Before starting the homily, I wanted us to listen to this song by Bob Dylan, a song from 1962, considered by many to be a pacifist manifesto. The author of the song speaks to a friend of him and asks him many questions, profound, existential questions to which it is not easy to answer. But hope is that the answer exists and it is not far away. This answer is a secret carried by the wind.

“The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind”. Today is Pentecost and we have heard from the readings that the answers to the great questions of our existence can only be given by the wind of the Spirit that continues to blow over humanity.

Today is the day of Pentecost. But do you know what the word Pentecost means? It is a greek word and means the fiftieth day after Easter. For the Jews, Easter commemorated the liberation from slavery, the initial freedom from Egypt and Pentecost commemorated the gift of the covenant on Mount Sinai, the realization of freedom in the covenant with God and the birth of the people of Israel. Why 50 days? Actually there are 49 which is 7 times 7. The number 7 is the number of fullness, 7 times 7 is the maximum of fullness. Pentecost is the fulfillment of Easter.

For us Christians too it is like this: the death and resurrection of Jesus coincide with an Easter day, the gift of the Spirit coincides with a feast of Pentecost. For us Christians Easter is the victory of Jesus over death, the definitive liberation of humanity, Pentecost is the gift of the new covenant, the transformation of mankind and the birth of the new people of God, the Church.

What happened on that day of Pentecost? A group of people, the apostles, had an incredible experience: a strong sound like that of a very strong wind, tongues of fire that settle on them. Luke the evangelist is telling us something supernatural and he does it with the symbols he and his listeners already know. The experience of those people is similar to that of the people of Israel when they received the gift of the Law: wind, fire, very loud noise, a storm, a hurricane, a volcano’s eruption, something shocking. Here a transformation takes place: the disciples of Jesus, those who ran away from the cross, regain courage and go out to announce the good news, without any fear of either the Jews or the Romans. They will go to jail, they will be whipped, tortured, killed but nobody will never stop the good news. Those people were totally invested with that power of grace and finally understood that they would be the ones to continue the work of Jesus on earth.

This also applies to us because we are the people of God, each one of us. Usually, when there is wind, we close the windows. From today, my dear brothers and sisters, we must open all the doors and windows of our closed heart and let in a breath of new air enter. Have you ever seen a sailing ship carried on by wind? It is the same with us. The Holy Spirit is wind and pushes us towards unknown destinations, probably where we would not want to go, as we are used to being always in our comfort. The Spirit is fire and burns, it purifies our selfishness which prevents us from loving others as Jesus loved.

Let’s now do some catechism review. Who is the Holy Spirit? The third person of the Holy Trinity. He proceeds from the Father and from the Son. What does the Holy Spirit do? He santifies souls, confirms in faith, fills hearts of light, strenght, charity. He gives us seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

How many of you pray to the Holy Spirit? Usually or rarely? We pray to the Father, we pray to the Son, we pray to Mary, the Saints and the angels. Sometimes we put Mary and the saints before God himself. I remember in the United States, in the Somascan parish of Houston: the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe is placed to the right of the tabernacle. It is interesting to see how people kneel before the Virgin Mary and do not genuflect in front of the tabernacle. Okay, we can also understand. It is easier to go and tell our things to Mother Mary because she better understands us. Our friends, the saints, are also ready to put in a good word for us. Sometimes we go to ask brother Jesus for something, and a little less to the daddy, God. But the Holy Spirit is like that uncle who lives in Australia that we never see and obviously we address him very rarely. Yet he is wonderful, he has great strength, he is wind, he is fire and at the same time he is sweet and calm as a dove. He is the Consoler, an Advocate, always beside us, he supports us, he suggests the things we need to say, he gives us courage. And like the uncle from Australia he sends us seven great gifts that we sometimes don’t appreciate. If it were up to us the Holy Spirit would remain unemployed, but it happens that he continues to blow.

The Spirit is life. I just want to remind you of three passages: the first is from Genesis. When God shapes man with mud, to give life to that earthen puppet, what does he do? It blows his breath into him and gives him life. Another passage is that of Ezekiel, the vision of withered bones in a valley. Suddenly the wind begins to blow from all sides and those bones revive, take flesh, blood, vigor again. And lastly Jesus, when he dies on the cross it is said that he delivered his Spirit of him.

When can we say that a man is dead? When his heart no longer beats, when the blood no longer circulates, when the encephalogram is flat for 12 consecutive hours? In the time of Jesus it was believed that a man lives because he breathes and is dead because he no longer breathes. Do you understand then what it means that the Spirit is life? It means that the Spirit is the very life of God and this life circulates within us.

Yesterday I was reading a nice cartoon that said: “Betlehem was God with us, Calvary was God for us, Pentecost is God in us”. If the life of God circulates in us, we are not made for death but for eternity. Death does nothing more to us, we are resurrected with Christ and the Spirit is in us.

Do you know how many languages the Spirit speaks? All the languages of the world. The good news is for the whole world, and everyone can hear it in their native language. I know from experience how difficult it is to learn languages. A few decades ago someone tried to invent a universal language, Esperanto, without success. Instead the Spirit invented a universal language, the language of love. Everyone can understand it, children, young people, elders, educated people and ignorant people, rich and poor. The Spirit reminds us of Jesus’ commandment: Love each other as I have loved you. What does today’s world need? So much love! There is too much war, too much division, in our families, religious communities, parishes, civil societies. There is too much selfishness! If we open the doors to the Spirit and allow him to transform, purify, push us, together with him we can build the civilization of love, starting with our family realities.

Then from today on we will commit ourselves to pray the Holy Spirit a little more. Let’s start now: Come, Holy Spirit! Fill our hearts with your love! Give us peace, serenity and courage! Help us to make the right choices! Spirit of love, help us to overcome our selfishness! Spirit of unity, overcome our divisions! Spirit of life, let us enjoy eternity every day! Amen!