Pentecost Homily 2024

Summary

• Introduction: The Apostles' Journey
• The Transformation at Pentecost
• Modern Challenges for Catholics
• The Call to Missionary Spirit
• Importance of Faith Education
• Deepening Spiritual Life
• Conclusion: A Call to Action

Introduction: The Apostles' Journey

It is interesting to see the transformation of the Apostles during the Feast of Pentecost, the days when they followed our Lord Jesus Christ for his three years of his life on Earth. They were very zealous and very passionate about his message, but they were also confused. They didn't understand everything he was saying. And they honestly thought that he was there to establish a temporal reign of Jerusalem or of Israel over the whole world. And so they were waiting for him to declare himself, throw the Romans out and whatever else. So they were always a little bit behind the eight ball. They were always a little confused, and that was a bit frustrating for them. Then when the moment came for the passion and death of Our Lord, they all panicked and ran and all their bravado disappeared. And they hid for the days during the passion and death of our Lord all the way through to His resurrection and even past that they hid in the chocolate in the dining room where they had the last supper and they waited because why were they hiding? They were afraid. They knew that the Pharisees and Sadducees were infuriated and that they wanted to destroy this movement of Christianity. And so they had killed our Lord. And now they thought that they were going to come for them. They're going to come for the apostles. The Apostles, even though they heard rumors and stories about Christ being risen, they still hid. They didn't want to verify, except for Saint Peter's Saint John, who ran to the tomb to look. And for several days they were there until our Lord appeared to them and ordered them to go to Galilee. And they went back to Galilee. And there they waited for him and they had 40 days with him after his resurrection. And then the day of his ascension, during the time of His Resurrection, before his ascension, they had learned many things, but they still were confused into the very last. They were asking about the Kingdom of Israel. Now, will you will you bring about the Kingdom of Israel? And he reproached them because they didn't understand even then. Then again, after the ascension, they're of course, frightened and upset because they're alone again. And they don't have the teachings of our Lord to kind of keep them afloat and boy them while they're frustrated and fearful. So. Wait. This time they hide. Not so much for fear, even though that is a good part, a good part of it. They do hide because they are waiting. Enjoy. Lord have promised the coming of the Holy Ghost. And so they just waited for it to come.

The Transformation at Pentecost

When he came. They transformed entirely. All the fear and all the confusion, all the doubt and all the worry disappeared. They were overwhelmed with the grace of the Holy Ghost. And they went out and they had to share it and preacher with everybody. And the day of Pentecost, 3000 people were killed or converted. Three dozen people were baptized. What a beautiful thing. The grace of the Holy Ghost flooded the Earth at that moment through 12 men. Excuse me. At the time. 11 men. Consume them and filled them and gave them a mission. To go out and to baptize all nations, and they no longer fear the Jews and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but went to the temple to preach. And when they were arrested and brought before the High Priest for their preaching, St Peter's stood out to sit up to them. Saint Peter read the night our Lord stood up to the bread to the high priests and said, I must obey God rather than men. And all of them preached and opened churches and spread the gospel to every part of the earth. And suffered and died for the faith. Every last one. Saint John been the exception to the martyrdom. But everyone else. Suffered and died. A martyr's death for the fate. Church would end up conquering a vast part of the earth. In the principal and dominant force in the world. Mending kings and emperors. In a very short amount of time, the Roman Empire would fail and Christendom would grow from the ashes.

Modern Challenges for Catholics

It's important that we understand this because we have an issue. A world has rejected God. It has turned its back consciously, violently on God and has thrown him out. As Nietzsche claimed, God is dead. I killed him. Of course, we all know God got the last laugh on that one. But the point is we are living in what is referred to as a post God era. God is no longer a part of society. It is no longer a part of every person's life. Of every aspect of our lives that is no longer the dominant force in making decisions and policies and whatever else caught is cast out and thrown aside. And even in his own church. There are betrayals and condemnations and heresies abounding. It has gotten so bad that about its last poll I heard was 29% of Catholics actually believe in the true presence. This country, 63% of Catholics believe in the possibility in the legality of abortion. Even morals are going down the toilet very quickly. And violently. Now, of course, this is because of the enemies of the church pushing their agendas and forcing the church into corners and using the scandals and problems and divisions within the church to their advantage to be able to maximize the damage that they wish to inflict. But the other part of the problem is that we Catholics have stopped fighting for the rights of Christ the King.

The Call to Missionary Spirit

When the apostles received the grace of baptism, when they received the grace of the Holy Ghost. In this moment, they were given a mission to go out and to convert the entire world to baptize every last soul The missionary spirit of the church. It's nothing more than a spark any more. It's not even an open flame. It's a spark. And it needs to be brought back to bear to the point that it consumes the entire world and the flame of its passion. We must all become missionaries. We must all become people who carry our Lord with them. Wherever we go. When we speak, people must hear the Holy Ghost. When we go out in public, people must see a representative of God. We asked. People must know that God is present. Why have we failed in this mission? Why are we so timid and afraid to confess our faith? Why are we so fearful of what the world or anybody else will have to say about the fact that we are Catholics? Why do we have to call it all the world? Why do we have to pander to the world and not try to fight against it? Here's another issue. It isn't just a lack of courage. It isn't just a lack of passion. It isn't just a lack of the missionary spirit that is going on in the church. It is also ignorance and immorality in the church. Yes. Among ourselves as well.

