COME HOLY SPIRIT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Tuesday after Easter is, “Come Holy Spirit!”

We’re moving now into that time of the Church Year when there will be much greater stress on the coming of the Holy Spirit.

I like to stress using one’s rosary beads for all kinds of prayers. So don’t hesitate to say on the 59 beads, “Come Holy Spirit!” - especially if you feel stuck - especially if you need wisdom, advice, or the Advocate - as  today’s gospel calls the Spirit. “Come Holy Spirit.” You can take your beads and say that prayer 59 times in less than 2 minutes. Of course, I’m not stressing time, but praying.

I misplaced or lost my white rosary beads - they are somewhere I hope - so I said a prayer to St. Anthony and St. Gertrude and found a ruby red pair the next day in the pocket of a jacket I rarely wear.

Come Holy Spirit.

THE JAILER IN TODAY’S FIRST READING

Have you ever felt like the jailer in today’s first reading?  He thinks his prisoners - Paul and Silas - escaped. The whole town of Philippi were screaming and yelling at Paul and Silas. Then the town magistrates ordered that they be stripped and beaten - and thrown in jail. Seeing the cell doors open, the jailer reached for his sword to kill himself. Paul shouts out, “Don’t do it. We’re still here!” [Cf. Acts 16:22-34]

Have you ever felt like that? You wanted to kill yourself - well not really,  but you said, “I could kill myself!” You didn’t mean it literally - but you felt trapped because of shame or a family disaster or a scandal or a mistake or what have you. Woo!

Come Holy Spirit. Reach for your beads, reach for prayer, not  the sword. Reach for the Holy Spirit to get you out of that trap or that prison or those chains.

And hopefully there will be a resolution or a solution - and a happy ending. That’s how today’s first reading ends. The head of the jail and his family throw a dinner for Paul and Silas and they are baptized and become Christians.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

I read today’s gospel - John 16: 5-11 last night - to say something in this homily. I prayed, “Come Holy Spirit!”

Nothing was hitting me - except the promise of Jesus that he would send us the Advocate  - that Jesus had to leave  - so the Advocate could come. What is that all about?  Is it like a parent sending a kid off to college or one pope replacing another pope?

You heard it read, what hit you? What sense did you make of it?

I checked Raymond Brown’s Anchor Bible on this section of John and read the following, “Commentators have not found the detailed exposition of  8-11 easy.  Augustine avoided the passage as very difficult; Maldonatus found it among the most obscure in the Gospel. Loisy, p. 430, remarks that the pattern of mentioning the three charges (v.8) and then explaining each (9-11) - ‘a methodical explanation that has not much clarity”…. [1]

Come Holy Spirit.  How about some clarity?

Then it hit me: well, maybe when it comes to grasping God - it’s not clear. After all,  we Christians are taught - that God is a Father, as well as a Son who is both God and Human, and a Third Person - called the Advocate, or the Holy Spirit. All 3 are 1 God. The Church took a long time to put the Trinity into a formula and Creeds. In the meanwhile various heresies and a few centuries of efforts took place in the struggle to formulate declarations about God - as Christ taught us about God - as Trinity.

So too today’s  gospel. It is complicated stuff - these words about Jesus leaving his disciples - so he can send us the Spirit - the Advocate.

CONCLUSION

In the meanwhile we can say, “Come Holy Spirit” - and while praying those words we can ask for help with family, work, neighbor, stuff, self.

In the meanwhile,  we can  pray, “Come Holy Spirit” - and while praying those words ask the Holy Spirit to challenge us - to convict us when we’re living a lie or a sin or being lazy or not in the right.

Tough stuff. Tough prayer. Yet hopefully we keep praying, “Come Holy Spirit.” Amen.

NOTES

[1] Raymond E. Brown, The Anchor Bible, The Gospel According to John XIII - XXI, Doubleday and Company, New York, 1970, page 711.

Blue picture on top: The Blue Angels flying over St. Mary's. Tap, tap, with your cursor - to get a full screen picture.

Painting in Middle: Rembrandt Van Rinj, Apostle Paul in Prison