How do you think about the Holy Spirit on Pentecost? A puzzle?: Pentecost in Easter Season

Listen to the homily here.

Pentecost: 50 days…Holy Spirit

Puzzle at our Clergy Retreat

·      It had 1,000 pieces and I think that I added 1

·      As I try to learn and teach with different images, I am thinking about a tricky puzzle with the Holy Spirit

Now, I over the last couple of years, I think I helped two puzzles, one with these priests, and another with a four year old, and she was better than me

But I do know two things about a puzzle, from the child to the adult professionals

·      First, flip the puzzle pieces over so you can see it!

o   One advice, do that in our spiritual life…flip over things like sins, the scriptures, prayers…so you can see what is going on in our faith

·      Second, find the four corners!

o   Today I would like to propose four “corners” of the image of the Holy Spirit

#1: Our power for our discipleship

·      Acts 2:1-11: The Holy Spirit with tongues of fire with strength, power and even other languages to preach from other places

·      But today I would like to read some of other images from the Scriptures

·      Similarly, remember Moses who saw a bush on fire?

o   Exodus 3:2: “And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bushwas burning, yet it was not consumed.”

·      This is a solid belief in the Holy Spirit within our mission

#2: Creation

·      Genesis 1:2-3: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.  And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

·      The Holy Spirit is like the wind in our physical world, our cosmos, our lives and our job

#3: God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

·      John 15: “Jesus said to his disciples:‘When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father,he will testify to me.  And you also testify,because you have been with me from the beginning…’”2^ndReading

·      1 Corinthians 12:3b “Brothers and sisters:No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

#4

·      Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to prayas we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”

·      Prayer

·      Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit

Now, this puzzle is an analogy