As the Holy Spirit brought new birth and new activity to the
Church at Pentecost 2000 years ago, the Holy Spirit continues to bring about
renewal, new activity, and new birth in the Church today. We are not always conscious of how God is
working in our life, but the Holy Spirit is constantly at work to bring about
new life in us; new spiritual growth, new opportunities to pattern our life
after our Savior.
It is often helpful to hear how God has worked in the lives
of others to learn how God is working in our life.
So, today, I’d like to draw some Pentecost
lessons from a saint whose feast is this coming Friday, June 13: St. Anthony of
Padua.
Saint Anthony of Padua has been honored by the Church since
the 11th century; he belonged to the first generation of the band of
brothers of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Franciscans, also known as the Friars
Minor.
Before meeting St. Francis, St. Anthony entered a community
of Augustinian priests who followed the ancient rule of St. Augustine. Following the rule of Augustine and living in
community St. Anthony prayer, moderation and self-denial, and how to safeguard
his chastity.
He dedicated himself to the study of the Bible and the
Church Fathers, acquiring theological knowledge that would bear fruit in his
teaching and preaching activities. It
was while with the Augustinians, that he had a life altering experience. In 1220, the relics of the first five
Franciscan missionaries who had gone to Morocco came to town. Anthony was
inspired by their courageous witness, of giving their life for the spread of
the Gospel, and it was then that St. Anthony desired to seek out St. Francis to
become a Franciscan.
I want to draw three Pentecost lessons from the early years
of Anthony’s life.
Firstly, St. Anthony desired radical holiness. We see him entering the Augustinians as a way
of turning away from the temptations of the world in order to seek the
perfection of his soul. One of the
reasons why the Holy Spirit does not set us on fire with radical love for the
Lord is because we do not really want it.
Instead of imitating the saints and patterning our life after our Lord,
we exhaust ourselves imitating the celebrities and athletes we see on
television: their grasp for power, their hoarding of possessions. We’d rather have the luxery of Lebron than
the poverty of Christ. And that is
dangerous and stifling to the Holy Spirit.
St. Anthony makes a decision, and so must we, to imitate
Christ rather than the world. To be in
the world, but not of the world.
So our first Pentecost Lesson: like the Apostles going to
the Upper Room, like St. Anthony entering the monastery, we must turn away from
worldliness and seek radical holiness.
Secondly, while with the Augustinians, what does Anthony
do? He engages in prayer and study of
Scripture and study of Church History and the Church Fathers.
In prayer and study of Scripture the Holy Spirit really does
some real fire starting in our hearts. St.
Jerome famously quipped ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. And Catholics are often sadly ignorant of
Scripture, its structure and contents.
So, we must come to the Lord in the Scriptures daily so that
we can pattern ourselves after him. It
is from him that we learn what true care of the poor means, it is from him that
we learn what standing for the truth means, it is from him that we learn what
suffering our crosses means. And so we
must encounter him in the Scriptures.
Also the study of the Church Fathers. Cardinal Newman once said, “To be deep in
history is to cease to be Protestant.”
We are called to be Vibrant Catholics, and the Church Fathers are so
unabashedly Catholic. They pass on to us
a deep Eucharistic Faith, they teach us how to be in right communion with our
bishops, and in the end, they are smarter and wiser than us. And in reading people like St. Polycarp, St.
Ireneaus, St. Athanasiaius, we can become infused with their vigor and wisdom
for our own proclamation of the Gospel.
So the second principle: read Scripture and the Holy Church
Fathers, for we must be infused with knowledge and wisdom to face 21st
century challenges.
Finally, when was the great turning point in Anthony’s life? St. Anthony was inspired to a deeper
commitment to Christ when he saw the relics of the first Franciscan
martyrs. He saw those who died for
Christ and said, “I want that!”
And that’s our third Pentecost lesson: Pentecost Faith leads
us to have hearts of apostolic martyrs. That
first Penecost the Apostles burst forth from the upper room preaching the
faith, and carried that message to the ends of the world, and 11 of those 12
died for the faith as martyrs.
Willing to leave our homes, leave our comfort zones and
suffer for Christ. Dying to the life of
comfort, and living for Christian service above all.
That’s the third lesson: you want to be set on fire with the
Holy Spirit? True Christian Joy, vibrancy
doesn’t come from a parish or diocesan program; it comes from willingness to
die for Christ—spending our life in generous giving of our time, talent and
treasure for the sake of the kingdom.
And that’s pretty hard to do when we’re zoned out on the internet or in
front of the television.
I came across a wonderful quote by St. Augustine that St.
Anthony would no doubt have read. St.
Augustine said, “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and
courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not
remain the way they are.”
Sometimes we think of anger as sinful, but there is good holy Christian anger. It is good for Christians to get angry over evil and injustice: we should be angry that 70% of Catholics aren’t going to Mass on the weekends, and angry that Catholic morality is mocked openly in the media, by politicians.
I was in an Italian restaurant recently and saw a sign which read, “do not be alarmed at the sound of cursing, pans being thrown, dishes being broken: this is how Italian food is made.” There is unhealthy sinful anger, which fuels so much violence and pettiness; there is the anger that makes good Italian food, but there is also a healthy Christian anger over injustice.
Jesus is not as sheepish as he is sometimes made out to be;
nowhere in the Gospels does he say, “refrain from preaching the Gospel out of
offending someone”. Remember, he made a
whip out of cords and threw out the money-traders from the temple. His followers are meant to be sheep, yes, in
their imitation of him, but also like lions, in our proclamation of His truth.
Christian Anger at how things are is met by Christian
courage which works so that things do not remain that way. It takes courage to teprimand the adult child
who is not going to Mass. It takes courage to compose clear and poignant
letters to our politicians to represent our Catholic values in public office. But courage is needed, and the Apostles
enkindled with Pentecost fire show us just that.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and
enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created. And Thou
shall renew the face of the earth.
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