Pentecost Sunday - May 24, 2015

Homily for Pentecost

May 24, 2015

The Spirit, Like Water

 

            Deacon Mike Oles had been working at the local homeless shelter for some time. After years of seeing the same faces show up at the shelter, he began to grow frustrated at the whole problem of chronic homelessness…if only there was a way to get the homeless off the streets and into a house of their own! But he had no idea how that would work.

            One day, he was invited by a local Catholic church to talk to their confirmation students about his work with the homeless. He gave an inspiring talk about how to serve the poor, and he even invited a currently homeless man to tell the students his life story, and how he became homeless. The talk was a great success – the kids really seemed interested in his work with the homeless – but in the months that followed, he returned to his regular life and forgot about the talk…until he received in the mail a thank-you note, with a seven-hundred-fifty-dollar check. The kids had been so moved by meeting the homeless man that they took up a collection of their own money, and sent it to Deacon Oles, asking him to get that homeless man off the streets.

            But Deacon Oles had no idea how to go about doing this! The money sat on his desk for months, until finally someone from the church contacted him again, asking if he had gotten the homeless man off the streets yet. Finally, in desperation, Deacon Oles used the money to pay the security deposit on an apartment for that homeless man – and still to this day the homeless man lives in that apartment!

            But it didn’t stop there. People heard about how Deacon Oles was able to get him into the apartment, so they began to send him more and more money to get homeless people off the streets. Finally, after getting twelve people off the streets and into homes of their own, Deacon Oles decided to start a charity – called “Off the Streets” - that is now in four cities across the United States. Since its founding in 2010, over 200 people have gotten off the streets, and over 80% of them have been able to stay that way. A pretty good success rate!

            I met Deacon Oles when he and I were assigned together at my last parish in Bethel. He started Off the Streets in Danbury, Connecticut. I was always amazed at what he accomplished – or rather, what the Holy Spirit accomplished in and through him.

            It was the Holy Spirit that inspired those kids to send him the money, and it was the Holy Spirit that prompted Deacon Oles to start this organization which has impacted hundreds of lives. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the one who prompts us to do anything good. If we have an inspiration to pray, that is from the Spirit. If we have a desire to make a sacrifice for others, that comes from the Holy Spirit. If we are moved to serve another person, we can trust that the Holy Spirit is behind that! The Holy Spirit is how God lives in and through us!

            St. Paul teaches us that the Spirit causes different good works in everyone. A good analogy is like that of rainwater. When it rains on a garden, the rain causes different plants to grow and bear fruit – from apple trees to eggplant to blueberries. It’s the same rain, but it makes everything grow in a different way.

            We look around at the world and we can notice that there are so many needs that one person couldn’t possibly satisfy all the needs – there is poverty, lack of education, illegal immigration, people who struggle with addiction, children who need a loving home, the problem of abortion, the need to bring Christ into politics or business or law, the need to spread the Gospel…there is no way that one single person can work to fill all these needs. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit gives each of us different promptings and different passions. These are often called charisms. For example, Deacon Oles has a charism – a gift from the Holy Spirit - for working with the homeless.

            What is your charism? In other words, in what way are you passionate about improving the world with the aid of the Spirit? How can you put your gifts at the service of the world? Every Christian who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them has charisms!

            Perhaps you are elderly and have a lot of time on your hands. If that’s the case, you might have the charism of praying for the world, or perhaps you are called by the Holy Spirit to volunteer somewhere. If you work in the world, perhaps you have the charism of bringing Christ to the world through your job – your workplace is your mission field. Maybe you’re still in school – then your charism can be to be a good example to your peers, or maybe to get involved in the pro-life cause or serving the poor. Everyone has a charism, a gift and passion from the Holy Spirit – what’s yours? There’s an easy way to find out what your charism is: look for where your passions and your gifts intersect. So if you’re passionate about some good cause (like ending hunger or spreading the Gospel), and you have the gifts and talents necessary to make a difference in that area, then the Holy Spirit has given you a charism – and we must use it!

            We must always remember that it’s only in and through the Holy Spirit that we can do any good – we can’t do good in this world on our own! So we invite the Holy Spirit to live in and through us. One great way is through the old traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit – so, please repeat after me:

            Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and You will renew the face of the earth.