Pentecost
June 8, 2025
Year C

First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Responsorial Psalm: 104:1-2, 24 and 35, 27-28
Second Reading: Acts 2:1-11
Gospel: John 14:15-16, 23b-26

(Originally preached on the occasion of Fr. Perry Leiker's Retirement Mass, Pentecost Vigil 2025)

We Catholics begin all our prayers in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But who or what is the Holy Spirit?

During our seminary classes, whenever the Trinity was discussed, the triangle was used as the symbol of God: Just as there are three sides or angles in one triangle, so there are three persons in one God. But who is this Holy Spirit? We were presented with two ways of understanding the third person in God.

First, there was God the Father, the Creator; God the Son, the Redeemer; and God the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier—the one who makes us holy.

Second, was Father, the Creator; Son, the Redeemer; and Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son—the one who holds the Trinity together.

I have to say that although both of these ideas may be theologically correct, neither one particularly excited me. But last week, I was thinking about the Holy Spirit as love and I was reminded of a song.

Changed by your love.
Changed from above.
I’ve been revitalized, I’ve got new shiny eyes.
Changed by your love.

Changed by your love.
Changed from above
If you hadn’t rescued me, I don’t know where I’d be.
Changed by your love.

That song was recorded by Gladys Knight back in 1981. She was singing about the love between two human beings. But it seems to me that the song is equally at home in church, and equally applies to God. Because the love that is the Holy Spirit is the change agent in our lives. In fact, that love is also the change agent in God.

Some people think that God never changes. But that is not entirely correct. God existed before creation. But the love of God that is the Holy Spirit, could not be contained within God. God had to change. God had to create. He had to share that love and so he began a process of evolution that resulted in the magnificent and expansive universe around us. He breathed his spirit upon the primordial waters and the ancient oceans began to team with life.

Wherever there is loving change, we find the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel was led by the Spirit into a vast valley of dried, disconnected bones. But the Spirit of God was able to connect those bones, give them sinews, muscles, flesh and skin. When the breath of God breathed upon the bones, Ezekiel saw that the change agent of God, the Holy Spirit, turns death into life.

Today we celebrate Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. We often make the mistake of thinking that Pentecost was a one time event. It was not. Neither is it an annual event we celebrate in Church. The gift of the Holy Spirit is an event without end. And it changes us. It changes us if we can accept it.

The Apostles had spent several years with Jesus. They saw him preach Good News to the poor, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, embrace the sinner. But they did not understand. They locked themselves away from the crowds because they were afraid. They were afraid of dying like Jesus died. But as we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus had promised to send them an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to teach them everything. The change agent of God, the Holy Spirit, turns fear into courage. And when they received the Spirit they were emboldened and began to fearlessly preach the Good News to throngs of people outside and a Church was born.

Throughout Church history, the Holy Spirit has always been present. But it has often been ignored or rejected. It is not always easy to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So let me ask a question: How many of you believe that all people are created in the image and likeness of God? Please raise your hands.

I suggest that these days we are not unlike the Apostles before Pentecost. We, too, are afraid. We fear strangers and aliens and refugees, especially those who speak languages we do not know. Some of us even have contempt for the stranger, as if no one belongs here except us.

So what would happen if we received the Holy Spirit?

Pope Francis gave one answer to that question. In 2016, while the world was contemptuously closing its borders to refugees, he opened the doors of the Vatican and invited refugees from three Syrian families to live there. Over the years he invited even more. At the same time he challenged all of us to open our homes to refugees. And yet I do not know one family that responded. Unless inaction is also a response. Perhaps we were too afraid. Perhaps we have forgotten the words of Jesus, “When I was a stranger, you welcomed me.” Perhaps we are victims of the conceit that we are the only people who belong here. Perhaps we have forgotten that we are only caretakers; that the whole of the earth, including this land, belongs to God, alone. Perhaps some of us even have contempt for the Pope’s suggestion. But the change agent of God, the Holy Spirit, turns contempt into love.

I am not unmindful of the social and governmental complications surrounding immigrants and refugees. In John’s Gospel, when Jesus promised to send the Spirit, he called it the Spirit of Truth. It has often been said that the first casualty of war is truth. I would add that the first casualty of ignorance, also, is truth. In today’s world, governments lie to their people with abandon, often lying about other countries and other peoples, even lying about themselves. The agencies that should hold leaders to account, the press, instead acquiesce. And when people only hear lies, the lies become their truth, and the real truth becomes a casualty.

So let me offer a second answer to the question what would happen if we received the Holy Spirit.

It is possible that we would respond like the Apostles and speak the deeds of God’s power. That we would proclaim all people as created in God’s image. That we would acknowledge all people as sisters and brothers. We might even open our homes to provide sanctuary for the unwanted. Because the change agent of God, the Holy Spirit, turns deceit into truth.

God has an endgame in play. He bestows the Holy Spirit so that we will not take any part of this world, any part of our lives for granted. He seeks to instill in us a gratitude that the world does not and cannot know—an appreciation for his love, his mercy, his presence in us and one another. A joy for the gift of every person who comes into our lives, no matter how they come into our lives. God seeks to enable us to live up to the truth that we are all created in his image. That no one person and no one group of people is better than another. The change agent of God, the Holy Spirit, turns thoughtlessness into thankfulness.

Looking back to my seminary days, I realize that our professor was correct when he said that the Holy Spirit is the uncontainable love of the Trinity. Every action of God from creation to the Resurrection, to Pentecost has been an act of love. A love that comes from God. A love that draws each of us into God. But love and truth cannot be separated.

If we have truly received the Holy Spirit, we must declare our opposition to the un-Christian and immoral actions of our leaders. We must speak out against the lies that spew forth from Washington and other world capitals. We must reject the lie that this land belongs to us alone. We must counter the lie that aliens and refugees are not equal to us. We must voice the truth that we are responsible for one another. We must speak the truth of universal brotherhood, sisterhood, and family.

Life, courage, love, truth, thankfulness. These are all signs that we have received the Holy Spirit. They are all signs that we are being led to God’s endgame. And when our days near their end, perhaps each of us will be able to sing with Gladys Knight:

And in time
I hope to prove I’m worthy
And forever grateful.
Changed by your love.