Pentecost - Not as Orphans

 

Sermon by Father Jonathan E Moore - LINK HERE

Pentecost Sunday 2026        Not as Orphans

“Alleluia! Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now.” Reassuring words from a much-loved hymn, (Alleluia! Sing to Jesus, William C. Dix 1867)  Last week, we heard the consoling words Jesus spoke to His first followers: “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). Jesus promised the gift of the Holy Spirit. Today we celebrate the fulfilment of that promise. God’s Church has been gifted with the Holy Spirit, as a whole and in each and every individual member. On the first Pentecost Sunday, the Apostles experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit in an awesome, powerful, life-changing and dramatic way. It is possible for us to become so blinded by the “epic” of the Church’s birth that we lose sight of a great truth: “This promise is for you.” (Acts 2:39). Yes, the Gift of that same Holy Spirit is given to each and every one of us, and today I would like to share with you just two thoughts about receiving that gift.

Over my years as a priest, I have heard many people speak of their experience of Confirmation, often with confusion and  a sense of disappointment afterwards. One might summarise their words as follows: “We heard the story of Pentecost and of great Saints who had done marvellous things in the power of the Holy Spirit. We were told that we would receive the same Spirit. We were prepared for something great and exciting to happen, but after receiving the Sacrament we felt no different.”

I think that there is a common mistake in catechisis which is somewhat akin to a school teacher who so desires to give her pupils a love for great literature that she forgets to teach them to read first! Pope Francis spoke of what he called “Spiritual Illiteracy”. (Homily for Pentecost 2016)

This is certainly manifest when people can only believe in spiritual experience on an emotional level. In Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Counselling, I have often found that a lack of feeling in prayer and worship can lead the unwary to conclude that they are spiritually dead, and failing Christians. It can be such a relief for them to learn for the first time the basic spiritual truth that the faculties of the soul are Memory, Understanding and Will. Emotion is nowhere in it! The most cursory reading of the lives of the Saints reveals that the best and holiest of people experienced years of spiritual dryness, finding no delight or consolation in prayer at all. What makes them saints is the fact that they persevered in their efforts to love and serve God and neighbour, even when it seemed to bring nothing at all to their own selves. Saint Charles Borromeo prayed : “Lord, make me do good without knowing it”. Saint Ignatius prayed that he might “Fight and not heed the wounds, labour and seek for no reward save that of knowing that in all things I am doing Thy most holy will.” His Spiritual Exercises are matter-of-fact and often austere in their practicality, yet they have brought millions closer to God, and continue to do so today. The New Testament is clear that the immediate need of the Apostles on the first Pentecost Sunday was for COURAGE. That same gift is available to every confirmed person. People who have done extraordinarily brave deeds invariably tell of the personal terror which possessed them at an emotional level, but was overcome with an act of will. This again is clearly descriptive of the Holy Spirit at work.

“I will not leave you as orphans”.  My second thought today is about the importance of family for all of us. There is a cynical and oft-repeated aphorism “God gave me my family, but in His mercy permitted me to choose my friends!”, and maybe there are times when we might feel inclined to agree! That said, few really believe that to be true. One only has to witness the loneliness and vulnerability of the orphaned child or the desolation of the neglected old person to see how very important family is. We constantly come across stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to trace children given up for adoption at birth, or the adopted ones seeking their birth parents. Not all of these stories have a happy ending: sometimes the adoptive parents feel rejected, and sometimes the birth parents have no wish to be found. Nevertheless, the instinct to seek family, the need to belong, is a compelling motive.

The Holy Spirit, Saint Paul tells us, makes us the adopted sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven, confident to call Him “Abba” (Daddy). We are Sons and Daughters “in the Son” (cf. Romans 8:14-17), with Jesus as our older Brother. Our Lord gave us Mary to be our Mother (John 19:26). If we are all children of the same Heavenly Father, it follows that we are all brothers and sisters one with another.

Getting back to the way we feel about things, it may well be that our experience of home and family is not always one we feel all that good about, maybe our relatives are demanding, tedious and unappreciative at times, but it would be a very poor parent who used the bad behaviour of a child as an excuse for neglecting their own responsibilities. In the same way, the crankiness of an elderly parent would be no justification for their children to “wash their hands” of them.

Our adoption as sons and daughters of the one Father, and as brothers and sisters in Christ, brings its own responsibilities. Even though that great family may not always be a lot of fun, they are still family, and we are not free simply to walk away.

Perhaps the correct question for every confirmed person to ask on Pentecost Sunday is not “How should Confirmation make me feel?” But “How should I, as a child of God, be living my life?” In the 25th Chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel we are given a clear picture of the Day of Judgement. The “Blessed of my Father” who Christ the Judge calls into the Kingdom of Heaven looked after their brothers and sisters, but they didn't feel particularly virtuous in so doing. The damned didn't feel bad about their neglect of those in need. They were not judged on how they had felt, only about the way they acted.

"In the midst of winter, I found that there was within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, there is something stronger - something better - pushing back" (Albert Camus)

“But with regard to the breath of God, it not only warms, but also gives perfect light, His Spirit being an infinite Spirit, whose vital breath is called inspiration, because by it the Divine Goodness breathes upon us, and inspires us with the desires and intentions of His heart.” (Frances de Sales Treatise on Love of God VIII. 7)

May the Holy Spirit give us all the wisdom and understanding to know ourselves as children of God, and the courage to live accordingly.