On Friday, we celebrated the Memorial of St. Philip Neri, who has become one of my favorite saints over the last couple of years. He is well known for his humor and cheerfulness, his gifted spiritual direction, and his habit of making a fool of himself for humility’s sake. On one occasion, he even shaved off half of his beard just to ridicule himself. He also kept a little dog that was a more than a bit challenging to deal with. He would even assign walking that dog as a penance for young men struggling with arrogance, to edify and humble them. (So, if you ever go to confession with me and I give you the penance of walking Lincoln, you’ll know where I got the idea.)

Why am I mentioning St. Philip Neri on Pentecost Sunday? There is a story about St. Philip that is particularly poignant for today.

On Pentecost Sunday in 1544, St. Philip was praying in the catacombs in Rome, something that he occasionally did during his time in the Eternal City after his conversion. As he was praying, a ball of fire entered his mouth and lodged in his chest. When he regained his senses, he found that the left side of his chest was a bit swollen, something that would remain with him for the rest of his life. In the years that followed, up until his death, when he was deep in prayer or administering the sacraments, his heart would beat so violently that others could hear it. After his death, the autopsy revealed that several of his ribs were cracked because of an enlarged heart.

Now, most of us probably won’t have a ball of fire enter our hearts and enlarge them in a moment of prayer today. (If it does happen, that would be pretty awesome…be sure to tell me about it.) But what this story shows us is actually what the Holy Spirit does to us, although usually not in a physical way. In the moment that we receive Him in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, every time we sit down to pray with the Lord, when we read Scripture, or when we receive the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit uses those as opportunities to bring about new life within us.

The readings for today echo this theme of the Holy Spirit being transformative and ushering in new life. In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about the first Pentecost, when the Apostles experienced something like what St. Philip Neri experienced. As they were hiding in the Upper Room, suddenly tongues of fire appeared over their heads and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately after, we’re told that the Apostles began speaking in various tongues, in many different languages and they were given, not only the ability, but also the desire to go out and bring the Good News to others, to share with others the incredible and mighty acts of God.

In the Gospel, we are told that the Risen Christ breathes on the Apostles and gives them the Holy Spirit, a significant gesture that connects us back to the very beginning of the book of Genesis, when it says that at the moment of creation the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth – and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters” (Gen 1:1-2). In Hebrew, the word for Spirit is Ruah, which means breath. So as Jesus breathes on the Apostles, giving them the Holy Spirit, it is an act of recreating, a moment of renewal; He is bringing the Apostles to new life. The Lord is transforming them, He’s taking the fear and anxiety, the shame, the uncertainty that they have been experiencing in the days following the Crucifixion and filling them with passion, joy, and fearlessness to go out and share about the Risen Christ.

You might remember the end of the Gospel from last weekend, where Jesus instructed His Apostles to: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). It is through the reception of the Spirit on that first Pentecost that the Apostles and many other disciples were given the strength and the courage to follow that command of the Lord. It was the Holy Spirit who filled the Apostles with the gifts to be able to step into that role as evangelizers. It is the Holy Spirit who led the Apostles and guided them to the various regions of the Middle East and beyond to share the Good News. It was the Holy Spirit who enabled them to perform many miracles, to work wonders, to bring healing and restoration to the lives of those who walked in darkness. It is the Holy Spirit who brought renewal to the face of the earth, as we hear in our Responsorial Psalm.

The Holy Spirit did not just act in this one occasion two thousand years ago. He continues to be present and active in our world today. He continues to lead us, guiding us to strive to follow the commands of the Lord. He continues to pour out His gifts into our hearts so that we can go out and share the Gospel with others. He continues to fill our hearts with a desire for deeper relationship with the Father. He continues to renew the face of the earth.

Our world today is in need of renewal; it is desperately in need of a revival. We all know that. We all see it. We see just how much evil is taking place. So many of our brothers and sisters are being swept away by the winds of a culture that are leading to spiritual death. We are being taught that it’s okay to do whatever we want, as long as it makes us happy, that there are no consequences to actions that hurt other people. Christian values are being shunned in so many aspects of society. We’re being told to keep our “outdated beliefs” to ourselves, that we can’t impose those beliefs on the world. Nevemind the fact that those who are telling us that are imposing their own beliefs on us.

Even for those who still identify with being Catholic, the picture can seem pretty bleak. Attendance at Mass is plummeting, many Catholics are not publicly living their faith, priestly and religious vocations are at an all-time low, and so many Catholics are leaving the Church. Not to mention, that now infamous Pew Research Study that found 69% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist – they don’t believe that the bread and wine are transformed into the very Body and Blood of Jesus at Mass. That should make us all pause and have serious concern for the future of the Church.

Not only does our world need revival, but so does our Church. We are dying! We need rejuvenation. We need a new Pentecost! We need to come alive! But it’s gotta start with us! Because we cannot go out and renew the face of the earth without being renewed and re-created ourselves.

Just as the Lord did with St. Philip Neri and just as He did with the Apostles, He wants to breathe into us a new spirit. He wants to give us new life. He wants our faith to come alive in such a way that it brings real change to the world. He wants to put within each of our hearts a boldness to go out and proclaim the Good News and to bring about the conversion of others simply because of how we live our faith. He wants us to go out and bring others to life.

Today, right here, right now, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to speak the Words of God into our lives and into the lives of others. Let us ask for an outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit, that our minds may be renewed so we may know when the Spirit is speaking to us, that we may be certain of what He is asking us to do, and to have the courage to follow His promptings. We need to be bold in proclaiming the Gospel, we need to be bold in believing that the Holy Spirit is going to do incredible things through us. Let’s ask for that grace, that the Holy Spirit may fill this place with the fullness of His power, to shake this building so that we know He is present, and to breathe new breath into our lives. Let’s ask for revival today; let’s ask for the grace to be brought to new life.

“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.”

Photo: The Holy Spirit. Stained glass window (detail) in Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Annacloy Road, Teconnaught/Annacloy, County Down, Northern Ireland. Taken September 2010. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.