Sunday, May 24 @ 10:00 AM
St. Augustine Cathedral

Please sit and relax a little bit.

My dear friends,

My very first hospital call, when I was pastor of St. Dominic’s, was to a local hospital to visit one of my parishioners who had endured an accident and badly burned the side of his leg.

I must confess, in all my adult years, I have never heard such blood-curdling screams from an adult as I did that day while the nurses were trying to clean the wound.

You know, ever since we are little children, our parents tell us, “Don’t play with fire.” Well, that day I saw with my own eyes the destructive power of fire.

And so have we, in many, many ways.

Yet how marvelous are the ways of God. How inscrutable God is, that we gather today to ask for fire—not simply to be with us, but to dwell within us, to transform and reform us, to convert and inspire us, to guide and encourage us, to bless and sanctify us.

Of course, the fire for which we ask is not of earthly origin. It is, in fact, unlike anything this world has ever seen. For it is not something—it is Someone.

He is the burning, eternal, perfect love dwelling within the very heart of God. A love so perfect that He is, in fact, a divine Person Himself.

And as He came as fire upon the heads of the Apostles in the Upper Room, so too, my friends, we recall on this day that the same fire came into you and me on the day of our baptism, when the enduring love of God claimed you and me as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, so that we might receive by grace the merits Christ earned through His death and resurrection.

For all these years, you and I have been enlightened in our minds by the light produced from that fire, so that we could recognize the truth when we hear it. As we heard in the first reading, the truth is proclaimed in every language—then as now—and we are given the ability to recognize of whom they speak and to pledge our allegiance to Him.

That same Holy Spirit comes to us as, if I may call Him, the great divine conductor of the symphony.

For we come here from different vocations, different walks of life, different ministries, and yet we come together in the power of the Holy Spirit to form a symphony of praise and worship of the Lord in service to one another.

It is the Spirit—that fire burning within us—who brings us together as one, no differently than the many parts of the body form one body.

It is that same Spirit who is the channel of forgiveness when we ask for it, as the Lord teaches us in today’s Gospel. He is the One who grants peace—not merely the absence of conflict, but the fullness of life—because He is the One who leads us to eternal life and to the place Christ has prepared for you and me in the glory of heaven.

The Spirit is the very life substance of your life and mine.

And oftentimes we take Him for granted, do we not?

It is like a fire burning in our hearts, yet we do not allow that fire to consume our lives.

So today, on Pentecost, we pray:

“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.”

And not just in my heart—but in my mind, my voice, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my feet, my knees—my whole being. You, me, all of us.

And therefore, for the five of you who have come here today, you give us a great gift, even as you yourselves receive a great gift.

For the Spirit will come upon you today for the second time in your life, to fortify you with the seven gifts of God’s own life.

But you also remind us of what we ourselves have already received and of who already dwells within us—and for that I am grateful.

Remember: you will stand and confirm the promises of your baptism. But before you confirm anything about God, remember that God wishes to confirm something about you and about all of us:

That He loves you beyond imagination. That He will give you all that you need. That He has never abandoned you and never will—even in your greatest suffering.

And so it is for all of us.

He calls you to walk with Him so that His love may transform you, just as He invites all of us to be transformed into the image of His Son in the world.

Thank you for coming forward to receive this great gift.

And I know I speak for all of us—do I not, my friends?—when I say we will pray for you. Not just today, but every day.

And now you, too, will continue to pray for us, that the Spirit may help all of us unleash His divine power.

You know, my friends, when I visit parishes to administer Confirmation, I sometimes remind the confirmandi of that man whose leg had been scarred by fire.

Over the years, he refused to show anyone the scar. Until one day, a few years ago, after COVID had receded, he hosted a barbecue in Brooklyn, and I saw him wearing shorts.

You could see the scar.

So I pulled him aside and said, “Finally—you’re comfortable enough now.”

And he replied, “I’ve come to realize that the scar is the mark of love, because it was the goodness of those nurses and doctors that saved my life. So now I’m proud of it.”

And his words touched my heart.

Because the Holy Spirit comes—not to scar us, but to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ.

Don’t you think it is time, my friends, that we invite Him to do what He truly wishes to do within you and me?