The Holy Spirit Guides Us, Gifts Us and Unites Us

Good morning.

Once again today the church celebrates the beautiful solemnity of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us as well.

In our gospel today, when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, what were his first words that came out of his mouth?

What were those words?

Peace be with you.

That's where we get our sign of peace from, by the way.

We say, Peace be with you.

It comes from that.

In fact, as we celebrate Pentecost today, why don't we just take a moment right now to extend that same peace of the Holy Spirit to one another?

Just turn to somebody and just say, Peace be with you.

The peace of the Holy Spirit, peace be with you.

Alright.

So uh the uh theme uh from my homily today with the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit guides us, gifts us, and unites us.

Now I have a question for you here.

Uh, how many people here do you ever find yourself getting impatient very easily?

That that's a lot more hands than I thought would be.

You'd love to have more patience in your your life, right?

Okay, alright.

Um, how many people here would you say that sometimes you're you can be a little bit impulsive, like impulsive shopping, impulsive eating, impulsive binge watching, you know, TV, YouTube, shorts, TikTok?

I don't know.

Are you guys TikTok generation here?

Uh I don't.

Okay.

So a little bit of impulsive sometimes.

Okay, all right, all right.

Uh, how many people here would you say that sometimes you say something out of like anger or or or rage and then you regret it afterwards?

How many have have you?

I guess that's a yes.

Um, me too.

Me too.

Um sometimes I fall into impatience, like when I'm when I'm tired, for example, like I'm a little tired this morning.

Like sometimes I get a little impatient, sometimes, sometimes impulsive, you know.

Sometimes you you want to you write an email or something that's really angry or a text message, and I'm gonna give it to that person, right?

And then afterwards, oh man, I probably shouldn't have said that, right?

And so we we we wish we could be a little bit more patient sometimes, a little bit more self-controlled, yes?

A little bit more loving.

And today Jesus gives us the answer to help us to cultivate those habits.

And the answer is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit helps us with those things.

So for today's homely today, uh, the title is there.

I'm gonna focus on three things that the Holy Spirit helps us do.

The very first thing is that the Holy Spirit guides us to receive Jesus as Lord.

He helps us.

Jesus helps us.

The second is the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts.

And the last thing is the Holy Spirit unites us as one body in Christ.

We're gonna explore that in the homily today.

And so let's begin with the very first one.

The Holy Spirit guides us to receive Jesus as Lord.

Let's look at our first scripture reading.

This is from the second reading that we heard today from Paul's letter to the Corinthians.

Uh, let's read this together.

Brothers and sisters, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Now, of course, anybody can just say the words Jesus is Lord without having faith, right?

You can just say the words Jesus is Lord without having any faith or meaning behind it.

But it's only by what that we can say Jesus is Lord?

By the Holy Spirit, that we can say it with true faith and true conviction.

Now, uh, what does it mean to say Jesus is Lord?

Here's what it means: it means Jesus, I give you permission to lead my life, my faith, my family, my fears, my finances, my future.

Alright, did you see what I did there?

All right.

Okay.

Jesus, I give you permission to guide all of these things in my life.

And so today I'm gonna invite us to receive Jesus as Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so um, if you are ready to say those words, Jesus is Lord.

In just a moment, I'm gonna invite you to say those words with me.

And maybe for some of us here today, maybe we're not quite ready to say that yet, or maybe for some of us today, it'll be our very first time saying those words.

Jesus is Lord.

I give you permission to guide my life.

Okay, so for those who are ready to say those words, I'm gonna invite you to say it together on the count of three, okay?

If you don't feel comfortable, that's okay.

But if you are, let's say by the power of the Holy Spirit, to receive Jesus as Lord of our lives.

One, two, three.

Jesus is Lord.

That was pretty good.

That's pretty good.

All right, Jesus is Lord.

Okay, now let's go to the second thing the Holy Spirit does for us when we truly receive Him into our lives.

He gives us His spiritual gifts.

Let's look at our second scripture, also from the first letter, Paul to Corinthians.

Together, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit.

