May is the month that is filled with memorable events and celebrations of all kinds, from sacramental moments of First Communions and Confirmations, to the beginning of the College and High School Graduation season. Of course, we cannot forget Mother’s Day (May 13th), the day we celebrate the heart of every family and the one who remains so important to each of us, whether our mother is already living in Heaven or is still here with us on earth. And as we celebrate our natural mothers in May, we also devote this entire month of May to special devotions to our Blessed Mother. Yes, May is memorable and filled with good reasons to celebrate.
In addition to these particular events, liturgically we continue to celebrate the 50- day Easter Season which, this month, leads us to the great Feast of the Ascension on May 13th (Mother’s Day) and culminates on May 20th, the Solemnity of Pentecost, and the month of celebration ends with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity on Sunday May 27th, which is also the celebration of Memorial Day weekend, the first “summer” holiday weekend.
As People of Faith, in each of these special events and throughout these liturgical seasons and great Solemnities, we are truly celebrating God’s love for us, His People, and our love for God and one another. We who are blessed to be Baptized People of Faith — we who are members of the Body of Christ and vibrant participants in the sacramental life of the Church — we come to know God the Father’s unconditional love for us, the Son’s Saving Love in Jesus’ suffering, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, and the Holy Spirit’s powerful transformation of the frightened and confused Apostles into the bold, courageous and joyful Witnesses and Evangelizers they became through the spiritual power of Pentecost, and their subsequent going forth to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Good News of Jesus as Jesus commanded them, and as the Holy Spirit empowered them.
The reasons for reminding ourselves about this is much more important than for us to have a good sense of the Church’s history. The reason the Church calls us to celebrate these liturgical seasons and holds up for us these special Feasts is so that we are mindful of the fact that God continues to work in our midst in the very same way. Those actions of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit did not just take place 2,000 years ago on the first Easter and the original Pentecost; God the Father continues to demonstrate and make evident His unconditional love for us, as does the Son’s Saving effects that we experience in the Holy Eucharist and in all the Sacraments, and the Holy Spirit’s work of inspiration and encouragement within each of us as baptized and confirmed Catholic Christians who dwells within each of our hearts making us truly “temples of the Holy Spirit”.
As I have been reminding all of our young people receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Holy Spirit brings His gifts, which are indeed spiritually powerful, and they are free. The Holy Spirit does not force us to use those gifts; we are not coerced into following certain paths or making particular choices. The Holy Spirit is our “Advocate” — the one who stands beside us to advise, encourage, inspire, and guide; but who never forces Himself on us.
So, this month in the midst of all our memorable events and celebratory moments, it would be good for us to take a step back and, as a person of faith, think about what our faith means to us? How strong — how vibrant — how integrated is my faith with all the other parts of my life? Or as I heard in a sermon on Catholic Radio recently: “Does my faith shape the way I live my life, or does the way I live my life shape my faith?” And if our faith-life has grown a bit stale or routine, how do I renew my faith? How can I grow as a Disciple of Jesus? How can I rekindle the “fire of God’s Love” living within me, a “temple of the Holy Spirit”? The most important thing we can do is to make sure that we have a strong and personal relationship with Jesus. Just as is true for any human relationship, whether it is a relationship with one’s spouse, a relationship of parent/child, or a relationship between friends we are in the most important ingredient to a healthy and strong relationship is communication. If we fail to have open, honest, and regular communication, our marriage will grow stale, our parent/child relationship will become distant, and our friendships will be starved. Our relationship with Jesus is no different. It was just a week or so ago in the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Easter that Jesus used the image of Him being the Vine and we being the Branches to describe our relationship with Him (John 15:1-8). We can understand that clearly and see it in the beautiful Spring flowers and trees around us. As long as the branch stays firmly connected to the Vine, it will get the nourishment that it needs; if, however, the branch gets cut off in some way, it will wither and die. Our relationship with Jesus is critically important to our spiritual life, and we maintain our spiritual life through daily prayer, through at least weekly participation in the Mass and receiving Holy Communion, through frequent reading of the Scriptures, and regular participation in the Sscramental and devotional life of the Church.
That will help us to be vibrant members of the Body of Christ, but it will also help us to be believing disciples and followers of Jesus, and joyful and courageous witnesses to our faith to all the world around us. This is how we are to live good and holy lives, which is the basic vocation that we all share through our Baptism into Christ — to be God’s Holy People; to live lives of holiness.
Pope Francis just wrote a beautiful Letter to the entire Church entitled “Gaudete et Exsultate”/”Rejoice and Be Glad”. It is an exhortation from our Holy Father to all of us, reminding us of that basic calling we have all received — to be holy people, and ultimately, when our lives in this world are ended, to become a part of the “Communion of Saints” in Heaven. In that Letter, Pope Francis wrote: “We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness (to God’s Love) in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.” (#14) Isn’t it true that sometimes we think of holiness as something out of the realm of possibility for most of us? Don’t we sometimes think that we’re too imperfect or human or sinful to ever hope for holiness. Pope Francis is the first to realize that we are all sinners; he counts himself among them — as do I. Yet, that does not change our purpose, and what should be our life-goal. And Pope Francis tells us that all we have to do, as we read above, is to bear witness to God’s love in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves. Notice, he doesn’t say that we have to be in church 24 hours a day. “In everything we do…wherever we find ourselves.”
And so, my dear Family of Faith, in this beautiful, memorable and event-filled month of May, may we give thanks to God for His great love for us; may we renew our love for Him and one another in our personal relationship with Jesus; may we set our sights on holiness as our ultimate goal in life. And through it all, while we can’t possibly expect to do all this on our own, let us rejoice in the great gift of the Holy Spirit who is right there, by our side, to be our Advocate, our guide and our constant companion. How can we go wrong?
Faithfully yours in Christ
Faithfully yours in Christ