timmy comes up to me and he hands me the dog, and he says, You can have it. And I said, But that's your Christmas gift, it's for you, Timmy. He said, I know, but you can have it. And I said, but I don't want it. I said, it's for you, it's your gift. He said, but you can have it. And I said, Timmy, do you not like the dog? I can get you something else. He said, No, I love the dog. I think it's a great gift. He said, but you can have it. And I said, Well, Timmy, why don't you want your Christmas gift? And he said, because you forgot to bring the batteries. The robotic dog was like a plastic statue without the batteries. My dear friends, on this feast of Pentecost, we have to ask ourselves, did we forget the batteries? Did we charge the batteries? Did we even leave the batteries at home? Have they been collecting dust for several years? There's also the story, true story, in 1985 at the NASCAR race, one of the contestants, as he was driving around the track, on the third lap, his car drifted off to the side, and he no longer could drive. And so he pulled on to the side. The car just came to a stop. A $250,000 car at the time, a famous driver, a big contest, and there he is on the side of the track. Do you know what was wrong with the car? Someone forgot to put gas in the tank. My dear friends, how is your spiritual gas tank this day? Are you running on fumes? Or are you totally filled up? Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, the outpouring, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the church. And in order, my brothers and sisters, for the Spirit to animate us in our lives, we have to be receptive. We have to be a vessel. And that vessel has to be open to receiving the gift of the Spirit. Remember in the Acts of the Apostles, before Jesus ascends into heaven, he tells the disciples, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift of the Father. Wait for the promise of the Father. And after he ascends, the disciples do wait in Jerusalem. And we pick up with the reading that we heard today from the Acts of the Apostles, where they're behind locked doors in the upper room. They're waiting, and all of a sudden there is a wind that rushes through the room, and tongues as of fire that descend upon them, and they receive this gift of the Spirit, and they begin to speak in different languages, so that all the people gathered in Jerusalem may understand the proclamation of the gospel, may come to know Jesus, or as it says in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, that they may come to know the mighty acts of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. My dear friends, are you open to receive the Holy Spirit? Or have you closed yourself off? Have you closed off your spiritual gas tank? Did you forget your batteries at home? Or are you receptive to the gifts and the fruits that the Lord Jesus desires from each of us? Because he has given the church the gift of the Spirit. Because one of the first things, my dear friends, that this gift of the Spirit or this Feast of Pentecost reminds us of is that power in our life, power in our life only comes through the gift of the Spirit, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Because we live in a world, my dear friends, that says that there are many other places we should seek power. There's political power, there's economic power, there's the power of fame and fortune, there's the power of celebrity status. All of these things the world says, this is what makes you great, this is what makes you successful, this is what gives you power. But that's not true for the Christian. The world is sort of like the story of the hen. You may have heard this story before. If you placed a red cloth in front of the hen, she would lay a red egg. If you placed a green cloth in front of the hen, she would lay a green egg. If you placed a blue cloth in front of the hen, she would lay a blue egg. And then unfortunately, one day, she died because someone placed a tie-dye t-shirt in front of her. She didn't know what color to lay. My friends, that's the world. The world is the tie-dye colored t-shirt pulling on us from all sides. And we have to ask ourselves: do we seek power in the world? Do we seek affirmation in the world? Or do we seek power from God that comes to us through the Holy Spirit? The gift of the Holy Spirit. And do we dial into that gift as we're called to live out our walk of discipleship? Many of you are familiar with the bird that's called the albatross. It is the largest bird in the world. Its wingspan is 12 feet. There's only one problem with this bird. It is too heavy to lift itself off the ground. Now that's some bird, isn't it? It can't lift itself off the ground. In still air, it cannot flap its wings and lift itself off the ground because it's too heavy. Yet the albatross is one of the birds that can stay in the air for the longest period of time. They've tracked the bird, and scientists have found that it can stay over it can stay over the open sea for months without ever touching ground. How does it fly? It doesn't. It glides. It glides on the winds of the sea. In fact, it can glide through the storms of the sea in such a way that it doesn't set it off course. It glides on the wind. My dear friends, that's what we're called to do as Christians. We're called to glide on the wind of the Spirit. However, the Spirit blows, to be able to discern God's call in our life, to discern our vocation, to discern whatever the Lord is asking of us this day. That's where true power comes from. Not from the things of the world. That's the first thing that we remember on this feast of Pentecost. The second is this wherever the Spirit is present, there is unity. Wherever the Spirit is present, there is unity. Go back to the Acts of the Apostles. After the Spirit descends upon them, they begin to speak in the various languages of the people. It says people were gathered all over Jerusalem from every nation known on the earth. People of different colors, people of different backgrounds, people of different customs. And the litany could go on and on, but they could all understand the mighty acts of God. They could all understand the proclamation of the gospel. Wherever the Spirit is, my dear friends, there is unity. Where there is disunity, where there is confusion, where there is dysfunction, the spirit is not present. And we've all been in those situations. Have you ever walked in someplace? Maybe it's in your workplace. Maybe it's in someone's house or home, wherever it is, and there is just dysfunction everywhere. There is disunity everywhere. There is dissension everywhere. There is bickering everywhere. People are gossiping everywhere. The spirit is not present. Because we have allowed ourselves to become instruments not of God, but into the temptations of the evil one. Wherever the spirit is present, there is always unity. And if there's not unity, you have to ask yourself: Am I really bearing the fruits of the Spirit? Or am I becoming an instrument of that disunity, which is the opposite of the gift of the Spirit? And the third thing we are reminded of is this. The Spirit, my dear friends, always leads us into outreach. The Spirit always leads us into mission. The Spirit always leads us outside of ourselves. It's why we call Pentecost the birthday of the church. Because the church begins her mission. After the Spirit descends, when you continue reading from the Acts of the Apostles, what are the apostles doing? They're preaching, they're baptizing thousands of people, they're converting, they're mirroring the image of Jesus. It always leads us outside of ourselves because that's the mission of the church. It's the mission of each and every one of us. Here at Mary Queen of Peace, we have many, many different ministries. But no matter what ministry or thing you're involved in, there's one thing that is always important. And it is the most important. And the most important thing, my dear friends, is that we're proclaiming the gospel. We're proclaiming the mighty acts of God. We're fostering life-changing encounters with Jesus. No matter what the ministry is, anything else the ministry does is second to the proclamation of the gospel. It's second to bringing people to come to love and know and serve the Lord. The Spirit always leads us into mission outside of ourselves. And so, my dear friends, on this feast of Pentecost, where is your spiritual gas tank? Where are your batteries? Are you fully charged and ready to go out into the vineyard to bear fruit, good fruit for the Lord? Or, my dear friends, is your gas tank empty today? And if it is, you need to ask that the Holy Spirit pour into your heart more and more to mold you, to melt you, to use you as an instrument of God's grace. Because where the Spirit is, there truly is the church. Amen.