Sunday, May 11, 2008 Fr. Pat Grile

Pentecost Sunday, First Communions, Mother’s Day

Today is a wonderful day, not only for our children making their First Holy Communion, but also because this feast of Pentecost reminds all of us here today that Jesus comes to each and every one of us, gives us His love that you and I in turn can share it with one another.

I like to think of it this way. Maybe when Jesus ascended to heaven boys and girls, when He got up to heaven all the angels were there and they said, “Jesus way to go. Good job. You went to earth, You loved those people. You died for them. You rose from the dead and now You came back to heaven.” Then they said, “Well Jesus who’s going to keep doing Your work now that you left the earth? Did You set up a big organization, lots of people?” Jesus said, “Well, I just left a small group of men and women who loved me.” And then the angels said, “Well Jesus, what happens if they fail? What if they die off and there is nobody left? What’s going to happen? Do You have a back-up plan?” And Jesus said, “No, just those few people who loved me.”

You know boys and girls, today on your First Holy Communion Jesus is saying to Natalie, and Jesus is saying to Isabel, and to Connor, and to Brittany. Jesus is saying to you, Matthew, He is saying to everyone of you today, boys and girls, “I give you my love that you in turn can pass it on.” That’s why this First Holy Communion today for you Corrine, and Jennifer, this so very special. Because Jordan and Sabrina, Jesus is coming to you today to give you Himself and He wants you to open up your heart to receive His love that you in turn can give His love to your moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and everybody else. Think you can do that Christopher? Yea, because you won’t be doing in just by yourself will you? You’re going to have the power of Jesus within you, right Theodore? That’s right. And how about Desiree, beautiful name. Anybody else back there? That’s it.

You know boys and girls, maybe you can think of your First Holy Communion this way too. Have you even gone mountain climbing boys and girls? Any of you ever been on top of a high mountain? How about you Nicole? Never climbed a mountain huh? You know Elijah, Tristan, and let’s see who do we have back here? Gracelyn and Tina and ______. You know there is a big high mountain out in Washington State called Mt. Rainier. It’s about almost three miles high up in the sky. That’s quite a long ways up isn’t it? And a group of people went mountain climbing one time. But this was a group of people who were called “physically handicapped”. One of them had an artificial leg, several of them were blind, several of them were deaf—they could not hear. But all of them went climbing on this mountain. And when they came back down, and nobody got hurt, they all arrived safely. And then somebody said, “Wow, how did you do that?” One of them said, “We got a lot of help from our friends.” Because the blind could see through the eyes of other people. The deaf, they could hear through the ears of others with them and those who couldn’t walk were carried by the strength of others.

That’s what this Communion is all about today for all of you boys and girls, for all of us here. That’s what this feast of Pentecost is about, that you and I, all of us together can hold up and walk and give to each other the love of Jesus.

Our first reading today says something so beautiful. It said, here were people from all over the world. Look around in this church this morning. You got people from all over. We’ve got a lot of visitors here this morning. Any grandmas and grandpas here? Raise your hands grandmas and grandpas. All right. Yea. And a lot of you are not members of St. Alphonsus but you are here today because your granddaughter or grandson is making First Communion. Any uncles and aunts? Yea a lot of uncles and aunts. Any cousins? Yea a lot of cousins are here. Any priests? Oh one. You see we are different colors, different faces, we’re from all over and yet today we can all hear the beautiful one message of Jesus, I love you. I care about you. And even though we speak different languages, or we may be blind, or deaf, or handicapped, maybe with an artificial leg, we call can speak the language of love.

And that’s why people from all over the world, 2000 years ago on that first Pentecost received the Spirit, because they heard the language of love that goes beyond any limitations. We know we can feel when somebody loves us, right? Because if they come up to us and maybe shake their hand, right. And I see the smile in your face. Even though you may not understand everything I’m saying but you know that I love you. The language of love can do that, right? Right, you got it.

So that’s what we’re celebrating today. Parents, something wonderful today. You’re making this beautiful gift to your children of waking with them to receive Jesus for the first time. The first of many times. And parents it’s your responsibility to make sure that these children have the opportunity every Sunday to be able to come here and receive Jesus, and let Jesus come in and love them and grow in their hearts. And then together every week we keep coming back because we need one another. We need to walk with each other and to support each other and to lift each other up. That’s the spirit of Jesus. That’s the love of Jesus that we are celebrating today.

So this is a great feast, a great day. And on Mother’s Day too. Children you know how much your mothers love you so now you know too how much Jesus loves you as well.

So we celebrate this gift of live and love every day. I’m proud of you boys and girls. I’m happy for you. I know this will be the first of many, many times that Jesus will come to you to give you His love and His spirit, that you in turn can go back to your schools and your families, boys and girls and share the love of Jesus. Every day let’s give Jesus’ love to each other.