Receive the Holy Spirit: Fire, Breath, and the Renewal of the Church

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:09][music] >> Brothers and sisters, welcome to Pentecost.

[00:00:17]On Pentecost, we celebrate the birth of the church.

[00:00:23]On Pentecost, each and every one of us, we also celebrate the fact that the love of God has been poured into our souls by the Holy Spirit.

[00:00:34]Like St. Paul reminds us in the second reading today, each and every one of us, we all have drank from the one spirit.

[00:00:48]Each and every one of us has been has been given a measure of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the building up of the church.

[00:01:06]Like St. Paul says to Timothy, fan into flames the gifts of the Holy Spirit that you received when I laid my hands on you.

[00:01:19]So, on this Pentecost day, we ask the Lord to give us a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

[00:01:32]To remind each and every one of us of who we are because of the power that we have, the power that we have received freely from God the Father, God the Son through the Holy Spirit.

[00:01:54]I'd like to reflect on three symbols and messages that we have received from the readings for this Pentecost.

[00:02:08]The first reading from Acts of the Apostles tell us of the day of Pentecost, what happened when the early church was locked up in the upper room.

[00:02:23]As we heard in the gospel, that they were locked up for fear.

[00:02:35]But even in their fear, even in their anxieties, but also even in their expectation, God breaks in through the walls.

[00:02:48]The reason on rushing of this wind that filled the upper room.

[00:02:55]And there rested on each and every one of of them a tongue of flame, a fire.

[00:03:03]And they began to speak in tongues.

[00:03:08]What is the symbolism of this wind?

[00:03:14]We go back to Genesis to begin to see the spiritual significance of the wind.

[00:03:23]For we hear in Genesis that in the beginning, the spirit of the Lord hovered over over the earth.

[00:03:33]And then God begins to form things.

[00:03:42]And we hear in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 of the breath of God upon creation that began to give shape to this chaos.

[00:03:59]The wind always signifies the breath of God that gives life.

[00:04:06]The word for wind in Hebrew is ruach.

[00:04:11]Then in Greek, pneuma reminded us the power of God to create, to renew, to restore, to revive, and to form.

[00:04:28]There is certain freedom that the wind has, and that's what the Holy Spirit gives to each and every one of us.

[00:04:36]We are free.

[00:04:40]That freedom is the freedom to prophesy, to testify, to bear witness to God.

[00:04:50]It is the freedom that gives us mobility. There is even certain unpredictability to the Holy Spirit. We can't contain the power of the Holy Spirit.

[00:05:03]We can't control it.

[00:05:08]We can only allow God to use each and every one of us.

[00:05:14]The wind blows, as we hear, the spirit blows wherever it wills.

[00:05:26]Wind, again, if we go back to the prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 37:1-14, we can see how the breath of God signifies life, especially where there is dryness, aridity, spiritual dryness.

[00:05:53]God says to the prophet, "Speak, prophesy to these bones, these dry bones, so that they may have life again."

[00:06:02]And the prophet, following the Lord's command, spoke to the dry bones, and then flesh, sinews, life begins to emerge.

[00:06:17]Bone to bone, flesh to flesh, the restoration, the transformation that takes place is also an early indication of what the Holy Spirit will do.

[00:06:32]The early church, as we see in the gospel, they were afraid.

[00:06:36]The wind is a battle cry that the Holy Spirit brings about the force, the dynamism in our hearts to keep moving.

[00:06:54]They were locked up for for because they were afraid.

[00:06:58]The Holy Spirit, when Jesus came upon them, again, that breath of God in the in Genesis, we see it again in the New Testament, in the new dispensation, the recreation of all things in Christ happens again in the gospel today when he poured out the breath of God to give birth to the church.

[00:07:28]So, the gospel gives us an account, a genuine account of the Pentecost, but the first reading gives us a demonstration of its richer symbolism.

[00:07:45]in action. And then the fire.

[00:07:49]When we think of fire, we go back to the Old Testament and think of the Holy Spirit as this fire. We remember when Moses saw the burning bush.

[00:08:02]Again, the presence of God calling Moses, "You are on holy ground."

[00:08:08]And sending him on a mission, "Go and liberate my people."

[00:08:13]We think of the pillar of fire that led the people from exile into the promised land.

[00:08:23]We think of the fire that the prophet Elijah saw on Mount Carmel.

[00:08:30]We think of the dove that descended upon Jesus after his baptism. And here at Pentecost this flame this tongue of fire unifies all this symbolism to remind us that the Holy Spirit is the power of God.

[00:08:56]Is the purifying fire of God.

[00:09:00]That burns away our fears.

[00:09:04]It potentiates.

[00:09:07]Is a dynamism.

[00:09:10]Dunamis.

[00:09:12]That moves us.

[00:09:15]That's what explains why a people who were so afraid after this experience they went out boldly. The parresia that we see in the early church. The boldness with which they went about proclaiming the good news.

[00:09:34]The Holy Spirit. The fire of the Holy Spirit burns away also our sinfulness.

[00:09:39]It's a fire of purification of all that makes us unworthy of God so that we can be free.

[00:09:47]We can be strong.

[00:09:50]It is the fire of courage, of boldness to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth.

[00:10:00]Finally, the mission that the early church received in the gospel is also the mission that the Holy Spirit is given to us today.

[00:10:11]Reconciliation and unity.

[00:10:15]In the Old Testament, we remember the tower of tower of Babel where they were confused because of their pride of self. They wanted to be like God and they became an obstacle to God's work.

[00:10:28]At Pentecost, they spoke different languages, but they understood each other because the spirit the Holy Spirit is not the spirit of confusion, is the spirit of unity, of peace, of harmony, and of reconciliation.

[00:10:45]It is significant that when Jesus came and gave them the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John that he gave them the command to heal a broken and divided and wounded world.

[00:10:59]The same command he gave in Matthew chapter 16 verse 19.

[00:11:07]The power to bind and to loose.

[00:11:12]To bind us in love and to loosen the things that hold us apart.

[00:11:23]May the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit come upon each and every one of us.

[00:11:28]May we be filled again with this power and with courage, boldness, love, tenderness, gentleness, and compassion, may we go out and proclaim the good news that Jesus is alive. The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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