Homily for Pentecost Sunday, May 24th, 2026

A simple, inescapable statement gleaned from today’s gospel passage (John 20: 19-23): every single aspect of our life, at all levels, from the biological to the supernatural, is brought into existence and to action by the Holy Spirit. 

The fact that we are alive is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

The fact that we decided to come to this church today for this Holy Mass is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

My time and thought applied to the preparation of this homily and your willingness to open your minds and hearts to God’s Word, you guessed it, is all work of the Holy Spirit. 

Our decision to trust God once more despite having many prayers gone unanswered is his work. Our decision to forgive, to overlook, to minimize the hurts inside, is all his work. 

Our inner disposition to be moved to compassion, to do our best for our family and community is all his work. There is nothing good, healthy, wholesome, uplifting, praiseworthy which is not inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

Today, we are invited to dwell on just a few vital aspects of his divine action in our hearts. 

Jesus’ peace given as our fright has us locked in a modern version of the upper room, tells that we can look forward with confident resolve to a promising and fruitful future. 

Jesus’ peace must become our abiding inner disposition as, enlighten by the Gospel, we are willing to be totally docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit who shows us the correct path to take in dealing with evil and sin. 

Nowadays, we find ourselves at a crazy juncture. There is a lot of apprehension, frustration, anger and bitter discord because too many people have decided to concentrate their efforts independently of God or choose inaction and disengagement. 

Let me remind all of us that, fresh from his victory over our worst enemy, death itself, the Lord has given to some men God’s divine power to eradicate sin from people’s hearts. 

Looking at some specific sins, we can begin to appreciate this incredible power. We start with the devastation caused by the sin of pride, and consider all the violence, assaults, jealousies, divisions, wars, tears, contentions, and death it causes. 

Then, we look at the sin of greed: how many families are destroyed by it; how many suicides result from someone’s insatiable quest for money. Think also of the lawsuits, corruption, deceptions, betrayals and unspeakable miseries it leaves in its wake. 

Then, we consider lust. Lust is the primordial urge to dehumanize others and turn them into objects we can control for our own pleasure. Pornography is so widely spread that it should not be too difficult for us to think of the wreckage caused both in the souls of those who lust and in the souls of the lusted after. 

The Holy Spiril, available through the ministry of the Church, can uproot these and all other sins from the face of the earth! 

Also, your priests were given this awesome power! 

With the analogy of the Holy Spirit as life-giving water, today’s 2nd reading (1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13) offers us a list of the fruits that can help us uproot those three above-mentioned sins and any other. 

A lone river running through a grove can irrigate different fruit-bearing trees, thus enabling each of them to produce tasty and generous fruit for the good of the grove’s owner. 

Heartfelt reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation should be followed by some time at home going over our “fruit production” for the good of our soul, of our entire family, of our place of work and of our community. 

Do not expect the Lord to send us an angel from heaven to tell us where we stand in our cooperation with the Holy Spirit. 

The Lord uses members of our family, relatives, friends, acquaintances, coworkers and other humble means to urge us to work with the Holy Spirit to uproot sins from our soul and to bear desirable fruits for our personal enrichment and for the good of our family, community, and the slice of the world in which we live and operate. 

How much of our time, talents and treasure are we still holding on to? If we feel guilty and a bit ashamed, as an added incentive, we might want to ask the Holy Spirit for a little bit of his divine fire to burn away our laziness, to wipe out our lame excuses, to allay our fears and consume all our hesitations. 

Perhaps prompted by the Holy Spirit, as one of those men empowered to forgive sins and to retain sins, I invite all of us, without exception, to dream of how this corner of Michigan and a slice of faraway mission lands, would be like if we all let ourselves be moved by the Holy Spirit and bear generous, beneficial fruit. 

Hold fast to that vision. It is exactly what God expects of us, and what will make us feel very joyous and fulfilled!