Our People

WORLD YOUTH DAY CATECHESIS

Given on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday of WYD Week

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
20/7/2008

1. Called to Live in the Holy Spirit

My brothers and sisters, we begin today the first of three reflections on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of each of us and the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

The themes for each of the catecheses are:

1. Called to live in the Holy Spirit
2. The Holy Spirit, soul of the Church
3. Sent out into the world: the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of mission
    

These themes are chosen because they enable us to “unpack” the theme chosen by Pope Benedict for this the 23rd World Youth Day. You know the theme well: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses” – Acts 1,8.

Today, then, we will commence by a consideration of the role of the Holy Spirit in our own lives, as we are “called to live in the Holy Spirit”.

Dry Bones

I would like to begin by referring to a stirring vision given to the Prophet Ezekiel, and found in chapter 37 of his book. This text was used in the Opening Mass yesterday and commented upon by Cardinal Pell. It is good for us to return to the powerful vision given to the Prophet Ezekiel and consider it again in the light of the theme of the WYD.

We can recall the story.

It describes the people as being like dry bones. They complain, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off". Do we feel this at times? We are dried up. We are empty inside. We have lost direction. Life seems purposeless. There is a hollow feeling inside?

The story tells us that God looks out upon us and sees the dryness of our lives. He wants to give new life to us, as he did to those bones.

How does he do this? He breathes his spirit into them, and they come to life. The Lord says, “I will put my spirit in you that you may live”.

This is what the Lord wants to do for each one of us. In a particular way this is what the Lord wants to do to each of us attending the WYD here in Sydney. He wants to breathe his spirit, his Holy Spirit, into us that we might live in a new and enriched way.

I am sure we all know the story of Pentecost. Jesus had told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were “clothed with power from on high”. The coming of the Holy Spirit wonderfully transformed these frightened men into bold witnesses to their faith.

St Peter testified so strongly to his faith that the people listening to him said, “What must we do?” Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Repentance and Submission

My brothers and sisters, the words of St Peter are important for us. The way to receive the Holy Spirit is firstly to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus. We may say: we have done this haven’t we? We are all baptised Catholics. We have been to the Sacrament of Reconciliation at different times? We have indeed! But let us look a little more deeply at what St Peter is saying.

Repentance means that we honestly face our own sinfulness. We look into the depths of ourselves and see that we are far from God. A true repentance is that of the publican in the temple who knelt right at the back and humbly said, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. Such a repentance means that our hearts are open and surrendered to God. It is not just owning up to a few small sins – or even some big sins – but knowing within ourselves that we are far from God. We are sinners! We know that left to ourselves we have fallen far short of what we should be.

And when St Peter says that his hearers should be baptised in the name of Jesus we can understand that to be a baptised Catholic means that we submit our lives fully to Jesus. We don’t only believe in Him as the Son of God, but we realise that he and only he can save us. Remember when St Peter tried to walk on water and began to sink and cried out to Jesus to help him. Jesus reached out his hand, saying at the same time “you man of little faith”. We need to reach out to Jesus as the only one who can save us. With all our faith we entrust ourselves and our lives to him. This is an act of surrender. Hard to do, but a true expression of who Jesus is and who we are. We want to put our lives in his hands.

A repentant heart and a submitted will provide the ground for God to breathe new life – his life! – into us. And we will live!

Gifts and Fruits 

The writings of the apostolic church are full of references to the Holy Spirit. The first Christians were so aware of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They saw wonderful manifestations of the Holy Spirit as they went about living and proclaiming their faith.

St Paul speaks of spiritual gifts evident among the Christians at Corinth. Members of the community had spiritual gifts that enabled them to preach with great power. Some were able to pray for people to be healed and they were. He speaks of gifts of tongues and prophesy. These were clearly all present among the Corinthian Christians.

St Paul recognises that these spiritual gifts are intended for the spiritual growth of the community.

He also speaks of how the Holy Spirit produces certain fruits in those whose lives the Spirit influences. He gives a list of such fruits in his letter to the Galatians - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  

Fruits grow on trees as a result of what sort of tree they are. An apple tree will produce apples. Thus, a person who lives in the Holy Spirit, will produce the fruits which are those of the Spirit. 

It is not as though the Christian has to rely solely upon himself to grow in virtue. Growing in goodness is not just a result of determined self will – “I will be patient, if it kills me!” The wonder of the Christian life is that God wants us to flourish in virtue simply be letting the Holy Spirit produce these good fruits.  

Enlightening of the Mind 

I am sure you all recall what you learnt when you were confirmed. There the bishop invoked the Holy Spirit upon us and prayed specifically for the seven gifts. Do you remember them? They are found in the writings of the Prophet Isaiah. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage, right judgement, reverence and awe. 

