Pentecost Sunday with Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation for Adults 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
May 28, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹²

As I was saying today we celebrate when our Catholic Church was born, when she received the promise of the Holy Spirit!

And we are also celebrating the beautiful sacrament of this morning. So, we want to ask our heavenly Father to renew the gifts of his Holy Spirit in each of us and in our whole Church.

We want to ask Jesus to renew us with the fire of his divine love. Jesus once said that he came to cast fire on earth.² And that fire was started at the first Pentecost.

As we heard in the first reading today, the Spirit came down upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the apostles in “tongues of fire.”

And they all began proclaiming, in every language of the earth, the mighty works of God.

So Pentecost reveals the Church’s universal mission. I am sure that you noticed, on the first Pentecost there were people gathered “from every nation under heaven.”

And everyone that was there that day heard the apostles’ preaching “in his native language.”

This is a sign of the Church’s mission. That’s what “Catholic” means, as we know. It means universal, global. We are called to proclaim the Gospel to every nation.

We are called to help God, to work with God. We are called to help him create — from out of the world’s many peoples — one single family of God.

But the Church’s mission, my dear brothers and sisters, is our mission. The fire that started at Pentecost is meant to keep burning in us! We are called to continue the work of Pentecost in our society.

We are called to proclaim the mighty works of God — his salvation and the good news — to everyone we meet. Just as Mary our Blessed Mother and the apostles did at the first Pentecost.

And God gives his Spirit to each one of us, that we can serve him in that mission. In the second reading, we heard the beautiful words of St. Paul about the “spiritual gifts” of the Holy Spirit.

We heard him say: “To each individual that manifestation is given for some benefit.”

And my brothers and sisters receiving Confirmation today, the gifts of the Spirit are given to you that you can be renewed in your Christian mission.

God gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we can learn more about our faith, be more enthusiastic about our faith and be able to share that in an ordinary way with the people of our time.

God gives us the gift of understanding — to enlighten our minds to the beautiful truths of our Christian faith.

The gift of wisdom so that we will seek him above all things and put him “first” in everything that we do.

He gives us the gift of knowledge to recognize his blessings all around us in creation.

The gift of counsel or good judgment that helps us to make the right decisions and to follow God’s commandments.

God also gives us the gift of piety, or reverence, so we can love him with the trusting love of a child.

And the gift of courage or fortitude so that we can deal with the challenges and temptations we face in our faith daily.

Finally, the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of fear of the Lord, the gift of wonder and awe at God’s love and power, to help us avoid occasions of sin and temptations caused by our weaknesses.

So these gifts will help us to be active members of the Church, alive in Jesus Christ and to be active and living our faith in our daily life.

So my dear brothers and sisters, let us try to live by the Spirit and follow the Spirit. Let us try to look for new ways to share the fruits of the Spirit with people around us — love, joy and peace; patience, kindness and generosity; faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the beauty of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and our mission to bring those beautiful virtues to the people of our time.

The words that Jesus speaks to his apostles in the Gospel today are also spoken to each of us. Jesus says: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Jesus is sending us into the world. He wants us to reveal to everyone his life, his teachings, and his person. He wants us to help people have a personal encounter with him, the same encounter that we have experienced in our own lives.

So Jesus sends us out as messengers of his peace and forgiveness. He sends us to tell everyone the good news of God’s mercy and love.

This is, my brothers and sisters, our beautiful Pentecost mission. And yes to carry out this mission, we have to have a deeper, more personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.

There is that beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. Enkindle in them the fire of your love.”

So today, let us pray as the apostles did, with our Blessed Mother Mary.

Let us ask her for her intercession, that there will be a new Pentecost in our days. So that the fire of love in our hearts may inspire others — until the whole world is on fire with the love of God.