By Deacon Richard Hay
“A Mascot for the Holy Spirit”
When I was a senior in the early 80’s at Bullitt Central High School in Shepherdsville, KY, which is just south of Louisville, I had the opportunity to be the school mascot. Our mascot was a cougar, and the costume was a full head to toe setup with a large, oversized cougar head I wore, along with a full zip up body suit of fake fur and a tail long enough that it made for a great prop for such things as “playing the guitar”.
While I wouldn’t label myself shy or introverted in those days, I also wasn’t the type to just jump out in front of others and engage in various attention-grabbing antics.
However, when I donned that cougar costume for a pep rally in the gym or for a football or basketball game – I was transformed into our school mascot. I would then easily and willingly run around and engage in those previously mentioned attention-grabbing antics.
Although people knew I was the mascot, the costume helped give me a layer of boldness to step out beyond myself.
Today, as we celebrate Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us as our helper and guide, we’re receiving something that gives each and every one of us a boldness to step outside of ourselves and proclaim the good news.
We encounter the Holy Spirit throughout our entire lives. It happens in all the sacraments and is in fact the river that flows between and connects all our sacraments at their core.
It begins at baptism – our first sacramental encounter with the Holy Spirit. Oils we use at a baptism are blessed by our bishop through the invocation of the Holy Spirt each year at the Chrism Mass during Holy Week. We then use those oils over the following year in our parish for various sacraments including not only baptism, but also the Anointing of the Sick and Confirmation.
In the celebration of the Mass, the Holy Spirit is called down by the priest during what is called the “epiclesis” – this is the part of the Eucharistic Prayer where he extends his hands over the gifts of bread and wine on the altar and asks the Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify those gifts. After the gifts are consecrated, we then receive another sacrament connected to the Holy Spirit – the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ – fully present in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar – the Eucharist.
In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Holy Spirit is present as we confess our sins and are given absolution. We are then encouraged to go forth and sin no more. It is the Holy Spirit whom we can lean on as we leave the confessional to wrap us in a layer of his protection and to help us to refrain from repeating those sins.
At Confirmation, which we will celebrate this Monday evening here at the church with Bishop Pohlmeier for our candidates, he will anoint each of them with Sacred Chrism as part of this sacrament and after saying their name he will say – “Be sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
This is the same oil we use for baptisms and other sacraments at our church which the bishop blessed at the Chrism Mass before easter and breathed upon to invoke the Holy Spirit in the process of blessing the oil.
As a couple participates in the Rite of Matrimony – through this sacrament, the Holy Spirit brings about the nurturing, equal dignity, mutual giving, and undivided love that is shared between a man and a woman in marriage because through the Holy Spirit, God called the couple to marriage.
Although the sacraments and our liturgies are unique actions in our church, isn’t it beautiful how they are all intricately connected together by the Holy Spirit?
The events of that first Pentecost, which we heard about in our readings, when the Holy Spirit was sent to be our advocate, our helper, and to be with us, are like the headwaters of a river – the source of all that we are and can be in this world in our faith. This river connects and flows into and throughout our lives in the sacraments and in our liturgies. It keeps everything flowing forward towards Christ.
Last Tuesday, during his daily mass homily, Fr. Marek shared something that is very applicable to our celebration of Pentecost. It was on the Feast of St. Matthias, the disciple who was picked to replace Judas as one of the 12 apostles.
After prayers were offered by the other apostles invoking the Holy Spirit, Matthias was selected by lots, the modern-day equivalent of flipping a coin but there was no luck involved in this because the Holy Spirit made the choice known to those present in the casting of that lot.
In his homily, Fr. Marek said:
“We need to be available all the time for the Holy Spirit to pick us for different things. This should be our way of life – being available to the Holy Spirit to do whatever we need to do so we can bear fruit.”
So, how do we do that?
First, it’s the sacraments – especially the repeatable sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. Participate in them as often as possible to receive the effects of the graces that flow from the Holy Spirit through them.
Second, through prayer including time for sacred silence and meditation over the scriptures. This will give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to whisper into our souls and let us know that he is picking us for something so we can also go out like Saint Matthias did and bear fruit.
These are not obligations – these are opportunities for all of us to grow in the Holy Spirit. Opportunities to step outside of ourselves. An opportunity to put on the Holy Spirit as I did that mascot outfit, to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to don our faith in a way that manifests itself not only through our words, but even more so in our actions – in the boldness in which we proclaim our faith, especially, in the way we love others as the Lord loved us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
