19 May 2024 – Pentecost Sunday (Solemnity)

by Cardinal Sebastian Francis

We will begin with my greetings to everyone.

Although We Hail From Different Lands (Video)

Although we hail from different lands,
We share one earth and sky and sun,
Remember friends the world is one.

Although we hail from different lands,
We share one earth and sky and sun,
Remember friends the world is one.

We want all enmity to seize,
Oh we want peace, we all want peace.

We want no hate, we want no strife.
Since we were born for love and life.

Come let us chant while joining hands,
We shall not rest till wars are done,
Remember friends the world is one.

Although we hail from different lands,
We share one earth and sky and sun,
Remember friends the world is one.

We have matured to dream and build,
We want our dreams to be fulfilled.

We have come here to dream and plan,
A world of joy and hope for man.

A world his dignity demands,
A world that we shall see begun,
Remember friends the world is one.

Although we hail from different lands,
We share one earth and sky and sun,
Remember friends the world is one.

So my message says for Pentecost 2024, we dare to say with Pope Francis:

Led by the Spirit, Fratelli Tutti. That means somehow we are brothers and sisters in this one world, one earth, one creation.

Therefore, I urge all of us:
Do not be afraid to embrace the world of the Holy Spirit.

Blessings and greetings of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of beauty, truth, sacrifice, freedom and love.

Cardinal Sebastian Francis,
Bishop of Penang.

And your theme, your theme that you have chosen is:
Witnessing the Truth by Celebrating our Unity in Diversity.

I want to thank Deacon Andrew and the entire team here for having the courage to choose a difficult theme. Because we normally associate the Holy Spirit with love. But we do not reflect enough, maybe, on the Holy Spirit as Truth.

Witnessing the truth and touching on a very divided world and yet, we dare to speak about celebrating our unity in diversity.

So thank you for having the courage and all the priests and all the deacons who expanded on this theme and the sub-themes for the last days. So we ask God to bless all of them.

So I just want to throw a few reflections here and there which has been catching my attention and imagination as I prepared for today. 

And the first is coming from John. John the Evangelist, the young disciple, the Beloved disciple. Now he made a very stunning almost statement. In the Gospel of John 6:63, he says:
It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh has nothing to offer (wow, that is quite the statement really). The words I have spoken to you (and these are from the lips of Jesus, of course) are Spirit and they are Life.

And what would be associated with the flesh normally? We would associate sexuality, we will associate health, we will associate indulging the body, the flesh with food, with drinks. We will associate a healthy lifestyle, etc for the body. And yet, John gives us this stunning statement it is: The flesh has nothing to offer.

Well, let the Holy Spirit help us, to teach us the meaning behind this words. Because that was the promise of Jesus as we would see later. Okay?

But sex, sexuality, health, indulgence of the body with things that we like, we enjoy, if it is not under the domain of the Holy Spirit, then maybe this sentence makes sense:
The flesh has nothing to offer
if the flesh is not under the influence and the domain of the Holy Spirit.

Well, Paul will give us a slightly different version. Paul, in the letter to the Corinthians, will say:
Your body (he will use the Greek word: Soma), Your body you know is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Your body is not the Holy Spirit but your body is the temple, the vehicle of the Holy Spirit who is in you since your received the Holy Spirit from God. You are not your own property, you have been bought and paid for.

Well, that blends the body with the Spirit much more.

And Paul in his letter to the Corinthians again will say:
These are the very things God has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, (not a few things, not some things) but the Holy Spirit reaches the depths of EVERYTHING.

What is everything? Creation is everything. Humanity is everything. Science and technology is everything. Faith and morals is everything. The body, soul and spirit is everything. The church, the body of Christ, is everything.

You, as individuals, you are everything.

And the Holy Spirit, according to Paul, will help you to reach the depths of everything. And then he goes on to say:
Even the depths of God.

With the Holy Spirit, there is no room for superficiality. You got to go deep once you received the Holy Spirit. And it is a lifelong search. It is a lifelong education with the Holy Spirit leading you, teaching you. There is no room for frivolousity, for superficiality, for boring and shallow stuff.

The Holy Spirit will help you, to reveal to you and will reach to the depths of EVERYTHING, grace as well as sin. You don’t have to be afraid.

Now these are strong words coming from John and from Paul. You can see how stunned they are when they heard that Jesus saying (there is a look of well, they are not too sure what he is talking about) but 2000 have gone by and the Holy Spirit is constantly teaching us, teaching the world, creation, humanity and the church, the meaning behind the words of Jesus.

Again, back to John. This is a text that almost many of you know by hard. John 10:10:
I have come that you may have life, and have life to the FULL.

So, it is not some kind of superficial existence. Living the life, the fullness of life we know, is the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit. Nothing more, nothing less. So do not settle for less. Please.

So when we put all these together, we find the fullness of life. The Holy Spirit, the words of Jesus that He spoke 2000 years ago, they are all connected. If not connected, maybe better inter-connected.

You have a dare to deepen your awareness of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. The two words used in the Gospels in the New Testament:
For the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit by Jesus Himself is the Spirit of Love but it is also the Spirit of Truth.

And therefore, with the Holy Spirit, we will get down to the truth about everything.

This is the last slide, okay? So let us connect the Holy Spirit with the Word of God, with the Fullness of Life. And this comes from John again, from Jesus before He left us last Thursday. At the Ascension, He said goodbye and He balik kampung, back to God, back to heaven.

And He said these words, and I would like to say it was a promise made by Jesus, the last promise before He left us. He said:
But the Advocate (the Holy Spirit is called the Advocate) whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

So, the Holy Spirit is the Advocate. I read this morning from the treatise of Saint Irenaeus from the Office of Reading that we have in the Divine Office and something caught my attention. Irenaeus lived hundreds of years ago and he spoke about the Holy Spirit.

And he said:
You know there is someone who is your, my, our Accuser before God. And the role of that Accuser is to accuse you and me and us about our sins before God.

Boring God with our sins. That is the role of the Accuser. The ‘boring’ part is my own words, okay? Boring God, accusing us before God of our sins. And therefore, God decided to do something about it.

He sent us the Advocate. And according to Irenaeus, Saint Irenaeus, the role of the Advocate is similar. He does not accuse us but he is our Advocate, our spokesperson, our attorney, our lawyer, our solicitor before God. And he reminds God that our sins had been washed by the blood of the lamb.

Now that is an interesting imagery. One is accusing us and the other is advocating on our behalf. And that is the Holy Spirit. That is the meaning of Paraclete. That is the meaning of Advocate. The one who is beside you. The literal meaning in Greek of Paraclete.

The other thing the Holy Spirit does and will continue to do from Pentecost till the end of time, is to remind you of everything Jesus said, taught and did. He will remind you, slowly, one day at a time, one reminder at a time until you get down deep, deep, deep, deep into what Jesus said and did.

And the Holy Spirit will not only remind you. The Holy Spirit is the second teacher. He will teach you ALL things and will remind you but teach you. To teach means to explain, to make you understand more deeply what Jesus said.

So you need the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit. And this mission of the Holy Spirit is for your entire life, until the day you die. You need this teacher because some of us will learn the lessons maybe at the very end. It does not matter.

So my dear, dear brothers and sisters, I wish you an awesome adventure with the Holy Spirit, moving us not backwards but forwards.

I wish you a turun padang mission with the Holy Spirit.

I wish you a deeper communion with the Father and the Son and with everything created and human.

I wish you that deeper communion in the Holy Spirit.

God bless you.

Click to live-stream Mass on 19 May 2024