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The Feast of Pentecost

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May 20.2018 Fr. Chad VanHoose, Associate Pastor

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We all have a happy place. A place of peace, a place where we find comfort and refreshment. For parents of young children this might be the bathroom, because it's the only place you can be alone.  But maybe your place is a memory from the past.  A family cabin around the lake, a chair that fits you just perfectly or your toes dug into the sand. A place that has a characteristic feel or even a familiar smell. 
One of these places for me is a childhood home that I lived in over 30 years ago and my Dad recently texted me a photo of our Old Homestead. And even though we moved from this house when I was around 5 the photo brought back a flood of memories and emotions. Yeah I still have the floor plan of that old home mapped out in my imagination and I can recall that map whenever I want.  I still do and often in dreams these happy places ground us and they bring us peace. 
And even the 12 Apostles had a happy place.  That place for them was the upper room. It's the setting for today's feast day at Pentecost when we hear in the Acts of the Apostles that they were all in one place together.  It was the same setting that we heard on Divine Mercy Sunday, that first day of the Resurrection when Jesus came into their midst and said peace be with you.  
But first the upper room was the setting for Holy Thursday.  This is significant brothers and sisters because when their world was turned upside down, when Jesus had died on the cross, the apostles ran to the upper room. When He departed again at the Ascension they ran to their happy place to pray and wait for the promised Holy Spirit.  They had spent 3 years with Jesus and they had significant moments with Him in a lot of different places.
His first miracle at a wedding in Cana, on the mount of transfiguration where He was glorified before their eyes, the multiplication of loaves and fish on a sea of Galilee. But they didn't run to any of these places.  They ran to the upper room.  The upper room had more significance for them than any other place because it was the place where Jesus came the closest.  The place where He became one with them in that first Holy Eucharist.  The place where John rested on our Lord at the Last Supper was the place where he and all gathered with him would receive the Holy Spirit and all of the gifts of the Spirit just 7 weeks later.  
Pentecost then is inseparable from the last supper. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are fundamentally connected to the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist. And did you know that we have an upper room here at All Saints? It's not on the roof, its right back there in the Adoration Chapel. It's a happy place where we can run to 24/7.  We hear in the Gospel today that Jesus has much more to tell us, but we’ll only hear those words of the Lord if we spend time with Him in silence.  Silent adoration isn't just for contemplatives. It's not just for introverts. We each long for this silence in the depths of our being and as all of those gathered in Jerusalem on the feast of Pentecost heard the apostles in their own native language so the Holy Spirit can speak to the diversity of each of us in our silent time of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  So yes introverts and extroverts, men, women and children, young baby priests and more seasoned pastors, the Holy Spirit can speak to the diversity of each of us in the silence.  
And I am proof of this.  See anyone who knows me knows that I would always prefer to be with other people.  To be busy rather than to slow down and be quiet.  It takes a lot for me to be quiet but some of the most significant moments of my life have been spent in my daily holy hour and Eucharistic adoration. Times in which Jesus gave me peace.  Times when He spoke to me, my vocation to the priesthood, times He comforted me and made His presence really known to me in the Eucharist. I’ve spent time in silent adoration now on four continents. And the name Jesus available to me in Rome and Israel and Venezuela is available to all of us.  They're in the upper room. the same Jesus in all of the adoration chapels, in all of the Tabernacles of the world, is available to us here at All Saints. And Jesus is really present there in the Eucharist.  He's no less present to us there then He was to the 12 apostles then at Pentecost and He wants to speak that same peace to each of us. 
 Our Adoration Chapel has been open now perpetually for 7 years and that's quite a feat. For 7 years people in the chapel praying, but it'll only stay open another 7 years with you. We need adorers. We need individuals who are willing to commit to spending one hour a week in adoration so that there's always someone there adoring our Lord.  That's what helps us keep those doors open and there's an advantage to having adoration 24/7 because then everyone can participate. Everyone, whether your work schedule allows in the morning or the afternoon, the evening, the late-night, can find one hour a week to come here to the upper room and listen to Jesus in the silence.  And you can spend that hour however you want.  Reading a favorite prayer book, reading scripture, praying the rosary, just spending time with Jesus, speaking to Him heart to heart. 
But when we spend this hour every week we receive two things. We receive the joy of Christ in His presence and we receive gifts. We receive grace's, the gifts of the Holy Spirit that were poured out on the apostles can really come to us when we go to the upper room.  And we especially need adorers in those late-night hours between midnight and 6 a.m. Father Wilson and I each have a late night holy hour every week and I can speak from the experience that I've been blessed by this sacrifice.  Even the times when I'm tired and don't have anything to give back to Jesus, He's giving himself to me. Even when my eyes are about half open or even less sometimes Jesus is giving Himself to me.  And I'm not going to tell you which day that I'm back there because I want to keep that alone time.  But for the right price I’ll tell you Father Wilson's day and you can bug him when he's in his adoration.  When you sign up for an hour rest assured that it can be changed at any time, you're not locked into this for eternity. We have a substitute system as well, so if you can't make it for a particular week we’ll certainly find a substitute for you to cover your hour.
Now I want to talk about our process today for the Adoration Drive.  So you'll find in your pew pockets a form that looks like this. So go ahead and find those forms now and pull them out.  These forms are for individuals not currently signed up for a weekly adoration hour. So maybe you had one in the past or you've never had one then that form is for you. And you don't have to commit to a particular hour today though you can if you want to.  If you're just interested in some more information about adoration, about spending time with Jesus here in the upper room then fill out your name, your phone number and your email address and then someone will contact you here in the coming weeks. After mass there will be volunteers at the table in the back in the gathering space with further details including a 24-hour schedule of our slots that we need some more help with. So if you want more information we’ll be there in the back.  After the homily will give you a moment of silence so that you can fill out those forms and then just put them in the collection basket as you would your regular envelopes and we'll take all those forms and gather them together. 
 On this Pentecost weekend come all you who are weary and find life burdensome.  The Lord wants to refresh you and give you his peace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Come let us adore his presence in the Eucharist in that upper room and here you will be satisfied.

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The Feast of Pentecost

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