Sunday Sermon

Today we celebrate the Birthday of the Church. The promise has been fulfilled. The Holy Ghost has been poured out on the 120 or so apostles and disciples and Mary the Mother of Jesus. And the 120 or so apostles and disciples with Mary had been filled with the Holy Ghost. Let us think for a moment about why the Holy Ghost had been given?

We read in the Second Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles when the Holy Ghost came upon the Apostles while they were gathered together. We hear "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, . . . ." When I read this, I wonder what exactly does a "sound from heaven" sound like?

Our Lord is ascended into heaven! This great mystery brings with it a mixture of joy and of sorrow to the Apostles. Joy that our Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father, but sorrow that the Lord has gone ahead, leaving them behind in this world. Our Lord had promised them, however, that He would not leave them orphans. The Holy Ghost would be sent to them in all power, and they would be witnesses unto the Lord even unto the uttermost regions of the world. In His power, His presence, and His essence our Lord truly remains with us forever. Today the Church remembers those successors of the Apostles, the Fathers of the Council of Nicea. Having received themselves the Apostolic faith, these saintly men stood firm in the face of heresy and proclaimed to the world that faith which they had received. To this day we re-echo their declaration and hold fast to this same faith.

“And you shall give testimony, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” St. John 15: 27. All the consolation and joy of the Apostles was gone, when Jesus Christ, their only comfort, had vanished from their sight. They were standing on the mountain and looking towards heaven, just as one who wishes to accompany his departing friend a part of the way, nor did they take their eyes off him, as long as He remained in sight. This was their only remaining comfort, that at least they might continue to look at him, until the cloud, hid him from them. When God is excluded from the eyes of the mind and from the heart of man, there can be no true joy nor consolation.

“The end of all things is at hand” (I St. Peter 4:7)

God calls us to love one another and to share the gifts we have been given. The devil promotes nothing but hatred and division. Thus, he often uses the media and social media to cause division and hatred.

Here you have an unlimited permission to request whatever favor you desire with a full assurance of obtaining it. And yet there is nothing more common than to hear men complaining that their prayers seem to be of no avail. What is the cause of that? If ever our hearts and desires are in contradiction with the words we utter, they are so very often when we pray; for we are not always earnest in our prayers, nor do we really wish to be heard; in fact, we desire the very contrary of what we ask for. This is the case especially when we ask for heavenly graces and spiritual blessings, which ought to be the chief object of our prayers.

"One thing I know: that whereas I was blind, now I see." With these words, the man who had been healed by the Lord of his blindness gives testimony before the unbelieving Pharisees of this great miracle of healing. Just as the Pharisees wished to find fault in the healing of the blind man, so often we, too, may be tempted to find fault in the workings of God's grace. We grow impatient in our own spiritual life, and we become envious of the goods that have been bestowed upon others. Today our Lord teaches us to rejoice in all good things, and never to give up patience, that the works of God may be made manifest in us, too.

Our Blessed Savior pointed out to the disciples, we are never truly alone even when we are physically alone because God is always with us.

The Gebirah meaning meaning "Great Lady" or "Queen Mother", was clearly the most important woman in the Kingdom of Judah; a king had many wives, but only one mother. The Gebirah of the eternal Davidic Kingdom of Jesus Christ is Mary of Nazareth. Upon her Assumption into heaven Her Son placed her in her well deserved place beside His throne as mother of the King of kings.

“And when he is come he will convince the world of sin.” —St. John 16: 8. The sin of which the Holy Ghost will convince the world is the want of faith in Jesus Christ, who, in the Gospel of today, expressly says: “Of sin, because they believe not in me.” Yet this conviction will be extended to each and every sin, for all sins are due to a want of lively faith, but especially to those sins which are committed against the Holy Ghost, the chief of which is despair on the part of the sinner. But if there is any despairing sinner in the world, it is certainly he who boasts of his sins. He is the most shameless of all sinners, whether he boasts by word, or by act. He is a hopeless sinner, too, as I shall now prove.