The Comforter, the Best - Pentecost 2023

A very blessed Pentecost Sunday to you!

I have a question for you that I want you to walk around in this week. The question is this: 

Where do you find your comfort?

What gives you peace? and rest? ... that place where things make sense and everything is going to be ok? Where do you find your comfort?

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Many years ago, in my first summer as a priest, it seemed like for a solid week I was plagued by the desire to go swing dancing. I had enjoyed swing dancing when I was in high school and college, but those days were past. I was a priest and I felt that going swing dancing (with a woman) was now inappropriate. Nevertheless, the distractions in prayer came. It was uncomfortable. And so I said to Jesus, "Here is what is distracting me. Please turn it into grace for whoever needs it."

Later that week, I had an older gentleman knock on the door to the rectory. He was in his late 70s and looked downcast.. He said, "Father, will you hear my confession?" Absolutely. "Father," he said, it's been 70 years since my last confession." I was floored.

Now, I can't tell you his sins because of the Seal of Confession (and, also, because I don't remember them). But I do remember and I can tell you that, after he confessed his sins and I gave him absolution, his shoulders relaxed and his face grew brighter. 

Lord, send out your Spirit. And renew the face of the earth.

The man's face had joy written all over it. He had been renewed. And comforted.

As he departed, I noticed he was wearing a pin on his lapel. I asked him what it was. "Oh, he said, that was a gift from my students. I was a dance instructor."

Now it was my turn to be comforted: I realized why I had suffered. It was for him. -- And what a comfort it is to see the will of God playing out right before my very eyes!

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One of the titles for the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Best. We sang this in our opening hymn, "Come Holy Ghost" and in the Sequence.

When things make sense, and when there is the tranquility of order (which is the very stuff of peace), we experience comfort. This is what the Holy Spirit brings.

And note carefully when Jesus gives the Holy Spirit. Yes, at Pentecost. But He also gives the Holy Spirit on Easter Sunday, in the evening, when the Apostles are in the Upper Room. They had abandoned Jesus and were afraid -- not only of the Jews, but also of His return; for, if He was the Messiah, they had indeed left Him. What would He do?

And so Jesus says, "Peace be with you." He breathes on them (the Latin word for breath is "spiritus"; respire; inspire; Spirit) and He forgives them.

What a comfort!

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There is also another time when Jesus gives the Holy Spirit. 

When He is on the Cross, He says many things: "I thirst," and "Father forgive them..." And then, when He breathes (spiritus) His last, He hands over His Spirit.

There is something important going on here -- a connection between the Cross and the Spirit. He is showing the power of the Cross -- that when we offer our suffering to the Father, in the Spirit, for the redemption of the world, that spiritual prayer of suffering is heard and is powerful.

It renews the face of the earth.

I tell my homebound and the infirm in hospitals: "You are sitting on a winning lottery ticket. You just need to cash it in." Tell Jesus, "Jesus, here is my suffering. I give it to you. Turn it into grace for someone out there."

I tell the homebound that they are like monks in monasteries -- when they make such a prayer, they will give birth to many vocations.

I tell the infirm in hospitals that they are there not only to get well, but also to pray for all of those who are also in the hospital -- "all of those other people don't know it, but you can bring all of them to heaven!"

And what a comfort it is to hear these words! -- to know that our Cross is not simply to be carried or endured, but that it has power! It can be an offering that renews the face of the earth!

Ah, the Comforter, the Best!

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When God the Father created Adam, He breathed (spiritus) into his nostrils and gave Adam the Breath of Life.

Receive the Holy Spirit! Breathe Him in.

And yes, Adam -- like all of us -- was faced with danger and challenges. The New Adam, Jesus, faced the Cross. It was uncomfortable.

In our own day, we face a lot of discomforts. And the temptation is to seek comfort in other spirits -- literally, in liquid spirits, or in the spirit of lust, the spirit of greed, the spirit of the world, really -- and none of them really comfort us.

Jesus, for His part, was quite uncomfortable when He looked over Jerusalem and said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! If only you knew what would make for peace" -- peace! comfort! -- "But you would have it not."

And what did Jesus do then? He wept. He mourned.

Do you remember the Beatitudes -- Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek and so on? ... One of the Beatitudes is "Blessed are they who mourn..."

Do you remember what Jesus promises those who mourn?

You will be comforted.

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Those who are comfortable in the world do not need The Comforter. 

But to those who carry the Cross for the sake of the world's salvation, for true peace, they will need the Comforter. We long for Him.

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So, I conclude where I began, with a question: What brings you comfort?

Pray now to receive the Holy Spirit once again, who renews us, who brings meaning to our suffering, who brings us peace. 

He is the Comforter, the Best.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.