4 June 2017

By Stefania Caterina and Fr. Tomislav Vlašić

Father Tomislav: Dearest brothers and sisters, I wish you happy Pentecost; may the Holy Spirit descend in your inmost being, awaken your life and direct it towards the fullness through Jesus Christ in the life with the Father.

During last night’s vigil we have looked at how to behave within the dynamics of the whole universe in the cosmic Pentecost. I want each one of us to look into his own microcosm to understand how to welcome the Holy Spirit; how to let Him act freely; how to live our daily life by having Him always by our side and how to walk our path to reach the fulfilment of Pentecost. In the cosmic Pentecost our redemption will be fulfilled and we will enter new heavens and a new Earth where we will reach perfection.

Those who have participated in the Holy Mass may have noticed that in the Pentecost Sequence the Holy Spirit is invoked to fill our heart and penetrate us through and through:

In hard labor You are rest,

In the heat You refresh best,

And solace give in our woe.

 

O most blessed Light divine,

Let Your radiance in us shine,

And our inmost being fill.

 

Nothing good by man is thought,

Nothing right by him is wrought,

When he spurns Your gracious Will. 

Here we can see our whole life in our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

We may commit a mistake on our path: expecting miraculous and great events in the way the Holy Spirit manifested Himself powerfully in the first Pentecost to shake the deaf and the blind men who were incapable of perceiving God and understand all the works of the Father that Jesus had accomplished before their eyes. In fact, many great signs accomplished by the Holy Spirit in the history of the Church have been ignored and refused due to lacking ability desire to open up to the Holy Spirit. The greatest gift we have received is our life; thus the greatest gift the Holy Spirit can give is to transform our life into the image and likeness of God; yet this cannot occur within a moment or in a miraculous manifestation. We may receive some graces but the path of transformation is like the growth of a man from the mother’s womb to the final maturity through his free choices.

Thus, today I would like us to withdraw into our heart and become ready to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit who manifests Himself certainly more powerfully in this feast also because of our prayers and sacrifices and those of the whole people of God; yet, the Holy Spirit is always present in us; He walks before us, accompanies us, guides us and takes us, through Jesus Christ, to a perfect life in God in the new creation.

The first Pentecost is described in the Acts of the Apostles, but we also have the description of St. John in his Gospel which is commonly called “The Johannine Pentecost”[1]. Jesus appeared in front of the apostles entering with locked doors and touching the hearts by saying “Peace be with you”. He made no other miracles, and the apostles rejoiced in seeing, touching and watching Him. The description of St. John is not a vision. It is the apparition of the Risen Christ who gives the Holy Spirit to the disciples who in turn had to welcome the Holy Spirit, guard Him and participate in His action; this is the path of the Church, of the holiness of all saints and the whole holy people of God; there is no other way.

St. Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first letter[2]: ‘No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.’ The context is the following: in the Corinthian Church many charismas appeared, and the Christians who had these charismas clashed with each other, were divided, committed immoralities and became arrogant. Thus, all these signs showed that the Holy Spirit could not act upon the people. The extraordinary manifestations of certain charismas became the cause of pride and thus the infiltration of the enemy.

So, what is our path? Our path is to move towards the fundamental openness to our faith, our hope and the divine charity in us, that is, pure love. This is much more difficult than to obtain a charisma. Certain charismas that the Holy Spirit gave can also be seen in satanic movements, for Satan too can awaken certain powers of the soul. The good Lord considered withdrawing some charismas in order not to spoil His children, because for the man who does not want be holy and immersed in God, they may be hindrances and great dangers. It is easy to look at God expecting a miracle, to admire miracles; it is far more difficult to open up to God, to be filled with the Holy Spirit who shapes our life and leads us towards the fullness. That is something we have to be committed to in our daily life, but it is within our reach. Therefore, the humble, the simple, those who have no ambitions, those who love God, trust in God and are hopeful come first.

