Pentecost Sunday 19 May 2024 Sermon

 

Pentecost Sunday 19 May 2024 The cenacle relived

We ask the Holy Spirit to come upon us. it is not as though we are asking Him to do something He does not want. He wants it more than we do because His love is greater. And when He comes upon us it is essentially an act of love, to change, heal , transform us.

The love of God, in particular, changes us and makes us as the apostles were, ready to die for others, even complete strangers, so great was their zeal for the Gospel.

To receive the Holy Spirit we must be open to Him, not putting conditions on Him, telling Him what He can or cannot do.

We do not necessarily start with such openness. It might take years to reach the sort of spiritual maturity that is required to receive fully the Holy Spirit.

Even in that Upper Room, with all the exalted company there, it took nine days for the Holy Spirit to come. This is telling us that preparation is always important.

For some things a lot of prayer is needed. We repeat the prayer, not because we doubt God, but because there are a lot of barriers to be overcome. Eg praying for world peace.

Still we should ask for what we think we need. The more pressing on the door the better. And God knows how to work things around so all our prayer is material for Him to work with. He can tie all the loose ends together.

We are ourselves part of the prayer as when we say Come, Lord we are volunteering ourselves for whatever purpose God wants.

If we do not feel quite ready to be so abandoned, that also can be matter for prayer.

Sometimes in the spiritual world we might promise things we don’t fully mean; but we can come to mean what we have said through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

It just needs a little perseverance and time.

When we ask God for something there is always implied that we are asking to come closer to Him. We do not just seek isolated blessings. We want to come closer to God, to know Him better.

He wants us to love Him more than any other person or thing. Not easy, but again it can be changed through prayer.

To be right with God is always the reference point.

We let Him do what has to be done, to form us, like a sculptor, chipping here and there  to get us to the state He desires.

He can rework even our sins, as we see most strikingly in the Crucifixion from which so much good has come.

(In our cenacles we imitate the first great Cenacle. We have a lot to learn and our prayer will help us do that.)

Our prayer is never wasted. People do convert to the true faith, and confess after many years and change the way they are living. We just need a lot more of it.

We have enough sense to turn up here at church, and that is a good start. We are trying to get used to the richness that we deal with here, real as it is, and unworthy as we are.

It is like having a cure for a terminal disease but very few want to know it.

We work on our own response to God's generous mercy; at the same time praying for success in helping others to receive it.

We pray for the courage of those first disciples, and the love which makes the courage possible. We love enough to die for the cause. We can change the world after all!