SHORT  PRAYERS!

SUBTITLE: COME HOLY SPIRIT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Short Prayers! Subtitle: Come Holy Spirit.”

“Short Prayers! Subtitle: Come Holy Spirit.”

Today is the feast of Pentecost.  Meaning: “Fifty” - meaning for us Christians, “Fifty Days  After Easter.”

Today - and in this time of the Church Year - we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit - on the Early Church.

TODAY’S  READINGS

The disciples, the followers of Jesus,  were down. They were locked in on themselves. They had lost Jesus their leader. And if you read the Gospels  -  like the gospel reading for today - you hear how Jesus the Risen One appeared to them - and spoke words of peace to them. “Peace be with you.”

Then Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Then Jesus said, “I send you.”

Jesus is sending us - after saying these short, short sentences:

·       “Peace be with you.”

·       “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

·       “I send you.”

But, then Jesus says something very deep. He gives a deep, deep revelation. “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whose sins you retain, they are retained.” 

Instead of the word “retain”,  I’d rather translate the Greek word “KRATEO” into: “hold onto” and translate this sentence as follows, “Whose sins you let go of, they are gone; whose sins you hold onto, they are held onto.”

Wow!

If there is one thing I learned as a priest and a human being, it’s right there.

We all know that one.

When we human beings make mistakes or are mistaked on - blamed - or hurt by another, we can forgive them or ourselves at some point - hopefully - and experience “peace” in the upper room of our mind - or we can hold onto hurts or sins that can weigh us down for life.

Confession - forgiveness - doesn’t just happen in those confession boxes we have in Catholic Churches. But yet, yes, I’ve heard from the other side of the curtain at various times: “Phew!" [Make the sound of pushing out air] - It's the sound of letting out of bad air and bad memories and mistakes and sins and then I’ve heard the [Make gesture of sucking in]  the sound of sucking In of New Air. It's time for a new beginning.

That scene in confession boxes - and in counseling rooms - and in relationships and marriages and family - when forgiveness takes place - when letting go takes place - triggers the dawn of a new human creation.

It triggers the moments - in human evolution - when we humans evolved far enough to stop clubbing each other with angry grunts and stone sledge hammers - and sensed God - our God who bent down and breathed into the clay of earth from which we come - and we came to live and breathe in the Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit.

The word used in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, The Beginning, is RUAH - the Hebrew word for Spirit, Breath, Life, Air, Wind, Breeze.

RUAH - you can hear the sound of Air, Breath, Spirit, Life in that word, that sound.

Come RUAH of God. Rush into us.

And if we read the Acts of the Apostles - as we heard in today’s first reading - the Spirit, the Wind, rushed on that hide out - that locked upper room - and shook up that building, those disciples - and they felt this strong driving wind - and they experienced “tongues” - “as of fire”  -  as the reading puts it - and these tongues of fire filled them with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in different tongues - as the Spirit enable them to proclaim.

I’ve heard various theories and ideas about “speaking in tongues” and instead of bringing folks together, sometimes it brings division - so I’ve decided on holding that a great understanding is that Love - Peace - God appears and can be understood in all languages - all tongues.

And that’s what we hear in the second part of today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles - that the Gospel of Christ - moved out of that upper room, out of Jerusalem,  and out into the Greek speaking and then into the whole Mediterranean basin, and world and all these tribes and people there.

And as our second reading from Paul to the Corinthians puts it: when brothers and sisters work together with Jesus as Lord, then all our spiritual gifts can be used in the service of all. We are one body - and when we are baptized into the one Spirit of Christ - all the different parts of that Body can bring - can breathe - that Spirit into our world.

 SHORT PRAYERS

Ooops!  A nice short word….  Ooops.

The title of my homily is, “Short Prayers! Subtitle: Come Holy Spirit.”

Let me try to be practical and get this done in a page and a half.

My goal is 10 minute homilies - which means about 4 ½ pages - 14 pica - 8 ½ by 11 inch paper.

I have a theory that every human being prays short prayers - atheists included - non church or temple going people as well.

Listen to people. Listen to their sounds. Listen to their screams.

“Oh my God, noooooooooooooooooooo!”

“Holy _________” You know part two - but notice “Holy” in part one.

“Jesus Christ!”

“OOOOOhhh No!” I hold that’s a prayer to the Power beyond our powers - when things happen that are out of our control. “Ooooooh NO!”

In Hinduism and Buddhism there is the basic sound: OM - spelled OM  or AUM - a sacred sound that has inner heart connection - connecting the prayer or the meditator with the FORCE - the Creator - holding this world together.

When I go into a funeral parlor - and the body is there - and there is a rosary in the hand of the deceased - I reach for one bead - and say a Hail Mary - with and for that person.  And if a loved one kneels next to me - I suggest to the spouse or child of the person who died, “Let’s pray a Hail Mary together.”

And I have been saying for years, “Rosaries aren’t just for Hail Mary’s - they are great worry beads.”

Where is your rosary?  Will they find it in your pocket when you die.

If you’ve lost your rosary, find your rosary when you get home today and this week use it for prayers.

I suggest short prayers. Notice that’s the title of this homily.

Subtitle: “Come Holy Spirit.”

This week every day, say on the 59 beads, “Come Holy Spirit.”

That takes less than 2 minutes.

Or finger the beads and say, “Oh my God.”

Or, “Jesus Christ.”

Or “OM” or “Home”

Or, “Peace.”  Or if there is someone who won’t forgive you, say on each bead thinking of the other, “Peace be with you.”  Or, “I forgive you.”

Or breathe 59 times.

Or someone said the 2 most basic prayers are, “Help” and “Thanks”.

In the cloud of unknowing - that medieval English book - it says if you’re in a burning building - and you open the window - you’ll scream one word, “Help!”

Someone said, the secret of happiness is 3 short words, “Yes” “No” and “Wow”

Take your beads and say, pray, to God and a Good Life, “Yes” - that will take you a minute or “no” 59 times - or “Wow”

And watch what happens.

Amen.

Or “Amen” on each bead.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily on this feast of Pentecost was, “Short Prayers! Subtitle: Come Holy Spirit.”