It is worth noting these gifts: wisdom, knowledge, understanding, right judgement. These are gifts of the mind. They remind us that the Holy Spirit acts in our minds, enlightening us.  

In telling his disciples about the intention of sending the Holy Spirit upon them when he taken from them, he spoke of the “Spirit of Truth”. The spirit would lead them into all truth. The Holy Spirit works in our minds guiding us and revealing the truth to us. How much we need this today in the midst of such complex issues and conflicting ideas! 

My brothers and sisters, how much do we need the Holy Spirit! And how much does God wish us to have the consolation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

We are like those dry bones. At times we can feel that hope is gone. Let us turn to God who promised not to leave the dry bones abandoned, but said he would breathe his Holy Spirit upon them. Let us in these days turn to God with great sincerity of heart and ask for this wonderful gift. 

Open to the Holy Spirit 

The World Youth Day is a special moment of grace for each of us. God will do great things in us during these days. Let us be open and expectant. Let us turn to the Lord God and pray to Him. Let us ask him to grant us this wonderful gift – the gift of the Holy Spirit – is a fresh and new way.  

Let us pray: 

Lord, we come before you. We are nothing without you. We need you. We freely acknowledge that we have sinned against you. We offer ourselves to us through your Son, Jesus. Send your Holy Spirit into our hearts and make us live.

2. The Holy Spirit, Soul of the Church

We continue today our reflection on the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Church. Today’s theme is – “the Holy Spirit, soul of the Church”. 

When we think of the Holy Spirit what image comes to mind? How do we see the Holy Spirit in our lives? 

One image of the Holy Spirit is that of wind. It is interesting to note that at Pentecost as the Holy Spirit came there was the sound of a rush of wind. Wind accompanied the coming of the Spirit. 

When Jesus imparted the Spirit on his disciples to give them the power to forgive sins, St John tells us that Jesus “breathed on them”. Jesus breathed on them – again the idea of wind is referred to.  

The word for wind in Hebrew is ruah. It is also the word for breath.  

Let us for a moment consider this image of the Holy Spirit.  

The Spirit as wind  

We cannot see the wind. It is invisible. Yet the wind is real. We can tell that the wind is blowing by the effects that it has.  

So too the Spirit. We cannot see the Holy Spirit, yet the Spirit is real. The way we can tell that the Spirit is active is by the effects that the Spirit has. We notice the profound effects of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on the disciples.  They were extraordinarily changed. They were filled with new courage and confidence.  

The Scriptures talk of the gifts – the seven gifts we speak about at Confirmation - and fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so on. A person who opens their life to the Spirit can experience real ways in which the Spirit works within them. 

When we think about the wind we can note that it can be either strong or gentle. So the Spirit can work in powerful and evident ways, or the Spirit can be subtle and unnoticeable in its influence. It is true that we often do not realise that the Spirit is at work, but it is! 

Jesus taught that the Spirit blows where he wills. This is another aspect of the wonderful mystery of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives and the life of the Church. We never know what the Spirit will do next!

We hear people speak about the “surprises of the Spirit”. The Lord speaks about God acting at a time we do not expect! 

Spirit as breath 

Without breath we have no life! Every moment of our lives we are breathing in and out. It goes on so consistently that we do not notice, except when we run or exert ourselves and are gasping for breath. So the Spirit of God breathes in us. The Spirit is active but we are not conscious of his activity. It is steady and life-giving. For instance, St Paul teaches that we could not have faith but that the Spirit moves in us! We are sustained in our inner spiritual life by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  

We can speak of the Holy Spirit as the essence of our inner spiritual life. We can know God because the Holy Spirit is at work in us. We pray because the Holy Spirit moves us to pray. Again, St Paul speaks about the notion of the Holy Spirit coming to help us when we do not know how to pray.  

When we read the Scriptures we do not just read with our minds – in the process of understanding from a human point of view. We are listening for the Word of God speaking to our hearts. We can hear the Word of God speaking to us in Scripture because the Holy Spirit gives us the capacity to hear in the depths of our soul.  

In short the Holy Spirit enables us to live at a spiritual level. The Holy Spirit breathes life into our soul.  

Soul of the Church 

Have you ever considered how it is that the Catholic Church has continued to exist and grow for over 2000 years? Many great empires have come and gone over this time, yet the Church has persisted. Not only has it survived and it seems that in every age there is a new freshness and life. The Church is not old and decrepit, but always has a new vitality for every age and every new challenge.  

The Church is not just a human institution. The Church cannot be explained as a cleverly run organisation with really smart people able to make it continually relevant and successful.  

