Pentecost Sunday
Installation of Pastor
June 5, 2022
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Highlandtown
Introduction: Four Pastoral Roles Flowing from Pentecost
I’m delighted to return to your parish on this wonderful feast of Pentecost to install Father Ako Trevor Walker as your new pastor. In fact, I can’t think of a more appropriate feast for this installation than Pentecost, which celebrates the birth of the Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture readings proclaimed at today’s Mass bear that out. In describing the Pentecost event, they highlight four ways your pastor leads: first, by unifying the parish around the Person and the Gospel of Christ; second, by serving as minister of the sacraments; third, by prayerfully discerning the gifts the Spirit has given to parishioners; and fourth, by leading parish ministries of evangelization . . . a word about each.
Unifying the Parish around the Person of Christ and His Gospel
The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is very important because it describes the event of Pentecost itself, that moment when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles ‘like tongues of fire’. The Holy Spirit did not merely hover over their heads externally, but penetrated their souls, transforming them from within. The Spirit enabled them to encounter Christ as never before, to experience the truth of his teaching and the power of his death and resurrection. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles were no longer men of fear, but bold witnesses to Christ, who would spread his Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Filled with the Spirit, Peter (the leader of the Apostles) went out and began preaching. People who came from different places and spoke different languages understood him, as if he were speaking their own native tongue . . . just as it will be amazing if you can understand my Spanish! Peter’s preaching brought together people from different languages and cultures, just as all of us should be one with Peter’s successor, the Pope, and his co-workers, as they proclaim Christ and his Gospel in every language and in every culture.
Here at Sacred Heart, your pastor and his associates are at your service, a congregation that comes from different countries and cultures. While respecting your diversity, your pastor is to bring you together as one, uniting you around the Person of Christ by preaching and bearing witness to his Gospel. Every pastor’s fervent hope is that those he serves will open their hearts to Christ, that they will welcome his Word into the hearts, the Word which he preaches and teaches in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the true source of genuine unity in this parish and every parish.
Minister of Word and Sacrament: Baptism, Eucharist, and Penance
After Peter preached on that first Pentecost day, he baptized many people and said, “Repent and be baptized…in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (AA 2:38). Further on in Acts we read how the Apostles came together to celebrate the Eucharist. United in fellowship by the Holy Spirit, they reflected on the teaching of Christ, and celebrated “the breaking of the bread”, an ancient name for the Eucharist. In the Gospel, we read how the Risen Lord breathed the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and thus empowered them to forgive sins in his Name, thus instituting the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance.
Isn’t all of this a wonderful description of the sacramental life of the Church? One of the greatest joys of every pastor is to baptize new members of the Church, whether it be infants or young people or those who come to the faith later in life. The heart of the Church’s life and the heart of every pastor’s life is the Eucharist – coming together in fellowship with his people to listen to and proclaim the Scriptures in the power of the Spirit, to re-present the saving death and blessed resurrection of Christ, also in the Spirit, and to render present the Body and Blood of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. As a priest of many years, and I am sure Father Walker would agree with this, no experience for a priest is more humbling and joyful than to serve as minister of mercy, absolving penitents of their sins in Confession – extending to them the healing touch of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Discerning the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Through Baptism, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, as if we were a temple, and if we are willing, the Spirit enables us to encounter Christ and share his life. But the Spirit also gives special gifts to members of God’s Holy People, special gifts that are given to strengthen the Church’s mission. We read about these gifts in our second reading from First Corinthians. Here, St. Paul tells us that the Spirit works in different ways through different people but it is the same God working in each one to benefit the whole body of the Church.
One of the responsibilities of a pastor is to discern when and how the Spirit is at work in the lives of parishioners and to tap into the gifts the Spirit distributes among them. For no pastor, not even the best, can go it alone! All of us need good co-workers, endowed with the choicest gifts of the Spirit. Sacred Heart Parish is blessed with many parishioners who are gifted by the Spirit, and who have responded generously by using their gifts to build up this parish and to extend its mission into the wider community.
Leading the Parish’s Mission of Evangelization
Finally, we read in the Gospel that, when Jesus breathed his Spirit on the Apostles, he not only commissioned them to forgive sins, he also sent them forth to proclaim the Gospel. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” said the Risen Lord. So as the pastor and his co-workers preach and teach, as the sacraments of the Church are celebrated, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our midst are recognized and utilized, the parish is being equipped by the Holy Spirit for its mission of evangelization, its mission of going forth from this parish campus to proclaim the Gospel – whether by preaching or by works of charity and justice – so that those who have never heard the Gospel or opened their hearts to the Spirit, might, through the witness of this parish, have the opportunity to do so.
In this way, Sacred Heart Parish in Highlandtown, under the direction of your Pastor and in the power of the Holy Spirit continues the mission which Jesus himself gave to the Apostles that first Easter night and which he confirmed by the sending the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost. My prayer for you, for your new pastor, and for your community is that you will experience a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit today, at Pentecost, and that the life and mission of this parish will truly be “a light brightly visible” not only in Highlandtown but throughout the entire Archdiocese of Baltimore. May God bless you and keep you always in his love!