My friends, if we are simply checking a liturgical calendar today, we see that with the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, we come to the end of the Easter Season.  But we as our brother, Jesus’ followers, must go deeper.  If he taught us anything while with us, it was that we must, “always go deeper,” especially when we aren’t sure of the way to go.

   With this thought in mind then, Pentecost must be seen, not as an “ending” to one season, but truly, as a “beginning” to our life, walking in Jesus’ footsteps.  As I prepared for this homily, reading what theologians, prophets, and writers have had to say about Pentecost, I have come across many words to describe the feelings, the outlook—perhaps, that we should have coming into this feast. 

   Some of the words that I have encountered are: “passionate, alive—not simply breathing.”  Further on, from the section in Acts used for our 1^st reading today, Luke continues, [Pentecost is about] “seeing visions and dreaming dreams.” Acts 2: 17

   In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians for today, he tells the people of Corinth and ultimately us, that when we are under the influence of the Spirit, “only good” should be the fruits of that encounter with heaven.  That is why, as we discussed last week, it makes no sense to ever unite the words, “Christian” and “nationalism.”  United, they form the title used in our present day to describe a group of so-called, “religious” individuals (Christian Nationalists).

   Looking back once more to the 1^st reading from Acts, we see its author, Luke, speaking about the coming of the Spirit as, “wind from heaven,” thus our first hymn today, by Marty Haugen, Wind Upon the Water.  Additionally, he said the Spirit comes as “tongues of fire.”  Those who witnessed this first group of disciples afterward, were said to be, “amazed and astonished” at what they saw and heard.  Probably one of the best things that these people were “amazed and astonished” about, was the fact that “everyone hearing them that day was included,” even though they came from different places.  We might think about whether seeing us in action would cause anyone to be amazed or astonished!

   I would like to, just for a few minutes, pick up on the idea of the Spirit coming as, “tongues of fire.”  One of the wonderful things about the Catholic church that I have always appreciated, has been its sense of ritual—the use of appropriate colors for each liturgical season, and the signs and symbols used to enhance each season, each time of year. 

   You have no doubt noticed the color red in my vestments and the altar drapes.  Red picks up on the notion of “fire” and “passion” spoke of earlier that tells us in no uncertain terms how we should approach our mission as Jesus’ followers. 

   This reminds me of a mentor of mine who has gone home to God, but one, who, for many years was a most inspiring model of what it truly means to walk and to live as Jesus taught.  Jim Fitzpatrick, an active priest in the Winona diocese for 10 years during the 1960’s and 70’s, eventually left active priestly ministry because he was aware that some of his brother priests were sexually abusing children, and when he took what he knew to the bishop, rather than doing the right thing, this bishop chose to enable this grievous wrong in order “to protect the Church from scandal.”  In other words, for this bishop, the institution was more important than the people.

   When I first knew Father Fitzpatrick, I was a first-year student at Cotter High School in his Old Testament class.  He was an exciting and stimulating educator because he believed what he was teaching, was passionate about it, and wanted us to be as well. When he found us not being engaged enough, he would exclaim, “C’mon people, catch fire!” 

   My friends, as we now begin this new time of “calling” really, to be our best selves, attempting to live as Jesus did, we too must, “catch fire.”  Passionate people are not, “lukewarm,” just going with the flow.

   I am presently reading Senator Amy Klobuchar’s new book, The Joy of Politics.  As you all know, Amy is Minnesota’s senior senator in Washington, advocating for the needs of our state, but also for the needs of our entire country. When she was highlighted recently on the PBS Newshour and asked “why” the title of this book, she said, when you can get things done for people in need, it is truly a joyous thing!

   One of the most refreshing things she said in this new book, reflecting on the past several years that included a pandemic, a campaign for the presidency, a time of ever-increasing inability for Congress people to work together, and an insurrection, to name just a few things, was, and I paraphrase, why would anyone run for office except to make life better for the people they are serving? Why indeed?!

   So my friends, that brings us back once again to our lives, to the here and now and what we are called to do, because we are always called to do something!  There were several things this past week that came to my attention that I will just list here for us to consider, and perhaps get our “juices” going too as to ways that we each can live “passionately” in our world. 

