Real Life Disciples: A new Pentecost

In his new pastoral letter released this past January, Archbishop Coakley said, “Since my installation as archbishop nearly eight years ago, I have not ceased praying for a new Pentecost leading to a New Evangelization in Oklahoma. I am convinced of the crucial role the Holy Spirit plays in assisting in the work of evangelization and the life of every disciple. It is my prayer that each one of us will more fully embrace a relationship with the third person of the Trinity and will be blessed with a fuller outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives.”

In the latest issue of the Sooner Catholic, Archbishop Coakley called for us to join him in praying a special novena to the Holy Spirit during the nine days leading up to the Feast of Pentecost, starting May 31. You can join him with prayers in English, Spanish and Vietnamese at archokc.org/pray.

This call for a new Pentecost is not something new. It is something that many popes have called for and prayed for. Pope John XXIII implored the whole Church to pray in preparation for the second Vatican Council, asking God to send us a “new Pentecost.” And, Saint John Paul II said, “We would do well to consider whether the Church today has sufficiently taken into account this link between Pentecost and evangelization. … It is common to presume that since the first Pentecost the Church enjoys the fullness of the Spirit and can get on with the job of proclaiming the Gospel. But, a fresh outpouring of power from on high is as necessary today as it was in the early Church. To take the New Testament witness seriously is to conclude that there can be no New Evangelization without a new Pentecost.”
 
To understand what is meant by a new Pentecost, it might be helpful to look back at what happened at the first Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit for the apostles meant the end of fearful hiding. They were gathered in the upper room after the crucifixion, fearing for their lives.

There were many gathered in Jerusalem at that time, people from “every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). When the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, the apostles all started speaking in different tongues. The crowd heard and understood what they were saying in their native tongue. Then, Peter stood up to proclaim the Gospel and to testify to Jesus crucified (Acts 2:14-40).  His words cut to the heart, and about 3,000 people were added to the Church that day.

One of the principal gifts of Pentecost is conversion. The Holy Spirit is given for evangelization and for conversion of heart. Do we not need that same power, the same action of the Spirit today? We desperately need a new movement of the Holy Spirit in the Church, a new outpouring, a new spiritual ardor capable of penetrating hearts that have become hard and cold, including our own.

In our archdiocese, many good things are happening. We are in the midst of the canonization process of one of our own, Blessed Stanley Rother, with many people still riding the wave of grace from the huge Beatification event. We are nearing the end of a very successful capital campaign, “One Church, Many Disciples” and we are nearing the completion of our pastoral planning process called Vision 2030.

There is much to be excited about and much that stirs the spiritual ardor that Saint John Paul II speaks of when he talks about the New Evangelization. But, we know from experience that human ardor tends to wane. Merely human means will never prove sufficient in carrying out a New Evangelization. We need something more.

Pope Benedict XVI, during a meditation at the Synod on the New Evangelization, made a similar observation.

“The Church does not begin with our ‘making,’ but with the ‘making’ and ‘speaking’ of God. In the same way, the apostles did not say, after a few meetings: ‘Now we want to make a Church,’ and that by means of a constituent assembly they were going to draft a constitution. No, they prayed and in prayer they waited, because they knew that only God himself can create his Church, that God is the first agent: if God does not act, our things are only ours and are insufficient; only God can testify that it is he who speaks and has spoken. Pentecost is the condition of the birth of the Church: only because God acted first, the apostles are able to act with him and make what he does present.”

As we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost this weekend (June 9), let’s join the archbishop in praying for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our archdiocese. This is a unique time for us, one in which the Lord is opening a door for mission.

Pray to the Lord for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the work of this New Evangelization throughout our archdiocese. I invite you to prayerfully recommit your life, your family and your work to the Lord, and be open to ways he is calling you to participate in this mission.