Pentecost

by David Lins  |  06/05/2022  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

Have you been confirmed? No? What are you waiting for!? If you are in 3rd or 4th grade, contact Sr. Susan Marie. If you will be in 6th-12th grade next year, reach out to our youth ministries coordinator, Mady. If you are a high school graduate and still alive—email me at dlins@oloj.org.

But if you have been confirmed... what are you so afraid of?!

The disciples were huddled up in a locked room. They were frightened for their very lives. They dared not speak the name of the Lord or they might be put to death.

Then Jesus rose from the dead and they received the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, those same people could NOT be silenced. They made their primary mission in life the spread of the Gospel. They were (in the most literal sense) men on a mission.

So I’ll ask again—what are you so afraid of?!

You know Christ has risen from the dead and you have received the Holy Spirit. And last I checked, you probably won’t be put to death for sharing the Faith. In fact, I imagine if you sat down with St. Peter and tried to explain how sharing the Faith might adversely impact you job, he might explain how sharing the Gospel adversely impacted his lifespan.

If you told Matthew how much it hurts to lose friends, he might share how much it hurts to be stabbed to death.

If you told Thomas how you don’t like making people uncomfortable, he might share how uncomfortable it was to be pierced through with the spears of several soldiers.

My point is a simple one: they would not feel sorry for us when we list why it is so hard for us to spread the Faith.

My guess? They would all say, “Get on with it... because it is worth it.” Why do I think so? Look to the first martyr, St. Stephen. As he is being killed in Acts 7:55, “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ’I see heaven open...’”

May heaven open for us when our time comes.

Comments, concerns, questions? Email David at dlins@oloj.org.