There are different forms of service, but the same Lord.

There are different workings, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

Okay.

The Holy Spirit has given to some of you the gift of encouragement.

When you see somebody who's down or discouraged, you're the first person to encourage them.

How many people here would you say that your gift is encouragement?

You are you're an encourager.

Okay.

All right.

You don't have to be shy.

It's okay.

Like you, if that's your gift, you can raise your hand.

Okay.

For some of you, the gift that the Holy Spirit's given to you is you're a person of service.

You love to lend a hand, you love to help out.

How many of you would you say your gift is a gift of service?

Okay.

Alright, some more hands.

For some of you, the Holy Spirit's giving you the gift of wisdom, understanding, counsel.

When somebody needs advice, maybe you're the first person that they go to.

How many people would you say that's your gift of wisdom, counsel, understanding?

Okay, all right.

By the way, here are some other gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us patience.

So, how many people raise your hands when I said you're impatient?

How many people?

Did you raise?

Okay.

Holy Spirit gives the gifts of gift of patience.

Um, the Holy Spirit gives the gifts of self-control.

How many people raise your hand when I said you're a little impulsive?

Okay.

I raised my hand too.

Okay.

Holy Spirit gives the gift of self-control.

Okay.

Um, how many people raise your hand when I said, okay, sometimes you're angry, you you you throw out that text or that email, you say something that you regret sometimes?

Okay.

There was someone laughing over there, I remember this.

The Holy Spirit helps us to control those things.

These are the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit that he gives to us.

So the second thing that he gives, that the Holy Spirit does for us, he gives us spiritual gifts.

Alright, let's go to the last thing that the Holy Spirit does for us.

He unites us as one body in Christ.

Tell me what you think here.

Would you say that our world is very divided today?

How many people think that our world is very divided today?

Okay.

Pretty divided, right?

Now, here's what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit is not the spirit of constant outrage.

Do you see a lot of outrage sometimes?

The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of constant bickering.

Do you hear a lot of bickering sometimes?

Nudge the person next to you, the the the your husband or your wife.

Okay.

The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of rage.

Do we see a lot of rage nowadays?

Okay.

The Holy Spirit is a spirit of peace, of union, and of communion.

When we truly receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts, he unites us as one body of Christ.

Okay, so to sum up all that we just heard right now, three things that the Holy Spirit does for us.

Okay.

First thing, the Holy Spirit helps us to receive Jesus as Lord.

Let's say that together for those who, with faith and conviction by the power of the Holy Spirit, those three words, Jesus is Lord.

That's what the Holy Spirit helps us to do.

Second, the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts.

For some of us, we need more patience, more self-control, more love, more wisdom, more understanding, more faith.

He gives us spiritual gifts.

And the third thing, the Holy Spirit unites us as one body of Christ: unity and communion.

To conclude, I'm gonna invite us to say the one of the most ancient prayers asking for the Holy Spirit to come down upon us.

It's also just three words.

We said Jesus is Lord already, but there's another ancient prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to come down upon us.

Do you know this prayer?

Three words.

Yes, some of you know it.

Three words, come, Holy Spirit.

So in a moment, I invite us to invite the Holy Spirit to come down upon us by saying those words, come, Holy Spirit.

Let's let's pray that together.

Come, Holy Spirit.

And and can I invite you to just close your eyes just for a moment?

And we're gonna pray that prayer one more time again.

Um but this time, think about what gift or food of the Holy Spirit that you want to receive.

Maybe you want to receive some more patience.

Maybe you know, I'm a little bit impulsive.

I could use a little more self-control.

Maybe I can be more loving, uh, more faithful, more hopeful.

Think about the gift that you would like to receive.

And let's pray together again, that prayer together.

Come, Holy Spirit.

And then last time, I invite you to think about maybe any area of your life where you may be experiencing a little bit of division, um, a little bit of bickering, maybe a little bit of resentment.

And there's a need for forgiveness there, for reconciliation, for union, for communion.

And into that situation, we're also going to invite the Holy Spirit as we pray together.

Come, Holy Spirit, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.