• The people of Florida are now living under a dictum from their governor who has proclaimed, “Don’t say gay!”  There has been some blowback to this from groups who have canvassed the state with billboards proclaiming, “We say gay!”
• You all know of my love for Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister.  She offers a couple of things for us to ponder on this Pentecost Sunday:
• [Today] “is a time of holy hilarity when the Church points again and again to the empty tomb.”
• Joan additionally says, connecting our earthly world to our spiritual world, which, by the way, is as it should be, “Flowers confront us with our responsibility for beauty,” [in our world]. A question to perhaps ponder this week, “Do we bring beauty into our world?”
• A couple of thoughts from John’s gospel today:
• Speaking of being “passionate” followers of our brother Jesus, John fine-tunes how we might do that when he refers to the “fire” [of God’s love for us] saying that it [always] comes with “peace.”  “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

Our presence in this world must not only be “passionate” –that which is truly caring, but it must also be filled with “peace.”  Someone else said of this combination of passion and peace, [Come with the] “power of a tornado, and the gentleness of a whisper.” 

• Then finally, and this is especially for the times we may feel weak and not, up to the task, to remember Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “Receive the Spirit” –that which you forgive, is forgiven, that which you retain,

is retained.”  On the merit of the above words which do indeed give us license to object to statements from Rome that aren’t about, “including all,” but simply about “power over,” we should, and we must call for a Church that is passionate and on-fire with the Spirit—not through stipulations, rules and regulations, but with peace, understanding, mercy, and justice –in a word, love! Amen? Amen!

My friends, with this weekend, we have come to the end of the Easter Season, which will be followed by a few special Sundays, Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit of our brother, Jesus, Trinity Sunday, remembering God in his/her glory as Creator, Savior, and Spirit, and Corpus Christi Sunday, wherein we strive to understand, through our imaginations—really, and through our faith, the holy presence of Jesus, our brother, in the form of the simple gifts of bread and wine upon our altars.  Following these three, the Church shifts back to Ordinary Time, which we have come to see, deals with much more than, “the ordinary.” 

   As I have in the past, today then, we will join this final weekend of Easter and the Ascension, being that the themes of each correlate rather well.  So, you saw that the first reading from Acts describes Jesus’ ascension into heaven, a new plane—space of life that we can only imagine.  The 2^nd reading and the gospel come from the 7^th and final Sunday of Easter, showing us rather well, I think, what was expected of those first disciples and us, going forward. 

   The reading from Acts tells us that [these disciples] “will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes.”  I think so many times we read these stories of the first disciples and hear them rather, matter-a-factly, and don’t let our imaginations run a bit into just what they faced and were perhaps feeling at the beginning of their ministries, carrying on where Jesus was leaving off.

   We see this in their purely, human reaction to Jesus being, “taken from their sight.”  “They were still gazing up into the heavens,” Scripture tells us.  And to this reaction, two, apparently, “heavenly creatures” appear and inquire why, in fact, they are doing this.

   Why indeed, we might echo, but for an entirely different reason than the heavenly visitors.  Here it is important to remember that the sole focus of these disciples’ attention for the past three years, Jesus of Nazareth, for whom they had walked away from families and livelihoods to follow, and whom they had watched die a gruesome death and then, miraculously rise to new life, conquering death, so that we could too, one day, was now being taken from them again!  No doubt there were many unanswered questions for them. 

   Jesus was very conscious that the apostles and disciples were afraid and that was why he promised to send his Spirit to be with them, giving them strength to be, to do, what he had called them to be about in the world, in his footsteps. 

   Jesus knew too from his own, lived human life that the temptation was always there to take the easier route, the way that didn’t cost so dearly.  That is why he prayed so earnestly for them in the gospel selection today from John.  “O God most holy, protect with your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” 

   And friends, I think it is good for us to reflect in this year 2023, that marks our 15^th year of existence as a Vatican II parish, that we take our name from this Scripture passage, where Jesus prayed not only for his first disciples, but for all who would follow their lead, that they all, “would be one!” 

   Next Sunday then, we will celebrate Pentecost, the day that marks 50 days since Easter, when Jesus’ Spirit was unleashed in a special way into the world.  It might be good this next week to remember our own special day of confirmation when we first said, our own, personal “yeses” to the indwelling of the Spirit that would give us the strength too, to faithfully carry on the Good News of God’s love in our world.

   Once these first disciples receive the Spirit, we see Peter in the 2^nd reading today proclaim, “Happy are you when insulted for the sake of Christ, for then, [you will know] that God’s Spirit, in its glory, has come to rest on you.”  And he goes on, “If you must suffer, let it be because you have been a follower of Christ,” [not because you have done evil things].

   We can hardly hear these words and not realize that truly “following Jesus” will not be easy.  The end of the Easter Season, Jesus physically leaving the earth, and sending his Spirit are truly about more than us, “looking to the heavens” for answers.  Jesus has shown us the way, and for him, it was all about love—and for us it must be the same!  Each of us, my friends, will do this differently, and if, at the end of the day, whatever we choose to do, however we choose to respond to our world, if we can honestly say that our response, was all about doing the most loving thing—we will have walked faithfully in Jesus’ footsteps.  Amen? Amen!