PENTECOST TRIDUUM - ONE IN SERVICE (TALK 3 OF 3)
17 May 2018 Thursday
Sharing transcript of homily by Rev Fr Philip Lai, CSsR
Taken from recording @ Church of the Holy Family
Pentecost Triduum
ONE IN FAITH, LOVE AND SERVICE
Day 3 - Empowered to Serve Others
Fr started by asking - Does the Church exist for the benefit of its members or the members exist for the benefit of the Church?
- If it is the former, that the Church exists for the benefit of its members - does this mean the Church must do everything to please everyone feeding a completely individualistic society?
- If it is the latter, that the members exist for the benefit of the Church - is this not facism, an authoritarian form of society where the Church is absolute, where everyone has to tow the line?
Fr then asked - Is the head for the benefit of the body or the body for the benefit of the head?
He went on stating that in a living organism, everything is for the benefit of everything else. His homily expounded on the understanding of Church based on today’s scripture readings:
- John 15 -The Vine and the Branches
- 1 Cor 12 - Jesus is the head of His body, the Church.
Jesus is the head, we are the body, the members of the church. We cannot have life if we are divided from the head. A member separated from the body cannot remain alive.
A living body is an organism. It is not a collection of parts.
We must be careful about selecting an image to describe the Church.
Can the Holy Spirit empower each and everyone of us to serve others?
When Jesus’ earthly life came to an end, He promised His disciples the coming of the Holy Spirit who will be their helper.
Every teacher has to, sooner or later, stand back. If the teacher stands by his student forever, there are important things that will never be learnt - independence, mental courage, inner strength - these can only come from our own risks taking.
Parents too, have to learn to stand back. Children with parents having very strong personalities often turn out to be passive or weak.
Whenever there is a powerful leader, his followers are often under his control.
Jesus has the wisdom to trust us. Jesus wants to inspire and empower us from within us, but not to control us from without.
That is the role of the Holy Spirit, given to us to inspire and empower from within us.
The Holy Spirit is that hidden treasure that can transform us
As late as the 1950s, the city of Dubai in the UAE was merely a small trading post. Today, it is a bustling city full of extraordinary skyscrapers, ultra modern high rise buildings and gardens. Dubai draws millions to its shores. What brought about this transformation?
The answer is simple - hidden beneath the surface is oil. Its discovery in 1966 led to the huge transformation.
This can be said about us Christians today. For many of us, the life of faith is boring, especially for the young people.
Many see the Christian life as an endless series of duties, laws and obligations to be obeyed. The Christian life, for many of us, is a joyless existence.
The truth is a hidden & buried treasure deep within us has not been tapped.
We are speaking of the Holy Spirit, given to each and every one of us at our baptism.
It is a power given to each one of us at our baptism
At the first Pentecost, we see the Holy Spirit energising the disciples and releasing their feelings and allowed them to portray joyfully the Good New of salvation.
We see also at Pentecost how the Holy Spirit breaks down barriers - when people who gathered together all over the world, they were able to listen to the preaching of the disciples in their native language, there was no barriers any more because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is possible even today if only we know how to allow the Holy Spirit to release His power within us.
Jesus promised the gift of the Holy Spirit that will empower His disciples. It is not to be a political or economic power. It is not a power that is invested only in the hierarchy of the Church: the Pope, bishops, priests, religious and church leaders. It is a power given to each and everyone of us on the day of our Baptism.
The Holy Spirit is given for the sake of the body of Christ, the Church
Every local church, every parish is empowered by the Holy Spirit with a variety of gifts, services or ministries.
The Holy spirit gives these gifts to each individual. These are given not for personal glory, but for building up the body of Christ, the Church.
We are also reminded that these gifts, many as they are, are never meant to be a source of boasting or envy. But for one purpose, to build the Church in love and service.
We pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our parish this Pentecost.
The power to look beyond ourselves, to serve
Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit that we can move outside of ourselves and not remain stuck with our own concerns. We look beyond our selves to serve.
The gift of the Holy Spirt is the opposite of what we understand as selfishness and self centeredness, because this gift comes from a centre outside of ourselves, it comes from the heart of God, conscious of others.
In the Church, all members have and share an equal dignity as children of God, yet each is given different charisms to carry out different to tasks in building the whole community.
Empowered by the Holy spirit, we make something impossible possible. Unfortunately for many, we make possible things impossible, resorting to a variety of excuses. We magnify problems we are supposed to solve, and discount our ability to solve them. The words “I can’t” frequently come to our lips.
This Pentecost, we make something impossible possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.
What service do I bring to the Church?
Empowered by this Spirit, can we question our selves fresh/anew
- What ministry can I participate according to the talent i receive from the Holy Spirt?
- What role can I play in my neighbourhood community?
if we can answer these two questions honestly, then our celebrate of Pentecost this Sunday will be complete, and we will be able to make seemingly impossible things possible, not by our own efforts, but by tapping into the power of the Holy Spirit to be more involved, to participate to serve and care for this parish.
Links to notes of all three days of the Triduum:
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