The Church is what it is because of the fresh life of the Spirit at work in its midst. This is what gives the Church an amazing youthfulness and vigour, particularly at times when one would think that it could not survive.  

The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. The Spirit is at work in every age in wonderful and unexpected ways. The history of the Church reveals extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit.  

The Church began because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost. Despite being with Jesus for three years and even witnessing him risen from the dead it is evident that the disciples lacked the confidence to carry out the great commission of the Lord to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. They needed the Spirit. They needed to be clothed with power from on high! 

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses” – our theme for this WYD – has been realised in the Church at Pentecost and continues to be realised throughout the long history of the Church.  

I believe it is true that without Pentecost there would be no Church. It is equally true that without the action of the Holy Spirit today in the Church we would be unable to carry out our mission in the world.  

Signs of the Spirit 

How can we recognise the presence and activity of the Spirit in the Church? 

One of the fascinating aspects of the history of the Church is the periodic emergence of movements of renewal.  

As the age of martyrs was coming to a close, the spirit moved in the hearts of thousands of Catholics to withdraw into the desert. Firstly in Egypt and the Middle East and later in Europe, an extraordinary movement of monasticism was born. This movement preserved the Church during the dark ages that followed.  

When the Church seemed to have lost its way in the middle ages, the spirit moved in the life of young Francis of Assisi and an extraordinary movement founded in poverty and preaching emerged.  

In the difficult times of the reformation, we see the Spirit inspiring Teresa of Avila to seek the heights of contemplative life, and a new spiritual vitality came to the Church. The Spirit raised up young Ignatius of Loyola to found a new order – the Jesuits – who spearheaded a renewed Catholic life. 

In our own times, we are seeing the emergence of many new movements principally attracting young people to a deeply committed Christian life. The WYD is itself a wonderful manifestation of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church.  

The Spirit is the soul of the Church and the source of its ever youthfulness and vigour. In times of special need the Spirit comes to the aid of the Church.  

Life in the Spirit 

To be a Catholic is not just to belong to an organisation or to have some sort of tribal loyalty to the Church. To be a Catholic is to live a life in the Holy Spirit.  

We receive the Holy Spirit through the sacraments, especially we identify the key role of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. It is as though God has lit a small fire within us. This is the fire of faith. It is the fire of love.  

You know that a fire to grow strong needs to be fanned. St Paul used this image in speaking to Timothy when he told him to “fan into a flame” the gift God gave him when he was baptised.  

So too for us. We need to fan this fire of the Holy Spirit into a bright and burning flame. We need to let the Spirit become a strong and driving force within us.  

The Church needs men and women alive in the Holy Spirit. God wants to do great things in his Church today. He will endow those who seek to serve his mission with the outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit.  

My brothers and sisters – you will receive power from the Holy Spirit and you will be witnesses to Christ in the world. 

3. Sent out into the world: the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of mission

We come to our final catechesis. You might recall the themes of the two earlier talks on the Holy Spirit in the Christian life:

• Called to live in the Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit, soul of the Church
   

On this final morning of catechesis the theme is:

• Sent out into the world: the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of mission
   

The Great Commission

At his Ascension the Lord gave the Great Commission to his disciples: “Go out to all the world and proclaim the gospel to all creatures, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you”.

The Lord Jesus had completed his mission. He was about to ascend to his Father, and he entrusted his mission to his apostles and called on them to take the message “to the ends of the earth”.

But he told them that first they were to go back to Jerusalem and wait. “wait till you are clothed with power from on high”. We know this instruction from another time, given in Acts 1,8, when Jesus said to his disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses”.

In the mind of Jesus it is clear that the disciples were to wait for the coming of the Spirit before they were to commence their great mission. I believe it is clear that Jesus knew that the disciples – despite having been with him for three years and witnessing his miracles and inspiring teaching – were not yet capable of carrying out his command to them. He knew that they lacked the courage and the zeal to be able to do this work. We can see how they ran away when Jesus was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane; we note Peter’s betrayal when challenged by a woman in the High Priest’s house; St John tells us that they locked the room where they were meeting “for fear of the Jews”.

They were frightened and uncertain men. They needed the power of the Spirit. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost wonderfully transformed them. Peter went and opened the doors of the house and addressed the great crowd that had gathered below. “I want to tell you about this man Jesus whom you crucified, he is risen from the dead. He is both Lord and Christ”. He went on to explain the whole plan and purpose of God in the sending of his Son.

