and the beginning of everything else.
Fifty days ago, we celebrated Jesus rising from the grave,
after giving his life on the Cross for us.
Fifty days to realize: Jesus has made me brand new!
In the sacrament of confirmation, the bishop says,
“Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
A “seal” is placed on a document, certifying that it is authentic.
You and I are sealed with the Holy Spirit –
meaning we are authentic ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
The seal of the Holy Spirit means you and I are ready. For what?
To do what the psalm describes: “renew the face of the earth.”
(Last night at the Vigil Mass, the readings were different;
we heard the story of the City and Tower of Babel.)
The City of Babel fell apart because
their task had nothing to do with God.
They were impressed with their mighty tower;
yet God had to “come down” in order to see it!
Not so impressive after all.
So much of our world is exactly like this.
We are building things we think are impressive, but leaving God out.
It will all come tumbling down.
Today, a terrible confusion is spreading in our society
about the most basic things, such as what it means to be a human being.
We hear about lawsuits because a boy wants to be a girl
and the legal system and schools and everything else
gets twisted up like a pretzel over all this.
Just another Tower of Babel. It will all come tumbling down.
More broadly, there’s so much anger being built up.
You see it everywhere. People bite each other’s heads off on Facebook.
If you turn on the TV, fury pours out hour upon hour.
It will all come tumbling down.
And then what? My task, your task,
is to be instruments of the Holy Spirit,
“to renew the face of the earth.”
What can you and I do?
Well, let’s start with what not to do.
It’s easy to laugh or shake our heads.
It’s also easy just to turn away.
But take the “transgender” phenomenon.
There is a lot of hurt and pain. This is real.
So many of us are at a loss as to how to respond.
But we can’t lie to people; we can’t pretend to call a lie the truth.
That’s the easy way out, not the loving way.
Here’s something no one wants to talk about,
but if you do some further reading,
you’ll discover that when individuals
go through this process of “transitioning” – even having operations –
so much of the hurt remains. Many end up in a much worse place.
It’s like when people have troubles and they drink.
At best, all that does is kick the can down the road.
So, when someone you know is in trouble, you may not know what to say.
And if you are faithful to the truth,
your words may not be very welcome.
But may I suggest that the very first thing is to pray
That you will act always with love –
meaning, putting that person’s interests first.
One of the most important things we can do
is to let people know that they are infinitely more important
than any struggle or sin or weakness.
Love sees and reaches past the differences,
to the person God created and died on the Cross for.
This takes courage. But first it takes a realization:
I can’t just let someone else do this.
Look around: there clearly aren’t enough “someone elses”
doing the things needed to renew the face of this earth.
So it’s on me. I have to get up, and get to work,
bringing the Holy Spirit into the situations around me.
Let me mention another opportunity.
Later this month, on Friday, June 23,
we will have our second annual Men’s Prayer Walk.
As with last year, we did this as a way for the men of the parish
to step up and take some spiritual leadership.
The essential tasks of men are to guard, to give and to guide.
So with our Prayer Walk, we will, over several years,
walk the parish boundaries, praying for the protection of our parish,
for the needs of our parish.
There are a lot of places in the world that need our help –
but God didn’t send us there. He did put us right here.
So here’s how it’ll work. We’ll meet at 5:30 pm,
in the parking lot behind my house. Men and boys of all ages welcome.
You don’t have to be Catholic. If you can’t walk well, we’ll have rides.
Last year, some men met us at the starting point in their electric carts.
We’ll ride some hay wagons over to Russia-Houston Road and S.R. 48,
and walk along Russia-Houston to Dawson Road.
Yes, that’s over to Houston – because Houston is part of our parish,
and therefore, part of our spiritual responsibility.
Then we’ll get a ride back to the parish for a cookout and fellowship.
The Holy Spirit is poured out to renew the face of the earth.
God put us here, to renew this little portion of it. That’s our job.
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