Every year we celebrate Pentecost – which we see as the birth of the church. We call it that because it was the day on which the first believers came alive in their faith, the day when the Rock upon which Christ planted his church began to support and uphold an incredible new life. But too often we mark it as a day, an event that happened to a group of 12 some 2,000 years ago and miss the fullness of what God has given us – we miss it because we fail to ask ourselves: “how has God gifted me in particular – as an individual..”

The Spirit has been and is being poured out upon us. The gift of God is just below the surface in our minds and hearts. Today in our midst, we hear the gospel in our own language, in our images, with our own metaphors, with our own ears. And ths Spirit directs our understanding of it – Some will leave Mass today encouraged to spend more time in praise and wonder to thank God for blessings, others at this Eucharist will hear that the power that they need for tomorrow’s trials and tribulations will come, still others will take heart – knowing that God is present to them at all times. Whatever it is – it is filled with God – and uniquely yours. But we have to be open to recognizing the gifts God has poured out upon us so that we might love and serve our God and our neighbor in the way He has intended especially for us. That is kind of what happened with Mr . Yates – someone helped him to see what lay beneath the surface – and he discovered that he was a rich man – and his life of poverty and desperation was transformed into a life of abundance and of generosity. He found what had always been there – and he used it – and it changed his life. That is what the Holy Spirit is about, what His gifts are about. They are there to be used in the work of God, a work to which we are all called, and which, when we all serve as we are intended – transforms us, our church, and our world – into what God intends us to be.