Homily: May 4, 2024 Saturday of the fifth week of easter (Align to the Holy Spirit).

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“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith

and increased in number.”

This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities.

If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here?

Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth.

It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world?

Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit?

Yes, certainly! The churches in Asia and eastern parts of the world are still going strong in faith and growing in numbers. For as long as a single seed of faith still exists, there is still one priest who celebrates Mass and administer the sacraments, one family still holds on to the truth, there is hope! This is the sign that the Holy Spirit is still alive in the world.

Yes, the early churches were led solely and totally by the Holy Spirit. Both ordained leaders and the common faithful lived lives aligned to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We see in the same reading today that “When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them, so they crossed through Mysia and came down to Troas.” The apostles moved according to the lead and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s world depends on information, intelligence, analysis, logic and rationale to make conclusions, decisions, meaning and judgement. We organize and run church the same way, believing that clever strategies will grow the church communities.

I think the best way is the Holy Spirit’s way, to do what was done in apostolic era. Let us pray for a new experience of the first Pentecost in our diocese, our parish, our communities, and our families.

On this first Saturday of the month of May, let us imitate our Blessed Mother who lived fully in accordance to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, may we too align ourselves, our thoughts and wishes, our decisions and directions, as the Holy Spirit leads. Amen.


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