Pentecost Sunday 2025: The Holy Spirit’s Power in Our Lives
Readings and Virtual Homily for June 8, 2025, Pentecost Sunday; The Class of 2025 (Is Promising to Stay in Touch); Hayward's Blonde Hills; Taking a Boston Break
Readings for Mass this Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost
Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11
Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
or
Romans 8:8-17
John 20:19-23
or
John 14:15-16, 23-26
Dear Friends and Family,
The Feast of Pentecost deserves to be ranked among the most significant of the many feasts on the liturgical calendar. It is about something as immense as Christmas, after all -- it is about the coming in power into the world of one of the Persons of the Trinity. The Second Person came to us as a baby in Mary's arms; the Third Person comes to us as the Advocate, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth and the Bearer of many gifts. The entire book of the Acts of the Apostles is a testament to the gift of the Spirit to us, and of the Spirit's many gifts to us.
The readings today in various ways attest to the coming of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit. As there are several options among them and as I have preached Pentecost homilies close to the Scriptural references to the Spirit in the past, I want with this one to take a brief look at the references to the Holy Spirit in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The following titles and descriptions of the Holy Spirit are from the Index of the Catechism; clearly one can go deep with any of them, by referencing that volume. But just consider a few of these Index items, regarding the Holy Spirit. They tend to speak for themselves.
The Holy Spirit, the Catechism tells us, is
Consubstantial with the Father and the Son
The Source of all holiness
The Source and Master of prayer
The principal Author of Scripture
The Paraclete
The Spirit of Truth
The Living Memory of the Church
Cloud and light
Fire
The Finger of God
The Hand of God
The Dove
The Holy Spirit, the Catechism tells us, does, among other things, the following
Animates all creation
Awakens faith
Comes unceasingly into the world
Enables communication with Christ
Grants gifts to all
Helps us grow in spiritual freedom
Restores the divine likeness
Reveals God
Reveals the Trinity
Brings about unity in the Church
Directs and supports the Church
Takes responsibility for the Church's mission
Empowers the Sacraments
Shelters sinners
Shares a joint mission with the Son
Is responsible for conversion
Forgives sins
There is more. You get the idea. The Third Person, as one of my sisters is fond of saying, "is no bench warmer." Today's first reading, describing the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the disciples at Pentecost, initiates the joyful, adventurous and Spirit-led narrative of Acts of the Apostles. In joy, in faith, with courage and with power, the disciples throw open the shutters, cross out onto the balconies and begin to preach of the wonders of God; casting behind them forever their fear and hesitancy. The birth of the Church was the result.
The coming of the Third Person in power upon the disciples at Pentecost was and is a gift "that keeps on giving;" as the Catechism points out, the Spirit comes unceasingly into the world. And don't kid yourself -- you know the Spirit better than you probably think. You are united with the Spirit every time you are moved to pray, every time you are inclined toward some good action or other, every time you go to Mass. Our lives as disciples are lived in, with, through and by the Holy Spirit. When you tell Jesus you love him, you do so by the power of the Spirit, who knows you, loves you, motivates you and acts in and through you. The Spirit IS God within us; that is why we call our bodies temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Well, as you know from my last e-mail, we graduated the Class of 2025 at O'Dowd last Saturday morning. Prior to COVID, O'Dowd graduations happened at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Oakland -- it was a fittingly gilded venue for our seniors and for O'Dowd's sense of self. Since 2020, graduations have happened at the high school. The 2020 graduation was done as a drive-through, with graduates and their families following the parking lanes around the campus, which lanes were lined by staff and faculty. Some grads, in cap and gown, took their chances to alight from the family vehicle and snap a quick photo with an esteemed faculty member; I remember several of my favorites from that class, so honoring me.
Since May, 2021, our graduations have been on the football field, which accompanies significantly more family members than even a venue the size of the Paramount, and, much as I was a bit spell-bound by the ceremony and pageantry of the Paramount graduations, I really like our on-the-field-at-our-campus graduations of the past several years.
I have "preferred seating," of course, at our graduations -- on the stage where I can look out and see everyone and everything. I also get close-up views of each senior receiving his/her diploma from our President (Kim Walsh), marveling as I do every May, at how Kim manages to make each "Congratulations" and a few other quick words of affirmation, spoken along with the student's first name, real, genuinely warm and joyful, student after student after student after 334 more students...
It was just a little poignant for me, sitting there with my close-up view, of the seniors crossing the stage in their graduation finery, accepting their diplomas and so marking the end of their O'Dowd careers. For as I have said before, this class stole my heart, from their very first days on campus. They are the only class I ever taught as freshmen. They are the only class I taught as seniors. I taught half of them, of course, as well, during their sophomore year, which is when I really began to get to know them. I postponed my sabbatical, rather than miss a day of their senior year. I will miss them.
But they have given me abundant assurances that they have no intention of losing touch. In evidence, perhaps, that my feeling for 2025 is returned, I have had e-mails from several members of the class, since last Saturday; I have had texts. (At their graduation, I give my cell to students who tell me they want to stay in touch.) I have had some astonishing testimonies to the difference I have made in the lives of some of these wonderful teens. And I have had assurances that they intend to remain in touch. Several of them, in fact, are planning to help us with future creative projects, involving music and Scripture dramatization, at San Gabriel Media. More on that bright prospect, I hope, in future e-mails.
In any event, 2025 has flown the nest. I do feel that my colleagues and I have prepared them well for the next exciting chapter in their young lives.
It is Thursday evening as I am getting this homily written and I am sitting here in my suite in the rectory looking out at the bare slopes which rise above our property line here at St. Clement. The wintergreen shade of the hills, already in rapid retreat by late April, has disappeared completely, of course, this first week of June. But as I have said before, I love our hills here in Hayward, regardless of their color, and their color this evening, as the sunlight fades, is really best described neither as brown nor yellow, nor even gold, but -- blonde. A bright, soft, shimmery blonde. Striking. Beautiful. And with twenty-plus head of cattle, peacefully grazing on them, into the bargain. I love our hills here in Hayward. I come from farm country, after all. From our house in Marysville, when I was a kid, when I was a young man, when I was a fifty-something priest, we could look out to the Sutter Buttes -- slopes, like ours here in Hayward, that were green four or at most five months of the year, golden, really, blonde, late spring until deep into the winter. It took a very wet start to the rainy season for the Buttes to be green by Christmas. But they were always green by my birthday -- near the end of January -- and it is the same with our hills here at St. Clement. It is hard to describe the serenity I gain, simply looking out on our hills here. Especially given the stark contrast with our view in the opposite direction -- Mission Boulevard and its urban bustle. Our parish sits on the dividing line, urban and rural, here in south Hayward.
Finally, I am starting the summer and sabbatical with a quick get-away to one of my top quick get-away destinations: Boston. Flying Friday night and (God willing) will be there as you are reading this. One of my nephews, speaking of the Class of 2025, is graduating from high school this weekend -- this is my sister Flo's youngest; Flo, of course, having died three years ago this week, as my nephew was completing his freshman year. A substantial number of family will be in Massachusetts this weekend; I am looking forward to the trip, several days of which will be spent with dear friends in Boston -- which for years now has held pride of place with me, among our East Coast metropolises. Will be back mid-week.
Hope this finds you well and happy. My best wishes for a Spirit-filled Pentecost; indeed, a Spirit-filled summer.
Love,
El Padre