This is what St. Paul means with the words: ‘No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.‘ In this day we are called to admit in our heart that Jesus is Lord over everything. Whenever we have done wrong, He was on the cross, and today He wants to offer Himself for us so that we, freed through Him, have the life in fullness. To believe that Jesus Christ is Lord means to hold on to this truth in every situation. From this faith our trust in God’s providence is born because the Spirit of Jesus Christ makes us see everything clearly, leads us to the full light and the real understanding of life and its path. Gradually He promotes us and gives us the graces that accompany our good will and our desire to be righteous in God. To recognise Jesus Christ as the Lord of the universe means to look with trust at Him who governs the whole universe. We stick to false news, but we do not hold on to the men who explain us what there is in the universe.

Blessed is the man who decides today to welcome the Holy Spirit who will lead him completely to Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe, who puts all things right, takes us to the new creation step by step and introduces us to the life with the Father. Blessed is the man who begins today to be submitted, in every situation, to Jesus Christ who rules over the whole universe in the Holy Spirit. That man will never fail; he will be able to do everything, to be in harmony with himself, to be happy about who he is without being constantly in competition with others. In his originality he will be the builder of a communion in spirit through Jesus Christ, and this is Pentecost.

It is clear to us that the first Pentecost occurred in the presence of Mary Most Holy united with the apostles and disciples. In all Her apparitions She came without noise and Her words were simple. She appeared like a Mother who is present, tender, simple; yet, She makes hell tremble. When Satan moves She does not even look at him. She does not exorcise him as he flees by himself, for Our Mother, Our Queen is immersed in the Holy Spirit continuously, eternally, and Her relationship with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit is perfect.

In the Gospel of John Jesus says: “Peace be with you!” This is a great expression. Peace to all our troubles; peace, the answer to all problems; peace, security for our life; peace has the dimension of eternity where we will be when all of us enter the new creation with simplicity, without bravery and without the human hierarchies and categories that fill our imagination.

Jesus says: “Peace be with you,” to you all, not only to one. When the individuals, a group, a nucleus, welcome this peace, the problems are solved and the relationships healed; they become one heart and one soul because they are reconciled with Christ in the Holy Spirit. It can easily be noticed that this is missing in the Christians, the parishes, the religious communities, that is, there is no immersion in the Holy Spirit. This is the day of grace so that all may be converted by immersing themselves in the gift of the Holy Spirit who unites us with the Father through the Son from whom life comes forth in all its aspects.

How beautiful it is to read St. John: “When the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders,” the word disciples is used, not apostles. The apostles are disciples but also all of those who follow Jesus Christ are. Let us be disciples of Jesus Christ, followers of Jesus Christ who leads us to the Holy Spirit. He, the Risen, presented Himself to the disciples in the Holy Spirit with the Father. That Trinitarian power entered the disciples. Thus the consequence is this: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Those who join Jesus Christ receive the Holy Spirit; in the Holy Spirit the Trinitarian power acts, which is the highest power to act in a soul, in a nucleus or in a Christian community. Each one of us can pour this grace over others by giving forgiveness, yet, not with words but with the Trinitarian Power who liberates the others. Every individual that calls himself a Christian as well as every Christian community ought to transmit this gift in order to be in peace with Christ. And truly St. Paul says: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”[3] And we call ourselves the Mystical Body of Christ. If the body lacks the Spirit, death will be in that body; when the body is broken, corrupt, it will not receive the vital strength, the Holy Spirit of God: it will be dead, and what will it transmit? It will transmit death. Not by chance the low universe calls planet Earth “the planet of death”, and we truly see blood everywhere on Earth. Even worse, every day terrible events happen in front of our eyes which prevent us from waking us up to the newness of life.

Thus, brothers and sisters, this is a great day for us: the descent of the Holy Spirit. But it means also a great responsibility for us: to welcome Him or to live an empty life, that is, to be weak, oppressed by of confusion, tensions and wars. Today we have to make our choice: to welcome the Holy Spirit or to remain with the spirit of the world which is the spirit of Satan.

I bless all of you with the grace the Lord gives me in communion with the extraordinary, the sublime and the ordinary instruments. I bless you; may you be immersed in silence in this day and in the days until the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity to feel the grace, to understand how to be happy and live the fullness within you and to take responsibility for yourselves and for the whole humanity; in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[1] Cfr. Jn 20:19-23

[2] Cfr. 1Cor 12:3; 7:12-13

[3] Cfr. Rom 8:9