Pentecost Event 2005

May 14, 2005

Sacred Heart Cathedral

Homily by Bishop Donald Pelotte, SSS

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     I am so very grateful that so many of you have gathered here today to celebrate the conclusion of the second phase of our diocese’s participation in Disciples in Mission.  Over 1500 individuals, from 39 different parishes (which represent about 75% of our parishes) have been involved in some way or other in this program of prayer, scripture reflection and faith sharing.  During these three years we have been learning how to better read God’s Word, to reflect on its meaning for us and to discover how God’s plan is working itself out in our lives. 

     For three years, through the exemplary and outstanding guidance of our Diocesan Leadership Team the Disciples in Mission program has provided us with the guidance, training and materials to help us learn how to be evangelizers.  We have learned that an evangelizer doesn’t have to go out knocking on people’s doors to preach to or at them.  An evangelizer listens to the Word, applies it to him/herself, and tells family friends and co-workers how God is working in his or her life.  In the process many lives have been changed and the hearts of people in our many parishes have been enriched and hopefully many will continue to share God’s word and their faith in it and will be more attuned to how God’s word is still being written in their own lives. 

     Now that we have completed this phase of Disciples in Mission we move to the third goal: Ato foster Gospel values in our society, promoting the dignity of the human person, the importance of the family, and the common good of our society, so that our nation may continue to be transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ. 

     This goal requires the strategy of strengthening our everyday involvement with those in need, of reflecting on the work place and media, and of encouraging Catholic involvement in areas of public policy as a way of having greater impact on society’s values. 

This goal calls us to pursue the following objectives: 

- To involve parishes and our local Catholic service groups in alleviating the immediate needs of people in this area; 

- To foster the importance of the family;

- To explore issues of our work places and lay spirituality;

- To encourage Catholic witness in the arts and intellectual community;

- To involve Catholics on every level in areas of public policy, and the media and in questions of economic systems.

   All of these goals and objectives will form an essential part of the diocesan stewardship program which we plan to launch in early Fall. 

    There could be no better time to embark on this agenda than on the Feast of the Pentecost and today’s Pentecost Event 2005 is our own way of being commissioned and sent on this mission.  In this new challenge we can learn a lot from today’s readings. 

   The first reading the describes an extraordinary event.  There is great noise, like that produced by a hurricane.  The tongues of fire appear over the heads of the followers of Jesus.  The noise and the fire are what were heard and seen, but what really happened?  The reading says that Athey were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But what does that mean?  We are told that the disciples were then able to speak in a way that those present from all over the world could understand them in their own native language and the disciples announced the good news of the Risen Christ Aas the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.  Put simply, it means that the followers of Jesus were given the power promised by Jesus to further the reign of God that he had inaugurated.

     The second reading from Paul, offers a more extensive portrait of what it meant to be filled with the Spirit.  It was the power of the Spirit that enabled believers publicly to acknowledge their religious allegiance: “Jesus is Lord!”

     Paul goes on to speak of the gift that each one has been given as a manifestation of the Spirit.  You will notice that he does not explicitly identify these gifts, for his focus seems to be on the unity that is possible in such diversity.  We have different gifts, different forms of service and different workings or expressions of the power of the Spirit.  But these are all manifestations of the same Spirit, given to us for the benefit of the entire body. 

     So what happened on the Feast of Pentecost, and what does it all mean for us today as we gather to celebrate this Pentecost Event 2005?  The Spirit took hold of the first disciples with a force like a mighty wind, and they were set on fire with zeal for the reign of God.  As baptized and confirmed Christians, we too have been seized by the same Spirit; we too have been given gifts for the service of others. 

     Pentecost is not simply the “birthday of the church.”  It is more than that.  It is the feast that calls us out from behind locked doors where, like the disciples in the Gospel reading.  We may be hiding for fear of others.  It is the feast that reminds us that we are indeed people filled with the Spirit, people with the gifts that the world needs so desperately: wisdom for a world searching for meaning, knowledge for a world seeking insight, healing for a world torn apart by violence, prophecy for a world in need of direction, discernment of spirits for a world confronted by competing forces. 

     The power of the Spirit worked wonders in and through the lives of the first disciples.  The power of the Spirit has worked wonders in and through the lives of believers down through the ages.  What wonders will the Spirit work in and through us - the Disciples in Mission of the Diocese of Gallup?

     The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the unseen, immeasurable presence of God in our lives and in or Church - the presence that animates us to do the work of the Gospel of the Risen One, the presence that makes God’s will our will, the presence of God living in us and transforming us so that we might bring his life and love to our broken world.

     God “breathes” his Spirit into our souls that we might live in his life and love; he ignites the “fire” of his Spirit within our hearts and minds that we might seek God in all things in order to realize the coming of his kingdom. 

     Pentecost is a moment of profound realization and transformation for the community of disciples.  The faith they had received, the wonders they had witnessed and the Word they had heard came together in a new understanding, clarity, unity and courage to begin the work Jesus had entrusted to them.  In Jesus’ “breathing” upon them the new life of the Spirit, the community of the resurrection - the Church - takes flight!  That same Spirit continues to “blow” through our local Church of Gallup today to give life and direction to our mission and ministry to preach the Gospel to every nation, to proclaim the forgiveness and reconciliation in God’s name and to baptize all into the life of Jesus’ resurrection.