Homily for Pentecost
May 24, 2026
Eager Expectation
What did
the Apostles do during those ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost? The
Bible said that they devoted themselves to prayer – Christ promised that the
Spirit would come, so they were waiting with eager expectation.
Much of
the Christian life is waiting for God with eager expectation. He’s made a ton
of promises that He’s fulfilled in Christ (over 500, as a matter of fact), but
there are still many that we’re waiting on. Not just abstract promises, but
some that are extremely personal. I want to mention three things we need to
eagerly expect in our daily walk with Christ.
First,
we should live in eager expectation that God actually hears our prayers. Can we
not all look back at our life and see how God has answered prayers in
surprising ways? One of our altar servers was telling me that before he served
the Easter Vigil Mass this year, he was praying that he could experience God in
a new way. The Easter Vigil begins in complete darkness, and at a certain point
the organ blares the Gloria and the lights come on. He said that at that
moment, he felt a wind – where could that come from, except the Holy Spirit? –
and from that time on, there was a new passion in his heart for Christ. A
beautiful answer to prayer!
But to
be clear – God only answers our prayer if it is for His glory and our
salvation. If we pray for riches or worldly success or health, this may not be
best for our soul. As a good Father, He gives us what we need, not necessarily
what we want. He will always give us grace – He may give us earthly
things if they are truly good for our soul. Back in the sixth century, a young
monk named Romanos was embarrassed every time he would join his brother monks
for prayer, because his terrible singing voice and lack of musical training
made him the object of their ridicule and mockery. So for weeks, he prayed
fervently to Our Lady for a better voice. One night, he dreamt that he saw Her,
and she offered him a scroll and told him to eat it, which he did. The
following day was his turn to lead the singing, and much to everyone’s surprise
his voice was clear and resonant, and his pitch was perfect. He ended up
writing over a thousand hymns in his lifetime, and in thanksgiving to Our Lady,
he mentioned her in every one. He is now St. Romanos the Melodist – clearly God
heard his prayer, and it was for His glory and the sanctification of this great
saint!
So, as
we pray, we do so with eager expectation – the same fervor with which the
Apostles awaited the Holy Spirit!
Second,
we should have the eager expectation that God will make us holy, in His own
time. Sometimes we become frustrated by our own lack of progress in the
spiritual life. We still struggle with the same sins, still fall back into the
old patterns of behavior. Perhaps we want to be holy, we want to start a prayer
life, we want to overcome a sin, and we feel as if we’re running in mud. It can
get discouraging.
So we must
live in the firm confidence that God can and will make us holy, in His
time, if we desire it, too, and take the steps to let Him in (the Sacraments,
daily prayer, Scripture, avoiding temptation). We do our part – and then have the
eager expectation that He will carry us the rest of the way there. Isn’t this
what happened to the Apostles at Pentecost? They struggled with their
faithlessness, with their cowardice – and God, in one moment, transformed them
into the courageous preachers who would give their lives for Christ.
Besides,
there have been saints who really struggled. St. Augustine struggled so much
with lust that one day he prayed, “Lord, give me chastity…but not yet!” And his
rival St. Jerome had a wicked – and wickedly funny – temper. Once, he wrote to
a rival, “Show no nose upon your face and keep your mouth shut. Maybe then you
will be both handsome and eloquent.” About another person, he wrote, “It is
useless to play the harp for a donkey” – in other words, you’re not worth speaking
with! But he fought his temper – he would often carry around a large rock and
beat his chest in repentance (one Pope, upon seeing a painting of Jerome with
the rock, quipped, “Ah, without the rock, there would be no sainthood for you!”).
It was precisely the struggle and the battle that made him holy. And
likewise with us – our firm confidence is that God can and will help us
overcome our faults and flaws, if we persevere with eager expectation.
Finally,
as Christians we are called to eagerly expect Christ’s Second Coming. The early
Church always prayed, “Maranatha” which means “Come, Lord Jesus!” It was an
urgent desire, a burning plea. With all the insanity in the world today, we
need to resurrect that plea in the hearts of believers – “Come, Lord Jesus!”
For those who love Him, His coming will be the end of the reign of sin, bringing
order out of the messiness of this world, finally vindicating all those who
have suffered for their Faith. When He comes again, He will wipe away every
tear, destroy Satan’s oppression, and lead His people to glory. He will come,
not as a baby, but as a King in glory, for all to see.
We don’t
know when He will come, but there are some hints in Scripture and in the
Catechism that prepare the way. We know that there will be a great apostasy (an
abandonment of the Faith) – have we, perhaps, seen that over the past fifty
years? Scripture speaks of the coming of the Antichrist, a man who will set
himself up as a “savior” of the human race. He will not do evil things – on the
contrary, he will be a great humanitarian and man of wisdom and peace – but he
will do so without Christ, saying that humanity can save itself without God. We
have not yet seen him, although many Catholic and Orthodox mystics have said
that he is alive today. Finally, we know from Scripture that before Christ
comes again, there will appear a Cross in the sky, visible to the entire world.
All of this probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but it’s quite possible that
it might happen in some of yours. But again – this is something to look forward
to with eager expectation, because it will be the final victory of Christ!
My
friends, much of the Christian life is lived in eager expectation. I suppose
another word for that is “hope” – we hope and expect that, as God fulfilled for
the Apostles the promise to send the Holy Spirit, He will accomplish those
promises still yet to be fulfilled. For our part, we wait in hope, in eager
expectation, confident that God isn’t finished with us yet.
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