“Holy Spirit, Come Fill This Place”
Holy Spirit, come and fill this place
Bring us healing with Your warm embrace
Show Your power make Your presence known
Holy Spirit, come fill this place
Holy Spirit, come fill this place
My heart is longing just to hear from You
My soul is waiting to know someone who
Can take us higher help us make it through
So will You please come and set us free
Holy Spirit, come and fill this place
Bring us healing with Your warm embrace
Show Your power, make Your presence known
Holy Spirit, come fill this place
As we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we invite again in a special way the Holy Spirit to fill and enrich our lives. For the Spirit empowers us for mission, namely to live lives that proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. The message that God is Love and has not left us alone, but rather has sent His Spirit into our lives.
The Celebration of Pentecost and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is first and foremost to strengthen us in our relationship with Jesus Christ. The Spirit that was given to the Church and has been given to us in Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, enables us to enter more deeply into a life rooted in Christ. “no one can say, “Jesus is LORD,” except by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:3b
It is the gift and power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to not only receive Jesus into our lives as personal Lord and Savior, but to sustain us in our relationship. The very desire even in busy lives, with issues, challenges, addictions, shortcoming and all the other things of life, it is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to reach out and call on Jesus as Lord. For to live in the Power of the Holy Spirit is to live fully alive in Christ Jesus. It is this same Spirit that gives us the grace to turn to Him in prayer and Praise, in times of Joy and need, when were blessed and when we struggle. At all times and moments and movements in our lives, it is the Spirit that draws us into Christ.
I realized a lesson this week. I asked a young adult what they needed to do when facing obstacles, the answer came back, try harder. I then realized that this young person didn’t know where the true power comes from the face all things. He responded trusting in his own abilities and self actualization, that to this point hasn’t worked for him. Philippians 4:13 tells us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is in and through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that we can find the strength to face obstacles an adversities. So often most don’t know that the Spirit is available to help us in our weakness. Romans 8:26 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.”
Our personally being empowered by the Holy Spirit leading into our relationship with Jesus is not solely for us individually. Our empowerment by the Spirit impels us, pushing us into the encounter and witness to others. We have a deep desire to share our faith, to share our experience with Jesus. This sharing and desire is our call to Mission. Namely because we have been crafted onto Christ by the Holy Spirit, we are not meant to keep it just for ourselves. To enter our cocoon just me and Jesus, rather by our Baptism each of us is called to mission. We are all called to share, to be truly apostles, namely witnesses of the Gospel the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that enables us to go forth and live a life with a missionary spirit. The Spirit that allows our lives to be the Gospel preached. Yes, our life might be the only Gospel someone can read. The Spirit shines through us and they see and encounter the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
To be empowered by the Holy Spirit impels us to reach out and see in the marginalized, those on the peripheries, the unloved and unwanted the face of Christ. The mission must be caught up in the Spirit as we go forth and desire with passion to live for others. To embrace the Spirit’s lead and embrace and encounter a suffering world. Start where we are, in our own neighborhood and community.
Simply taking what we can from the church, to see in the parish a place to connect with friends and go home misses the true calling to be a Spirit filled people. Lives that are truly led by the Spirit of God, push us out into the uncomfortable places of our society. But the missionary empowered by the Spirit is right at home being with and amongst the people we serve and proclaim Christ’s love to.
Pope Francis in His Letter, The Joy of the Gospel speaks to this missionary Spirit.
“My mission of being in the heart of the people is not just a part of my life or a badge I take off, it is not an “extra” or just another moment in life. Instead it is something I cannot uproot from my being without destroying my very self. I am a missionary on this earth; that is the reason why I am here.” evangelii gaudium Chapter 5 (Spirit Filled Evangelizers) paragraph 273
Let your Pentecost be a time of being renewed in the Holy Spirit for the purpose of mission, sharing the love and Good News of Jesus Christ with others.
