[0:00] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Last Sunday, we heard Jesus promise his disciples the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, who would come after his ascension to empower their witness in the face of persecution.
[0:22] Today on Pentecost, we celebrate the fulfillment of that promise. The Gospel text this morning reveals the specific nature of this gift.
[0:35] The Spirit brings the immediate presence of the Father and the Son to dwell within us. We recite this reality in the prayer of humble access at every Mass.
[0:49] When we say that he may dwell in us, and we in him. This indwelling is the culmination of God's relationship with his people throughout history.
[1:03] When Moses finished the work in the wilderness, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. A thick cloud covered the tent of meeting with the immediate presence of the Almighty.
[1:16] The people of Israel could only stand outside and watch the physical manifestation of God resting upon the Ark of the Covenant. Now the Holy Spirit descends to make human flesh his holy sanctuary.
[1:32] Moving the divine presence from a tent made by human hands into the very souls of his people. Our Lord binds our interior devotion to our outer life by giving us a very clear condition.
[1:50] If you love me, keep my commandments. Love for Christ shows itself in obedience to his word. We love because he first loved us.
[2:03] Our obedience is the natural expression of that love as our will cooperates with his transforming grace.
[2:15] To make this obedience possible in our human frailty, he promises a divine companion. And I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.
[2:30] Jesus has been their helper during his earthly ministry. And now another helper of the exact same kind will come to abide with them forever.
[2:45] Guiding the church through the ages. However, the helper will remain hidden from the eyes of the world. Our Lord says, The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
[3:11] The world fails to receive the spirit because secular eyes rely entirely on the material and the immediate.
[3:21] The disciples know the spirit. The disciples know the spirit because he already dwells with them in the person of Jesus. Soon he will dwell within them.
[3:34] The God who became man will occupy their souls through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The impending departure of Christ's physical form leaves the disciples feeling abandoned.
[3:48] But he comforts them with a promise. I will not leave you orphans.
[3:59] I will come to you. When the spirit comes, Jesus comes to the church. In the days ahead, a clear division will emerge between the perceptions of believers and non-believers.
[4:16] A little while longer and the world will see me no more. But you will see me because I live. You will also live. The world is blind to the risen Christ.
[4:30] The disciples saw him physically risen from the dead for 40 days. And they testified to what they saw with their own eyes. After his ascension, he continues to come to them through the indwelling of the spirit and in the breaking of the bread.
[4:50] Because Christ has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, they will also receive eternal life. His life becomes their life through the Holy Spirit.
[5:03] And this new life will also provide clarity. At that day, you will know that I am in the father and you and me and I in you.
[5:15] On the day of Pentecost, they'll understand exactly what he means. Christ is in the father. We are in Christ. Christ is in us.
[5:28] Through baptism, we're incorporated into Christ. Through the spirit, we share in the divine life of the Trinity. Judas, not Iscariot, asks a question about the hidden nature of this revelation.
[5:44] Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Our Lord answers this by anchoring his manifestation within the faithful soul.
[5:58] If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him. And we will come to him and make our home within him.
[6:08] Through the descent of the Holy Ghost, the baptized believer becomes a living tabernacle where the father and the son make their permanent dwelling.
[6:20] The father and the son make their home with those who love Christ and keep his word. The world rejects this reality because it refuses to submit to his word.
[6:34] Those who love him receive the indwelling presence of the triune God, changing our very identity. This internal work of grace is safeguarded by the divine memory given to the church.
[6:53] But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring you to remembrance all things that I said to you.
[7:06] The spirit illuminates what Christ has already revealed. He brings to remembrance the words of Jesus and guides the church into a deeper understanding of the apostolic deposit.
[7:22] This is what happened at Pentecost. The spirit descended on the apostles, filling them with power to proclaim the gospel. They spoke in tongues so that people from every nation heard the good news in their own language.
[7:38] Peter preached Christ crucified and risen and 3000 were baptized. In the waters of baptism, we're united to Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[7:55] This sacrament brings about a real objective change within us. It washes away the stain of original sin and it cleans the temple of our souls so that the Holy Trinity may enter and abide.
[8:11] We aren't left to try and earn this by our own merits because the same spirit who descended upon the apostles at Pentecost now dwells in every baptized believer, actively working to conform our desires to the will of God.
[8:32] Christ continues to come to us in the breaking of the bread where we receive his true body and blood at the altar, finding the spiritual food we need to cooperate daily with his saving grace.
[8:52] Peace I leave with you. May my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. Do I give to you? Christ gives his own peace.
[9:03] The peace that comes from knowing the Father and the Son dwell within us through the Spirit. We're called to love Christ by keeping his word.
[9:15] Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are in Christ. Christ is in us. This is the enduring gift of Pentecost.
[9:29] Remaining with us and to our Lord returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. Let us live as those who bear the Spirit of God within us, carefully guarding the sanctuary of our hearts from the pollution of sin and the distractions of this passing age.
[9:49] Let us walk in peace, the peace that he has given, trusting that the Father and the Son have made their home with us.
[10:01] Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.