The Feast of Pentecost

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

I think that as long as I live, I will remember the Feast of Pentecost in the Year 2020. I don’t particularly remember Mass that day — it was another “livestreamed” Mass, celebrated in front of an iPhone in an empty Church. I believe it was the beginning of the 11th week of the lockdown and the 70th consecutive day of livestreamed Masses. What I do remember so vividly is that afternoon, sitting outside on the porch of the rectory of St. Michael Parish in Brooklyn with the two other priests I lived with (one retired, one recently arrived from the Dominican Republic), there was an iPad on the table and we were having our first ever Zoom parish council meeting.

As the meeting began, all the group leaders, members of the Parish Council, eventually logged in. With the priests and parish staff, we were about 20 participants in total. It was the first time we had all been together as a group since the pandemic had begun. It was so hard and so sad to hear from one group leader after another telling us who had died and who was sick, about those who were afraid to go to the hospital and their family members who were trying to care for them at home. In the midst of the sadness, there was faith, hope, and love. We heard from the group leaders about the ways they were keeping in contact and praying with members of their groups. We heard (repeatedly), “Thank you for the livestream Masses, we and all our families are watching every day and it is giving us so much hope.” We heard about online Catechism, RCIA, Bible study, and faith sharing groups. Then we got to work, discussing the amount of families who were short on food and how we may be able to help them.

We had not planned to have the parish council meeting on Pentecost. Like so much else in those days and weeks, we were just trying to figure things out day by day. It just so happened that about 10 days or two weeks prior, with the director of religious education and youth minister, we decided we should try to set up a Zoom meeting and “a week from Sunday” seemed to be the best time. In the course of that meeting, I realized how appropriate it was to have that meeting on Pentecost because this was the Church in action at her best, united, guided, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, striving to be the disciples that Jesus was calling us to be.

By the time of that meeting, I had known for almost two months that I would be leaving that parish to become the Bishop of Paterson. What I did not know at that time was that I would be leaving a parish community that was (and is) on fire with faith to come to know a new Diocesan Church that was and is truly on fire with faith. I have shared in previous columns the ways in which the Church of the Diocese of Paterson has stepped up and answered the call in the toughest of times during the past year. As we look forward to celebrating the great Feast of Pentecost in this Year of 2021, I just want to encourage us all to ask in prayer that the gifts of the Holy Spirit would “fill our hearts and enkindle in (each of) us the Fire of Your Love.”

I will always remember that amazing Zoom parish council meeting last year because it was a moment when the presence of the Holy Spirit, guiding the Church, the community of believers, was so powerfully with us. As I look forward to celebrating my “First Pentecost” as Bishop, I have been experiencing that same, powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in a (slightly) different way this year. In these seven weeks of the Easter season, I have had the privilege of celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation in 35 parishes. It is a joyful and humbling privilege to be the minister of this beautiful Sacrament through which we receive the “Seven-fold” Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I wanted to share my experience of Pentecost last year and this year for another reason. I will always remember the priests, staff, and parish leaders from St. Michael’s, not only because they attended that parish council meeting, but also because they were filled with the gifts of the Spirit as they faithfully led, served, and ministered to the parish community, day by day, month by month, year by year, in “good times and bad.” After visiting so many parishes these past seven weeks, as well as in the past 10 months, I am now more aware of all those who so faithfully serve, lead, and minister in the parishes of our Diocese. As we approach and celebrate Pentecost, I would like to especially thank and recognize all those who prepare our young people and adults for the Sacrament of Confirmation (and all the Sacraments).

While I go from parish to parish, I am more and more aware of those who allow the pastor or other parish leader to present the candidates to me and testify that they “are well prepared to receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.” We know that the preparation usually begins with the “first catechists,” a child’s parents. From Baptism, through First Penance and First Holy Communion, to Confirmation, we see the ways in which parents, godparents/sponsors, grandparents, and other family members share with their parish in this responsibility to pass on the faith. On behalf of our Diocese, I wish to thank the priests, religious, catechists, youth ministers, and other parish leaders, staff and volunteers, who prepare, educate, and inspire all those who become “fully-initiated” members of Christ’s “Mystical Body,” the Church, and continue to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, enkindle in them the Fire of Your Love.