St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

May 20, 2018 - Pentecost

For the last two weeks you’ve heard me preach about faith and discipleship.

Let me give you an example of both.

Margaret Haughery was born in Ireland, but lived most of her life in New Orleans.

By the time she was 23, Margaret’s parents, husband and infant daughter had died.

She was penniless, uneducated and alone.

She initially supported herself by doing others’ laundry, but eventually bought a cow, and peddled the milk door to door.

That cow was the beginning of a dairy, which she then sold to buy a bankrupt bakery.

She made the bakery enormously successful.

The penniless orphan made a fortune - and gave almost all of it away.

 

A devout Catholic, Margaret lived very simply above her bakery.

Known as the “mother of orphans” she gave away vast sums of money to feed the poor, while founding orphanages and homes for widows from all backgrounds.

Margaret’s wisdom was proverbial.

Seated at the entrance of her famous bakery, people from all ranks of New Orleans society sought her advice.

When she died in 1882, she received a state funeral, and all New Orleans mourned.

What I find most moving about Margaret’s story is that the plain but remarkable social entrepreneur did all this without ever learning to read or write.

Margaret Haughery is a wonderful example of what theologian A.D. Lindsay said, “The difference between ordinary people and saints is not that saints fulfill the plain duties that ordinary people neglect. The things saints do have not usually occurred to ordinary people at all.”

 

The Holy Spirit works through disciples like an artist, giving us imagination and spontaneity and the ability create something new.  

The treasure of the church is not the art and architecture I saw in Rome last month.

It’s not brilliant works produced by philosophers or the discoveries of scientists.

It’s not even the nearly 700,000 Catholic institutions that serve countless human beings and try to point us to heaven.

All of these treasures are fruitborne by human beings, who, like Margaret Haughery, freely responded to and cooperated with the grace of God the Holy Spirit in their time and place.

The church’s treasure is our Margarets – Catholics who live in the Holy Spirit.

 

Each of us are called by God to be a fruit-bearer now, in this city of angels.

Bl. Cardinal John Henry Newman knew this fruitfulness benefits the one who bears the fruit, too.

He said, “God has determined that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness. He looks on me individually, He calls me by my name, He knows what I can do, what I can best be, what is my greatest happiness, and He means to give it me.”

Our call begins with faith, in our relationship with Christ who calls us to holiness - to be the best version of ourselves.

When we say yes to that call, we’ll begin to find that happiness Newman described.

You already have clues to that call.

They are the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to you at baptism.

The same Spirit who drove the fear from the apostles on the day of Pentecost and blew them out into the streets of Jerusalem to proclaim Jesus risen from the grave.

The same creating Spirit Jesus breathed upon the disciples on the day of resurrection – giving them the power to continue his earthly ministry.

 

St. Paul called these gifts of the Spirit charisms.

In his first letter to the Corinthians we heard him say, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service that those gifts make possible, but the same Lord…

To each individualthe manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit to others and to the Church.”

Some charisms help us to nurture and care for others; some bring about healing – even miraculous healing; some lead people to create great art, music or literature; others enable individuals to understand the world around us, or communicate truth, or make organizations work effectively.

They are not just for saints, and they are still given to us today, as on the day of Pentecost.

If we do not see them, it is because of our lack of faith and discipleship.

 

You have received a few charisms for the sake of others you’ll meet in your life. 

Because all the things Jesus did in his ministry – even the miracles - he desires us, his Body, to continue to do together.

He says in John 14, “whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.”

Your satisfaction, purpose, and the greatness God calls you to are found onlyin bearing the fruit that God intends through the charisms you have. 

St. John Paul II, wrote, “…God with his call reaches the heart of each individual, and the Spirit, who abides deep within each disciple (cf. 1 Jn. 3:24), gives himself to each Christian with different charisms and special signs. Each one, therefore, must be helped to embrace the gift entrusted to him or her as a completely unique person, and to hear the words which the Spirit of God personally addresses to him.” I Will Give You Shepherds, 40 

 

Margaret Haughery, a simple Irish woman living thousands of miles from her homeland heard the call of Jesus.

You can, too.  

Here’s a simple way to begin.

1) Start by considering what you do that helps others – directly or indirectly – that you usually enjoy doing – it might energize you a lot, even.

It doesn’t have to be specifically religious, but it has to help others.

Gambling at Vegas wouldn’t count – unless you use your winnings to support an organization that does something good.

2) Consider the results you observe from that activity; 

Charisms are supernatural. They produce fruit beyond what we could on our own.

Oftentimes the fruit is something that happens withinanother person, so

3) Pay attention to the feedback people give you. What do they say about that activity and its effect on them?  Are you surprised by how positive they are?

Don’t blow off feedback you think is excessively positive.

The Holy Spirit may have used what you did and supernaturally added to its effect.

 

The last two weeks I’ve asked you if you have faith, and if you are a disciple.

The Holy Spirit has been given to us at baptism, along with His gifts, the charisms.

There is no question about that.

I pray every day that those gifts be released as our faith comes alive and we intentionally follow Jesus as His disciples.

Then individually, and together as a parish, we will fulfill the mission Jesus gives us: to make disciples of all nations, and to set the world on fire with the Holy Spirit.