By Fr Francis Anthony
Acts 19:1-8
Psalm 67:2-7
John 16:29-33
We are in the midst of our Novena Prayers, preparing for our Parish Feast. But whatever it is, what is striking these days is we have come to realise we are nobody if God is not with us. And through this Rosary of the Holy Spirit, you look through all those intentions, the Litany rather, what does it point out? Something that we require and it is being vocalised.
It is the Spirit that was hovering over (if you look at the first verses of Genesis), over the chaotic mass, the clay and the chaos. The Holy Spirit was hovering and was responsible with the Father and the Son for the creation, the law and order to be set in.
The second (if I can make a big jump) creation. That same Holy Spirit was hovering over Blessed Virgin Mary when she conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit. Whether we like it or not, that Holy Spirit is hovering over us, is aware of what is happening in us, And in the Litany part, I like the response that we made. Seven times we say for each decade:-
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful.
It is not coming to an empty heart. The text that we respond is:-
Enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
Very often we smolder the gift or the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We are so full of ourselves like the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus. They are worried, they have not seen the Lord, He has disappeared, they had wasted their time for three years following Him. Whatever be they are, just simply go and look at / study the picture of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus and study the face of Jesus. Yes. Whenever I see the picture, words cannot capture how the artist has expressed the emptiness which makes us not to see reality. The emptiness in the lives of the two disciples, who thought they had lost everything, are not able to recognise Jesus walking by their side.
And very appropriately in this Litany, we say:-
Enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
The love, the fire of God’s love, the presence of the Holy Spirit, is with us. But we are not being aware that Jesus is with us giving us the Holy Spirit. And we will be running all over the place because I want the blessing of the Holy Spirit. We are cheating ourselves because we are not wanting to accept God’s presence in us. We are looking for big events, big episodes, big miracles to take place, ‘Ah there it is!’.
God speaks to us in the silence of our hearts. And in the pray, we had a hymn, the entrance antiphon:-
You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, coming upon you and you will be the salt of the earth.
You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes. And those of us who are, it is definitive. You will. It is not ‘You may if you have done this or done that’. You will. That is what God is saying to us. And that Spirit is here with us. That Spirit is in our families. The Spirit is in our neighbourhood, beginning with us. And are we enkindling the love of the Spirit in our families? Are we enkindling the love of the Spirit in ourselves to be people who are reaching out to others?
I was telling to Fr Joachim this big mysteries of the seven decades of the Rosary of the Holy Spirit. It is just unfortunate, maybe it is due to the time factor, we are just reading the caption. The real punch is in the verses that are referred. And those of you who have this Litany prayer in your homes, read that verses before the intentions, or saying that decade. And you will come to realise how close the Spirit is with us.
As I said earlier, our sisters and brothers in Sabah celebrating Kaamatan and two days later our sisters and brothers in Sarawak will be celebrating Gawai. It is the harvest festival. And the harvest is when promised right in the beginning of Genesis, when God said to Adam and Eve:-
Dominate over the whole creation. Do not destroy. It is our responsibility to uphold creation.
We are entering into a chaotic climate condition. Let us not say ‘Let them take care of it‘. Let us challenge ourselves. What am I doing with that plastics? I like to drink mineral water. What am I doing with that bottle? I like char koay teow. What am I doing with that plastic bag? It goes to Sungai Pinang. When there is big flood, oh there is big exposition of photographs and all the rivers are all clogged and so forth. Who? The angels came and threw all those things?
Let us be responsible people during this Novena to the Holy Spirit. Let us not be like those disciples in the Acts of the Apostles at Jesus’ Ascension, they were looking up into the sky. Jesus disappearing in the clouds. The angels said ‘You go to the Upper Room and wait for instruction‘.
Let that be the message for us during this Novena to the Holy Spirit and each one of us take the responsibility to find out what is God telling me, personally and not the church. I can hide under the blanket. What is God telling me to be, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to be and to become?
Click below to listen to the homily and watch the video:-
Click to live-stream Mass on 30 May 2022