Pentecost
Sunday, May 24, 2026
St. James Cathedral

Watch this homily! (begins at 40:55)

 
My friends, over these past fifty days of the Easter Season, we have unpacked and reflected on the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection in our life and in the life of the world.
 
Today, as we gather to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we conclude the Easter Season by remembering that Christ is still present in our midst through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the reassurance Jesus gives the disciples in today’s Gospel is the same reassurance he gives us. “Peace be with you,” Jesus says.
 
Then he breathes on them, giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. They need that reassurance and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They cannot carry on the mission without the Spirit. Without the Spirit they are locked in a room, hiding out of fear and with regrets about the past. Without the Spirit they cannot look forward. Without the Spirit there are no possibilities, no joyful anticipation about the future - only regrets about the past and fear of the future.
 
But with the Spirit, they can unlock the doors of fear and regret and be sent out to continue Jesus’ mission of spreading his healing, reconciling love. Now they can look forward in joyful anticipation to all the possibilities that lie ahead for renewing the face of the earth, as we sang in our Responsorial Psalm.
 
We see those possibilities played out at Pentecost, when, filled with the Spirit, people begin to hear the Good News - really hear it, in their own language, in a way they can understand. This is the unifying power of the Spirit that allows people of different languages and cultures to understand and share the “mighty works of God.”
 
Friends, as we gather today, we pray for the coming of the Spirit into our own hearts and lives and the life of our world. We remember Jesus’ reassuring words, “Peace be with you.” We know how often Pope Leo repeats those words. It was his first message to us from the balcony of St. Peter’s, and it continues to be his message. And we need to hear that message of peace - over and over again these days. God knows that we cannot achieve that peace on our own.
 
 
And we cannot break out of our fear and regret on our own either. We need the Holy Spirit to help us. God knows that to leave fear and regret behind, and to do the mission Jesus calls us to, we need the Holy Spirit to help us, to empower us. We cannot do it on our own. But do it we must.
 
In today’s second reading, St. Paul says, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” Each of us have been uniquely gifted, and in the waters of Baptism, those gifts are infused with God’s Spirit, so that we might, in our own individual way, continue Jesus’ mission in the world.
 
The Spirit of the risen and ascended Christ sends us out to places that Jesus was not able to reach during his brief public ministry. God continues to act in the world through our labors, through our efforts, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
 
Our most important work is to reveal God at work. We do that as parents and teachers; as husbands and wives; as single people; as doctors and lawyers and engineers and laborers; as priests and deacons; as lay ministers; as students and  athletes and entertainers and artists.
 
Any gifts that are uniquely ours can be used for the benefit of all, if we allow God’s animating Spirit to drive us. Such efforts continue the original work of the apostles, who spoke “in their own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” Our spiritual gifts are given to us so that we can cooperate in God’s work of transforming the world.
 
When we give our hands, our hearts, our voices at the right place and at the right time, we give God new opportunities to transform human hearts - to transform the world that is so in need of transformation in God’s ways of healing and reconciliation, of justice and peace.
 
So, when we become discouraged at the state of our lives or the state of our world, and allow ourselves to get locked behind the doors of fear and regret, let us pray for God’s Holy Spirit to strengthen us and empower us for the new opportunities that God puts before us.
 
As we conclude our fifty day celebration of the Easter Season, may the Eucharist we share on this Pentecost Sunday allow God’s Spirit to work in us and through us to indeed renew the face of the earth. 

Father Gary F. Lazzeroni