The feast of the holy Spirit - Rev. Fr. Paul Nwonu

The feast of the holy Spirit - Rev. Fr. Paul Nwonu

Today the Holy mother church celebrates the solemnity of Pentecost. The solemnity of Pentecost traditionally commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus Christ who gathered in Jerusalem. Christians celebrate Pentecost on the fiftieth day after the celebration of Easter. Pentecost is the fulfillment of the promise of Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ whom he called the Advocate. Pentecost is called suitably the feast of the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost Sunday, the church anoints Christians with the sacrament of the confirmation. The goal of the sacrament is enable us Christians be to commissioned and strengthened for better witnessing of Christ in the world. At the reception of the sacrament of confirmation, Christians receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord. These gifts are necessary and are spiritual ingredients that help us in witnessing to Christ in the world as the soldiers pof Christ.

The readings of today furnish us with the description, fruits and functions of the Holy Spirit. In the first instance, we have three essentialities, the sound of the wind, the tongues of fire and divine gift of speaking in other languages. The three elements symbolize and signal the presence of God in the lives of Christians. The wind is always synonymous with the spirit. The wind announces the presence of God and divine powers. Fire also announces the presence of God. Moses encountered God in a flame of fire in the bush (Ex. 3:2). The discrepancy of languages by power of the Spirit was a divine attempt to disperse the people and nation following the erection of the Babel of tower. (Gen. 11:5-9) AS a result of pride and curiosity, people wanted to build a tower to heaven thus, wanted to be like God. The multiplication of languages was to create division among the people and had them scatter in various directions. So Holy Spirit came to restore the unity of all nations that was destroyed in Old Testament by unifying and uniting the apostles through understanding their divergent languages. This was done in order to create sense of understanding, focus coherence and to break all barriers, social differences in our values, color culture, and language that would likely impede the witnessing of Christ in the world. The church needs to cooperate with Holy Spirit in order to win the tidal wave of division among Christians in the world today.

The Holy Spirit inspires and stimulates the church and all Christians. Holy Spirit urges and inspires people to live in union with the risen Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that swings into actions all our dealings with God and our neighbors. It is the Holy Spirit that accomplished Gods plan in Mary and she became the mother of God. It is the Holy Spirit that chose Mary through the angel that she was to bear Christ to the world. The angel promised Mary, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you - - - for nothing will be impossible with God (Luke 1:35-37).

The Holy Spirit is not exclusive to any particular church alone. The Spirit of God breathes and is at work in places, cultures and civilization where the church even has no solid foundation. In every place, there are men and women of Good will irrespective of culture and religion and the Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts and the lives of all of them. At work means that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love of the father and the son, and wherever he breathes, it is always for the purpose of compelling people to love and to act generously to others. St Paul tells us that the fruits of the Holy Spirit is love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control(Gal 5:22).

The sacraments are all about love brought down by God for the salvation of man. Since sacrament is all about love, nobody can love without Holy Spirit prompting him or her. It is only the Holy Spirit that swings into action all our dealings with regards to our relationship with God and others. Dont suffocate or stifle this spirit in you by useless things of life.

Nobody can claim of anything good; can hold on to any good action or any justice to people without the Holy Spirit sanctifying it. The Holy Spirit brings to fruition all action done in the name of God. The Holy Spirit purifies us, it energize us and vivify us. When we are in doubts, the Holy Spirit will clear the doubts and show us the way in our relationship with God. It took Zechariah months of silence to be freed from confusion and doubt. Without the Holy Spirit we will never have fully had this eternal relationship, without Holy Spirit we would not fully experience the rich blessing God brings to us through Christ. When talking about the coming of the holy spirit, Christ said: when the Holy Spirit, who is truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, for he will not be presenting his own ideas, but will be passing on to you what he has heard.he will show you my glory (John 16:13).

The Holy Spirit has lot of roles in the church and among Christians. Whenever, we are under the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit, we overcome excessive and unrestrained self gratification. We overcome selfishness and all sorts of immoral behaviors. We bear Christian fruits that transform the world to a better world. We truly become the true witnesses of Christ by loving one another, living lives of forgiveness and sacrifice. Since Jesus Christ has promised us the guidance of the Holy Spirit, let us remain steadfast in prayer, in order to attract the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Without the direction of the Holy Spirit, we cannot achieve any result as a church and people. We must be docile to the Holy Spirit for Him to renew us always and for us to develop a deeper relationship with God and people around us. Happy Sunday.