May 24, 2026 Homily: Fr. Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01You will remember on Holy night,
2. 0:05Holy Thursday night,
3. 0:08Peter stood in the courtyard of the high
4. 0:10priest warming his hands by a charcoal
5. 0:12fire.
6. 0:14And he looked like every frightened
7. 0:16human being in history.
8. 0:19A servant girl,
9. 0:21not a Roman soldier, not a member of the
10. 0:24Sanhedrin, a servant girl asks him,
11. 0:29"Were you not also with Jesus?"
12. 0:33And Peter, the rock, the leader of the
13. 0:3512, the man who had earlier
14. 0:39had sworn he would die before betraying
15. 0:42Jesus, looked her in the eyes and said,
16. 0:46"I do not know him."
17. 0:49Three times, three denials,
18. 0:53the crows.
19. 0:56Peter runs into the night and weeps.
20. 1:00Now, if we fast forward 50 days,
21. 1:03same Peter, same Jerusalem, same people,
22. 1:07same danger,
23. 1:08now he stands in the middle of the city
24. 1:11and opens his mouth.
25. 1:13He does not whisper, he does not
26. 1:15apologize, he does not soften the
27. 1:17message, he preaches.
28. 1:20And he preaches to thousands.
29. 1:23He tells them that Jesus Christ is
30. 1:25risen.
31. 1:27He tells them to repent.
32. 1:29He tells them to be baptized.
33. 1:32And 3,000 people converted in that
34. 1:36afternoon.
35. 1:38So, here's the question Pentecost asks
36. 1:41every Christian.
37. 1:43What happened to Peter?
38. 1:46What happened between the coward by the
39. 1:48fire and the preacher in Jerusalem?
40. 1:51What turns cowards into martyrs?
41. 1:55What turns fishermen into apostles?
42. 1:59What turns 11 frightened men hiding
43. 2:01behind locked doors into the movement
44. 2:04that changed human history?
45. 2:08The resurrection?
46. 2:10Well, we saw we know that Peter saw
47. 2:13Jesus post-resurrection.
48. 2:16In fact, they went back to their normal
49. 2:18lives. They went back to fishing.
50. 2:22He saw Christ alive. He touched him. He
51. 2:24ate with him.
52. 2:26But he was still hiding.
53. 2:28Was it belief? Well, they already
54. 2:31believed.
55. 2:32Was it courage? Well, courage is built
56. 2:35over years.
57. 2:37These men changed from one moment to the
58. 2:39next.
59. 2:41There's only one answer.
60. 2:43Pentecost.
61. 2:45The Holy Spirit came.
62. 2:48And he did not simply visit, he moved
63. 2:51in.
64. 2:54You see, Christianity is different from
65. 2:56every other religion in the world.
66. 3:00Most religions
67. 3:02shape their way by saying God is there,
68. 3:05you are here. Now you must climb, pray
69. 3:08harder, meditate more, reach upward,
70. 3:11find him.
71. 3:14Christianity turns it upside down.
72. 3:18God comes down.
73. 3:21He becomes a child. He walks the roads
74. 3:24of Galilee. He dies on a cross. He
75. 3:26rises. He ascends back to the Father.
76. 3:29And then on Pentecost, he does something
77. 3:32almost unimaginable.
78. 3:35He moves into the human soul.
79. 3:39Saint Paul says, "Do you not know that
80. 3:42your body is the temple of the Holy
81. 3:44Spirit?"
82. 3:45A temple.
83. 3:48Think about that.
84. 3:50In the Old Testament, the Holy of in
85. 3:52Jerusalem was in a temple.
86. 3:55The most sacred place on Earth.
87. 3:58Only the high priest entered it once a
88. 4:01year.
89. 4:02People remove their sandals before the
90. 4:04presence of God. And now
91. 4:08God has made his dwelling in baptized
92. 4:11souls.
93. 4:13The Holy Spirit lives in your temple.
94. 4:16Not symbolically, not poetically,
95. 4:19literally.
96. 4:21This is what the church calls the
97. 4:23indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
98. 4:25Indwelling.
99. 4:27God making his home within.
100. 4:31The Holy Spirit is not a guest.
101. 4:34He's not visiting, he's not renting a
102. 4:37room, he has moved in.
103. 4:40And here's the question Pentecost asks.
104. 4:43Are we living like it?
105. 4:46Because I think one of the tragedies of
106. 4:48modern Catholics is this. The Holy
107. 4:50Spirit is the forgotten person of the
108. 4:52Holy Trinity.
109. 4:54We pray to the Father, which is good.
110. 4:57We pray to Jesus, excellent.
