Pentecost Sunday
May 19, 2024
On the Feast of Pentecost, we experience the Spirit of truth empowering the disciples of Jesus to be authentic witnesses to Jesus’ words and deeds. St. Francis de Sales notes:
The holy love that the Spirit pours into our hearts is infinitely more than all other forms of love. The love the Spirit gives us redeems us and gives us eternal life. On the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit reinvigorated and gave strength and virtue to Jesus’ disciples to carry on our Savior’s work through forming the true Church.
You too exercise an apostolic function by witnessing to your way of life as a Christian. The love of the Spirit empowers you to do our Lord’s work. Our works that flow from the Spirit’s love have vigor and authenticity and grow like the mustard seed. This Divine Spirit does not hesitate to dwell in us. Hence, we must make room in our hearts for the Holy Spirit. Now what must we do to make room? God asks first for our heart. The Spirit, who dwells in us, desires to open our hearts to divine goodness. The Spirit of Jesus wants us to experience the fruits of divine love. The Spirit does this by giving us gifts and blessings inseparable from holy love that leads us to eternal happiness.
Our desire, to attain the fullness of a holy life, is a spark of the divine flame and the work of the Spirit. If we wish to sail on the little boat of the Church amidst the bitter waters of this culture our Savior will guide us to eternal happiness. He makes every effort to encourage you to take the oar in hand and sail. He has promised that if you take the trouble to row your boat, He will lead you to another place full of life. To the extent you allow the Spirit to enlarge your heart, the Spirit will increase your ability to love divinely. Happy, indeed, are those who decide to serve God even only a little! God will never let them remain barren and unfruitful! Who, then, can resist the empowering love of the Spirit?
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal)
