Congratulation to the graduating seniors!
Fr. Steve honors the seniors who are graduating from Lansing Catholic High School and presents them with gifts of New Testaments and crucifixes from the parish to mark the occasion.
Today is also the culmination of the Easter Season. Happy Pentecost!
Today the Holy Spirit came down upon ALL the believers, not just some. After that, the believers could not keep quiet about what they experienced. Fr. Steve asks: What would happen if the Holy Spirit came down upon us in tongues of fire? We would all believe, of course. But God has made the coming of the Holy Spirit an act of faith, because the Lord does not force us to believe – he leaves room for plausible deniability. Many miracles appear to be explicable through plausible scientific causes. God wants us to believe through faith not through proof.
When we experience peace, or joy, that is the Holy Spirit. God wants us to know his love, directly and through each other.
The Holy Spirit also gives gifts. The epistle today says that everyone has gifts. No one is superfluous. Nobody gets “Holy Spirit Lite.” Many of us come to Mass out of duty. But many of us know the touch of God’s love in our lives. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us. But do we believe that he can fill us with his love and allow us to love others. Fr. Steve encourages the congregation to attend the Life in the Spirit Seminar beginning this Thursday, in order to experience that new life, to experience the closeness of God’s love.
God wants us to let him in and out. The Holy Spirit has more for all of us. Let’s ask him to fill us up.