111. 5:00But when was the last time we actually
112. 5:03prayed
113. 5:05to the Holy Spirit?
114. 5:07When was the last time we stopped and
115. 5:09simply said, "Come Holy Spirit, come."
116. 5:15When was the last time we listened?
117. 5:18Because the Holy Spirit is closer than
118. 5:20people realize.
119. 5:22The Hebrew word is ruach.
120. 5:25The Greek word is pneuma.
121. 5:28The Latin word is spiritus.
122. 5:31They all mean the same thing. Breath.
123. 5:36The spirit is the breath of God.
124. 5:39God breathes into Adam and he lives.
125. 5:43Jesus breathes on the apostles and says,
126. 5:46"Receive the Holy Spirit."
127. 5:50At Pentecost, the spirit comes like a
128. 5:52mighty wind.
129. 5:54And the church is born.
130. 5:57The Holy Spirit is closer to us than our
131. 5:59own breathing.
132. 6:01Every prayer, every act of faith, every
133. 6:04movement towards goodness, every time a
134. 6:07person forgives someone, every time
135. 6:10someone comes back to confession, every
136. 6:13conversion, every vocation, every saint,
137. 6:16every fight against temptation,
138. 6:19the Holy Spirit is there
139. 6:22working
140. 6:23quietly, faithfully.
141. 6:26And maybe somebody here today is
142. 6:30carrying something heavy.
143. 6:32Fear, sin, grief, anxiety, indifference,
144. 6:38perhaps even a locked room in your soul.
145. 6:41Remember where the gospel began.
146. 6:45The gospel began
147. 6:47with locked doors.
148. 6:50That was the first church, locked,
149. 6:52fearful, hidden.
150. 6:55And then the risen Christ walks right
151. 6:56through those walls.
152. 6:59Maybe that is Pentecost for some people
153. 7:01here. Christ walking into your locked
154. 7:04room
155. 7:06and saying, "Peace be with you." [music]
156. 7:09Then breathing his spirit again,
157. 7:13a new beginning.
158. 7:16And so here's a challenge for you.
159. 7:19Now, I don't want anyone leaving here
160. 7:20today saying, "Oh, that was a nice
161. 7:22homily."
162. 7:23Which is nice to say, but today
163. 7:27Pentecost demands something.
164. 7:30So here's the assignment for this week.
165. 7:33You have homework.
166. 7:34Every morning, before you grab your
167. 7:37phone, before your emails, before for
168. 7:40coffee, four words
169. 7:43Come, Holy Spirit, come.
170. 7:46That's it.
171. 7:484 seconds
172. 7:49But, do not underestimate 4 seconds
173. 7:51surrendered to God. Say it before the
174. 7:54difficult conversation. Say it before a
175. 7:57doctor's visit. Say it before
176. 7:59confession, before communion, before
177. 8:01that meeting, before temptations, before
178. 8:05any decision that you make, Come, Holy
179. 8:08Spirit, come.
180. 8:11Because the spirit is courage.
181. 8:14The spirit is wisdom. The spirit is
182. 8:16strength. The spirit is love.
183. 8:21And I want to end where we began.
184. 8:23What happened to Peter?
185. 8:27The same thing that happened to every
186. 8:29baptized Christian.
187. 8:31The Holy Spirit moved in.
188. 8:34The fire is already there. The breath is
189. 8:36already there. The wind is already
190. 8:38there. The problem is not that God is
191. 8:41absent.
192. 8:43The problem is that too many Catholics
193. 8:44live as if the temple were empty.
194. 8:48It's not empty.
195. 8:50He is there, right there, right now, in
196. 8:52your soul.
197. 8:54Pentecost is not the feast of waiting
198. 8:57for the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is waking
199. 9:00up to the fact that he is already there.
200. 9:04So, throw open the doors.
201. 9:06Open the windows. Let him into every
202. 9:09locked room.
203. 9:11And when the Holy Spirit asks the
204. 9:13question he's been asking saints for
205. 9:152,000 years,
206. 9:18will you let me make you holy?
207. 9:22You need to say yes.
208. 9:25Say yes today.
209. 9:28Because the same spirit who turned Peter
210. 9:30into a coward turned Peter into a martyr
211. 9:33and an evangelist.
212. 9:36It's the same spirit that lives in this
213. 9:38church, in this parish, in the pews that
214. 9:40you're sitting in,
215. 9:42lives in the souls of the people here.
216. 9:46And if that spirit could change Peter,
217. 9:50imagine what he can do to you if you
218. 9:52finally say yes.
219. 9:55Come, Holy Spirit, come.
220. 9:58Lead me.
221. 10:00Show me the way.
222. 10:02Amen.