Church of Saint Veronica

By Father Brendan Williams

Pentecost ’97 brings a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a new infusion of vigorous life into the ministry and mission of the Church. As we celebrate the Liturgy of the Birthday of the Church, once again we will witness in faith the Risen Lord Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit upon His Church. The Spirit who transformed the Apostles and empowered them as fearless preachers of the Gospel, returns to engage the Church in a renewed mission of bold proclamation of Jesus’ savings mysteries.

As we prepare for the new Millennium, our Holy Father is leading the way for a “new springtime of Christianity” where Jesus will be proclaimed as “key, focus and goal of all human history” (Gaudium et Spes, #10). This springtime can only become a reality through the workings of the Holy Spirit. Pope Paul IV made this abundantly clear in his historic document, Evangelii Nuntiand, the decree on Evangelization in the Modern World:
“Evangelization will never be possible without the action of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit descents on Jesus of Nazareth at the moment of his baptism when the voice of the Father – ‘This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased’ – manifests in an external way the election of Jesus and His mission… It is in the power of the Spirit that He returns to Galilee and begins His preaching at Nazareth, applying to Himself the passage of Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.’ And He proclaims: ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled.’ To the disciples whom he was about to send forth He says, breathing on them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’…

“It is in the ‘consolation of the Holy Spirit’ that the Church increases. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. It is he who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of His mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by Him. The Holy Spirit places on His lips the words which he could not find by himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit disposed the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the kingdom being proclaimed” (Par. 75).

Our Holy Father’s dream, therefore, for evangelizing the world will come about only by the power of the Holy Spirit. We surely need in our time another mighty wind and tongues of fire to awaken the Church from her sleep, to burn away her fears in divine love, to empower her children as bold and committed heralds of the Gospel. Yes, the Holy Spirit is our life; he is our strength; He is our inspiration; He is our success in every endeavor; He empowers our speech and He opens our ears to understanding; He releases our gifts and He prepares the groundwork for their use; He establishes community in the Church and is the soul of liturgical worship and all communal undertakings. Our whole being then should be immersed in the Holy Spirit. Our eternal prayer should be: “Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful. Enkindle in them the fire of your love”. The document, Fanning the Flame encourages us to seek a deeper infilling of the Holy Spirit and describes it thus:

“Fuller life in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit’s charismatic anointing, endows the Church with a full range of gifts. Gifts of adoration, praise, and prayer deepen the contemplative dimension of Christian faith. Gifts of service animate a life of Christian holiness committed to justice. All the charisms bring a new docility to the Holy Spirit, an expectant faith in God’s saving intervention in human affairs, an enhanced zeal for the gospel, and a respect for authority in the church” (p. 22).

This year, as we celebrate thirty years of charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, we are deeply grateful to the Lord for the vast spiritual riches with which He has blessed the Church through Baptism in the Holy Spirit. During this period of time one in ten of our Catholic brothers and sisters have experienced a deeper call to holiness, a new and experiential relationship with God whereby He now becomes Abba, Father (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:15). They have encountered the grandeur and power of Jesus’ Lordship (1Cor 12:3) and have experienced a new intimacy of faith in community and have been called to undertake apostolic and evangelical endeavors for the Church which were hitherto reserved to the presbyterate and religious orders. They have enjoyed the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:25) and have come to a deeper insight into the mysteries of redemption. They have found a new hunger for the Word and have been gifted with new ways of praise and worship, prophecy and discernment. They have been blessed with gifts of teaching, witnessing, healing, and other charisms for the building up of the Body of Christ. They have come to love and appreciate the Church more deeply and respect the teaching authority of the Magisterium.

As we celebrate Pentecost ’97, let us glorify the Lord for calling us into His wonderful light and let us pray that the fire of the Holy Spirit will continue to bring new life and vigor to the Church by releasing a torrent of spiritual gifts on the Church. In this way the Gospel will be preached with new conviction and vitality and that “springtime of Christianity” will become a bountiful harvest for the Kingdom of God.

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