St Luke tells us that the people were “cut to the heart”, and that day three thousand were baptised. Thus the Church was born. I believe it is true that if the Holy Spirit had not come upon the Apostles we would be not here today. Indeed the Church in every age could not have managed without the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

Our need for the Spirit

My brothers and sisters, let us look at ourselves. We believe in Jesus. We have been baptised and are members of the Church. Yet is it not true that we often find ourselves embarrassed and incapable to witness to our faith?

We prefer not to let people know we are Catholic. We are shy to admit that we go to Mass on Sundays. Among our friends we don’t want to stand out and be different. We sometimes go along with things that we know are not right rather than challenge what people want to do.

We know we daily compromise ourselves. We feel our own lack of courage.

We need the Spirit to come to us as it came to the Apostles so that we might be transformed into people of strength of conviction and zealous for God. We need a personal Pentecost!

Teaching of Pope Paul VI 

If we are to be the witnesses to the truth of the Gospel and the Christian life, we need the Holy Spirit. Pope Paul VI wrote a great encyclical on the centrality of evangelisation for the Church. He said that evangelisation – or proclaiming the Gospel - is the “grace and vocation proper to the Church”. He said very challengingly – “the Church exists in order to evangelise”. [1] 

These words are a great challenge to us. We, as Catholics, exist in order to evangelise. In other words we have a responsibility to witness to the world about our faith. We cannot then be simply private or silent believers! Nor can we simply see that this is the job of the priests or religious. If I am a believer I have a responsibility to witness to my faith.

This may seem just too much for us. And indeed it is!

This is where the Holy Spirit comes in.

Listen to the words of Pope Paul VI in his great encyclical on evangelisation, Evangelii Nuntiandi,

It must be said that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization: it is He who impels each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is He who in the depths of consciences causes the word of salvation to be accepted and understood.

In other words we experience something within us that impels us to proclaim our faith. Have you experienced this? You get a stirring within to speak out what you believe – this is the Holy Spirit.

Pope Paul went on to say that the result that God achieves through evangelisation is the fact that the Holy Spirit now dwells in the heart of the new believer.

It can equally be said that He [the Holy Spirit] is the goal of evangelization: He alone stirs up the new creation, the new humanity of which evangelization is to be the result.

Yes it is true that someone who comes to believe now has the Holy Spirit within them, and the Spirit is giving them new life!

The Holy Spirit is the “principal agent” in evangelisation. It is the Spirit who gives us the words to speak and it is the Holy Spirit does stir in the heart of the believer and who moves in the heart of the unbeliever that prompts them to respond.

Evangelisation is not just a human exercise. We do not have to rely upon ourselves to find the words or to be able to present the arguments. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us.

In the end evangelisation is a work of the Holy Spirit. We are simply the instruments he uses.  

The Pope made an interesting observation when speaking of the Holy Spirit in evangelisation.

We live in the Church at a privileged moment of the Spirit. Everywhere people are trying to know Him better, as the Scripture reveals Him. They are happy to place themselves under His inspiration. They are gathering about Him; they want to let themselves be led by Him. Now if the Spirit of God has a preeminent place in the whole life of the Church, it is in her evangelizing mission that He is most active. It is not by chance that the great inauguration of evangelization took place on the morning of Pentecost, under the inspiration of the Spirit.[2]

We live in a privileged moment of the Spirit! There are many signs of the presence of the Spirit in the Church today. The emergence of so many new movements is a clear sign that the Spirit is active in the Church. These movements (and we are witnessing their presence at WYD) have as their foundation of re-discovery of the beauty and power of the Christian life. Those in these movements desire to live an authentic Christian life and are impelled to give witness to the Christian message to the world around them. These movements are at the forefront of evangelisation in the world today. 

The Pope was very prophetic back in 1975. What he spoke about then has come true. 

What we see – as we are seeing in these days – is joy and hope and love. These are authentic signs of the Spirit – they are the fruits of the Spirit as St Paul teaches in his letter to the Galatians. We have a message to offer our generation, and it is this: life and hope are found in a faith in Jesus Christ! If you are searching for happiness in life you will find it in Jesus Christ! 

World Youth Day 

We have come together from so many different countries. So many different cultures! So many different backgrounds! Yet we have experienced an extraordinary unity. No matter what our background we are one in our faith in Jesus Christ and our belonging to his body, the Church.  

While alone we can be intimidated and embarrassed, here during this week we are filled with confidence and joy. We can take this with us as we go forth from WYD. We can be witnesses! The Holy Spirit will give us the joy and courage to proclaim with our lives and our words that the Christian faith realised in the Catholic Church is the great hope for the world. 

Let each of us hear the words chosen by Pope Benedict for our meeting together in Sydney: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses.” 

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[1] Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 14.

[2] Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 75.