Pentecost, Sunday Mass (with a slight modification for the Vigil) I have a confession to make.

I recently purchased a new cell phone. The truth is, I didn’t really need a new phone. My old one worked just fine. But I wanted something better and cooler and more fun than the one I had. Want over need.

However, if we are going to be honest, don’t we all have wants that go beyond our needs? A bigger house, a newer car, a nicer camera....a faster boat?

Understand, I am not passing any kind of judgement here, after all, I bought a new phone. I am just making an observation that this desire for better, newer, faster is hardwired into us.

Human beings have desires.. We have desires. And I would argue that having these are a good thing. Without them, we would be content to do no better than those who have gone before us. There would be no desire to improve our lives and the lives of others through science or medicine.

There would be no achievements in sports, technology or learning. Without desire, without hunger and thirst for more, we might still be building fires in the caves we live in, but never cooking our food.

The problem with desires comes when we attach the need for things or achievements as a way to make us happy, as a way to fill us up..... to full-fill us. We thirst, we hunger we consume and we are satisfied, and then we thirst and hunger and consume again. It can be both exhilarating and frustrating. Whichever it is, it is never really enough. And this is nothing new.

Adam and Eve had paradise, they walked in the cool of the evening with God....but they wanted more when there was nothing more to have.

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St. Augustine had this human desire in mind when he said, speaking of God, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”

Each and every one of us knows what it is to be really thirsty, don’t we? We can go a long time without food. I figure, I have about two or three weeks worth stored up in me, but water.... without it, we die, and in fairly short time.

Thirst is a way that our bodies tell us that they need something vital, something that is, essential for life, and we need it much sooner than later.

Our desire for the things of this world, and the endless cycle of wanting, getting, achieving and wanting again is our souls way of telling us it needs something vital.... something essential.

(Vigil Comment)

Jesus says in tonight's Gospel “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and

drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within

him who believes in me.” We are told that: “He said this in reference to

the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive”.

This Feast of Pentecost is the Church’s celebration of God’s living water, of the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit.

A sip is enough to quench our thirst, but God doesn’t want us to just sip of this living water, this Holy Spirit. He wants to pour it out in buckets, in a deluge, so that we might live and live completely. And we need it much sooner than later.

But so often we keep our lips sealed tight, even as we look up in search of God. Perhaps we are afraid we might drown if we took in too much Holy 2

Spirit, too much God. Afraid that God might ask too much of us, afraid that we are not worthy, or capable, or strong enough, or smart enough, and so we continue to thirst, with life-giving water only a few words from our hearts away. “Come Holy Spirit”

At that first Christian Pentecost, when the Church was Born, the disciples were hidden away, afraid.

But they were also waiting, because at His Ascension, Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father and He would send.

And they were not disappointed.

Imagine the scene, rushing winds, tongues of flame, speaking in languages that they had not previously known, preaching the Good News.....raising the dead.....

Scripture tells us that the disciples were so filled with the Holy Spirit that just the shadows of John and Peter were able to cure the incurable.

That is not being afraid..... that is LIVING!

We are tempted to think “that was then, .... this is now” Sisters and brothers.... if God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow,.... how could the Holy Spirit hold back it’s mighty wind, it’s rushing fire, it’s endless gifts waiting to fill us?

And so I ask....What are we waiting for? Why drink from a “sippy-cup” when the whole well is ours?

At Baptism, we received the Holy Spirit. At Confirmation, we are Sealed with this same Holy Spirit It is our gift, our inheritance, our heritage as individuals and as the Body of Christ, the Church.

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I encourage us to live out our Baptism... to claim our Confirmation and all of the gifts, all the life that comes with them.....

This is what we long for, deep down, at our very core..... and the honest,

...... examined heart knows it.... for God has created us for Himself, and we will never know rest, never know fulfilment, never know satisfaction....until we are rested, we are filled, we are satisfied in Him.

Come Holy spirit!

Prayers of the Faithful

Send forth your Spirit from the Father to cleanse and strengthen the Church so that we might spread the Good News throughout the world.

We pray to the Lord

For those who guide and govern us, that they may be servants of the common good in your name.

We pray to the Lord

Do not let us be led by the spirit of the world, but getly guide us with the Spirit from you.

We pray to the Lord

Pour out your Spirit, the protector of the poor, to help and lift up those in need.

We pray to the Lord

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You live in the glory of the Fathe and the Holy Spirit, summon into your glory all of the faithful departed. We pray to the Lord 5