Importance of Faith Education

But we must reflect on the fact that we do not know the faith all that well. If we are going to be able to preach it to other people, if we are going to be able to defend it before the entire world. And if we are going to be so convinced that we will die for it, we must know it. We must know the fate. You need to go back to the catechism. We need to study the catechism. We need to know the catechism. We need to love it. And if you state we need to read the works of the great saints and doctors and fathers of the church. There is so much of a wealth of information and beautiful dogma that is preached about the church that we know nothing about. We need to know the history of the church. Need to know the Bible. These will be great commentaries. The scholastics. Our faith must be strong. But in order for it to be strong, it must be educated. We tend to leave off our education and put it aside for things that are less important. We cannot do that any longer. We have to know our faith and be firmly, absolutely convinced of it. So on the one hand it's the study, but on the other hand, we have to pray. It isn't enough just to have lots of knowledge. We must love God. The knowledge of God. Knowing who He is and what He has done for us must lead us to love him and to offer ourselves absolutely to him, to embrace him and to love him above all things. As the apostles willing to stand up and to go out and preach, knowing that their enemies were right there and possibly waiting to kill them. And that they were putting their heads on the block just waiting for the enemies to actually cut their heads off. And then when that didn't happen, they spread out to other parts of the world. Confronting confronting Jews and pagans alike. Battling for souls, sacrificing themselves for the spread of the gospel. We also must have the same passion and love. But it comes from that knowledge and it comes from us trying to pray and get to know. Got better. To feed our bear. It's important that we that we do spiritual reading. We need to be guided in our prayers. You just go in blindly with chaotic. So we have to have a guide at spiritual reading provides that sort of Bishop Lefevre point out is the it's the food that helps us that gives us a vision. We can see better. Spiritually speaking, when we pray. When we read. We should all meditate or we most of us should meditate without a book. Just as a guide. Nothing else.

Deepening Spiritual Life

We must work on. Our spiritual lives are prayer. Life must be strong and it must be regular. This is a question of when the spirit moves me. It must be methodical and it must be calculated and it must be profound. We must deepen our faith by knowing God more deeply and more perfectly and love Him more as a result. And we love him. We want to share him. That's the natural conclusion. It's important also. Though we work on our moral life. How can we possibly help people out of the darkness of sin and error if we ourselves are not examples of virtue and grace? We must eliminate. Sins in our lives. Habitual sins, the predominant faults. Things that we need to actually consider. What is it I need to work on most? What is the most urgent? What is the worst sin I have? Those are the things I need to fight against. How do I do that? We need to come up with a strategy to combat these things. We need to fight back. It's too easy to become complacent with sin, because when we don't fight, the devil leaves us alone. He's not going to bother us. While we don't fight back. Because he's winning, he's not going to push his luck. And we're just going to keep failing. But we have to fight back. We have to have a love of God so profound that we are willing to transform ourselves into saints. Look at the apostles. These were not extraordinary men on a natural level. These are not brilliant scholars. They weren't always even very good men. They were saints. It became saints because of the work that they did and because they gave themselves entirely to it. We must be models of virtue. It's easy for us to condemn the vice and the and the the the putrid spirit of the world. But when we heard within our own souls. Darkness of sin and the death of sin. Who are we to throw stones? We have to eliminate our vices. Because while we have them, and while they have any dominion over us, our intellect will be impaired to know the faith and to appreciate it. And our will will be affected. So we cannot put it into effect. And we cannot love God as we should. So we have to fight back.

Conclusion: A Call to Action

The day is Pentecost. The strong line in the sand. The church. Our souls are to. Reign of Christ. The King are not taking another step backwards. Not retreating yet another step. We're going to fight back. We're going to overcome our vices. We're going to know the faith better. We're going to fight for our souls. And we're going to fight for the poor custody of the souls of others. And we're going to fight for the dominion of this world, for Christ the King. We are going to conquer this world not because we're so wonderful or anything else, but because the Holy Ghost is the one who is guiding us. He is the one who is sustaining us. He is the one who is filling us. And he is the one who is speaking and acting through us. That must be our goal. That must be our decision starting today. We're not going to retreat one step more before the onslaught of the world to fashion the devil. We are going to fight back and we are going to conquer our own selves. We are going to destroy the enemy. And we are going to give our Lord Jesus Christ His patrimony, which is this Earth. And we are going to do so. Even if it costs us everything we have no longer. We will be ashamed of the fact that we are Catholic, hiding the fact not not using the sign of the cross in public, not praying in public, hiding our rosaries, whatever else. We don't have to rub out our faith in virtue, in the face of everybody. They just have to be able to see it because we live it. We can no longer be cowards about this. Just as the apostles. We must now be missionaries. The faith is for every soul on earth. Grace is for every soul on earth. How many millions and even billions of souls have been lost because the church is not doing its job correctly and is not conquering the world for souls and for Christ. We must now start doing that. Regardless of what's going on in Rome or other places, it does not matter. Our battle is what it's always been. We just now have to take it seriously. And we must fight the battle. The Holy Ghost demands no less. You're what took the world with a tsunami of grace after Pentecost. And unfortunately, the world fought back. But now it's our turn to stand and hold the line and march forward and conquer every possible soul. Each one, starting with our own. Gift to God for His glory and for the eternal reign of Christ the King, so that He may reign more, says may be saved, and we may know, love and serve him perfectly on this earth. And we may earn perfect happiness and join with God in eternal bliss, eternally namely the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost. Amen.