My take of the Pentecost Sermon

Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012

SEQUENCE

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

And from your celestial home Shed a ray of light divine!

Come, Father of the poor! Come, source of all our store! Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best; You, the soul’s most welcome guest; Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet; Grateful coolness in the heat; Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine, Shine within these hearts of yours, And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught, Nothing good in deed or thought, Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour your dew; Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will; Melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore And confess you, evermore In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward; Give them your salvation, Lord; Give them joys that never end. Amen. Alleluia.

Pentecost is the 50 days after the Passover

1. There are 3 important festival in Jews calandra. Feast of Passover, Feast of Weeks & Feast of Sakot

2. The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) – happens 7 weeks after the Passover feast. This is the feast where every person brings something the 1st fruit of his labor God to thank Him. A Jew will not & cannot eat the fruits of your labor till you have offered them to God. Even if the fruit is ripe & falling off the tree, you will not eat till you have presented God His portion. Let’s all be like Abel & offer God the 1st & best portions of our labor.

3. So on this feast when all Jews from all over the world had gathered in Jerusalem to offer the Feast of Weeks – it was at the Feast of Chavot that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles.

4. The feast of weeks was celebrated to commemorate the day when God gave the 10 Commandment to the Jew. For the Jews the gift of the Torah was milk & honey. So the Jews celebrate it with Dairy products & honey.

5. When Christ left at Ascension, Christ ask all the Disciples who had lost hope at the death of Christ, to all gather in Jerusalem at Pentecost all lost hope was restored & men of fear wear embolden & their fear was converted to fruitfulness. On that day the preached & 3000 men were baptized.

6. So with the Holy Spirit descending anew on you today, all lost hope will be restored, all locked doors will be opened.

7. In the Old Testament, we know the story of the tower of Babel, the people wanted to build to God, this is a age old desire of man, in the Garden of Eden, the devil deceived man that God was lying that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they will become like God. So the people of Babel who at the time all spoke the same language & could understand & relate with each other, wanted to build to God & find out how God looked like. The tower collapsed & there was confusion & their language was confused & they could not understand each other. This confusion & our inability to understand has been the cause of many wars up till today. So at Pentecost, God restores us to singular language, where all the people from different parts of the world could hear the Apostles speak. So the confusion of language was sorted out. It broke the linguistic barrier & there is nothing like different language. Pentecost makes a transistion from confusion to confession, confession that Jesus is Lord & He sent the Comforter, the Holy Paraclete to be with us. It makes us now know God and how to worship & please Him. That that we sort to do as man through sin & disobedience, by eating the forbidden fruit or building a tower to God, the Holy Spirit reveals to me & you. At Pentecost we move from division to devotion. That is what the Holy Ghost does for us.

8. From the 1st reading we hear of the account of the Pentecost –

FIRST READING

Acts 2:1–11

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

9. Reading the 1Cor 13, we understand the 2nd reading better. When the gifts of Holy Spirit came to the people of Corinth, people with different gifts were beginning to see themselves as better than others. It was creating division. Paul writes to them to restore the Pentecost Spirit of Unity & togetherness.

10. The Gospel also tells us of what the Spirit does for us.

11. All knowledge & all Glory belongs to God.

12. The agenda of the devil is make people think that there is no God. But the Pentecost ask us to go out to proclaim that Christ is Lord. We need to counter the works of the devil. We all heard the words of the ignorant Ghanaian, who now thinks he now knows so much there is no God.

13. Pentecost is a time of giving, most Catholics do not have a spirit of giving, even our dues we do not pay. But we need to give thanks to God with our labor and our lives. Remember that the Pentecost Feast is a Feast of Giving, where we are to give the 1st Fruit of our Labor.

14. The Pentecost is a time to go & proclaim the word of God. As Parishioners, the Church s calling on us to go our & bring just one person back into the Christ & Church.

15. The symbol of Holy Spirit is a dove – Peace. We should all pray for peace during this Pentecost

16. God help us so that the Holy Spirit will help us to move from fear to fruition.