Teach, Baptize, Go Forth: Homily for Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025

We are made in the image of God. Marriage is a reflection of God’s relationship with us. With such high dignity, we must recognize the Holy Spirit helps us to teach, baptize, and go forth. Readings for Today.

Teach, Baptize, Go Forth

Happy birthday. When we celebrate a birthday, it is not just because we need an excuse to eat cake and blow out candles. What we remember in celebrating a birthday is the way in which the “birthday boy” or “birthday girl” makes a difference in our lives.

Today, Pentecost Sunday, is often referred to as the “birthday of the Church.” But while we have had many experiences of celebrating birthdays for children, parents, relatives and friends, do we know what it means to celebrate the birthday of the Church?

Perhaps a reminder of two elements of being human that we probably know well. First, as humans we are made in the image and likeness of God. That is to say, when God looks at each one of us, it is as if God is looking into a mirror at a reflection of himself.

Think about this for a moment. After God created the human beings, he did not remark that we were good. God said we were very good. For Dominicans, to proclaim the goodness of creation, and especially the very goodness of humans, was the very reason we were founded. 

Each one of us is a miraculous creation by God. While the Catholic Church does not have issues with the Theories of Evolution, it does maintain one important condition. Human beings were not the result of chance. The creation of human beings was a deliberate choice on the part of God. As beings with an immortal soul, it can only be that we exist because of the graciousness of God’s love and God’s actions.

The second very important aspect of human creation we see in the Catholic understanding of marriage. At the beginning of the bible and the end of the bible is marriage. And many times in between the beginning and the end marriage is mentioned yet again.

But it is what marriage reflects that is of importance to us. Just as God sees a reflection of himself in every human being He has created, in marriage God sees the reflection of Jesus’ relationship with the Church.

So to properly understand what it means to celebrate the birthday of the Church, it is important for us to understand just how wonderfully we have been created, and how wonderfully is the result of humans living out their vocation.

We have an amazing vocation, every single one of us. God calls every single one of us to holiness. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. You and me, and every single person God has created are called to do amazing things, and to become amazing followers of Jesus, called to be holy.

And so, to truly celebrate the birthday of the Church means to truly celebrate that as important as any parish congregation is, we are not Congregationalists. We are called to be something more than just one parish in a specific place. In the Catholic understanding of what it means to be a church, we are part of something much bigger than just our little parish here at St. Dominic’s. 

No, we are part of something divine and holy. When we consider what it means to be Church, we must realize that the beginning of the Church is not by human founding. It is quite untrue to say the Church is a manmade institution. No, we were deliberately founded by Jesus Christ, and born on Pentecost.

And without this understanding of divine origin, and the promise of Jesus to be with his Church forever, there is simply no explaining how the Church has survived so long. Our history is like any family history. We have good times, not so good times, and a lot of times in the middle.

And yet despite this, here we are. More than 2,000 years since the birth of Jesus. Nearly 2,000 years from his Resurrection and the events of Pentecost. And on this Feast of Pentecost we celebrate the fullness of God’s self-revelation. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But it is also important for us to recognize that celebrating the Church’s birthday is not a stagnant event. We do not just recall something from our past, but we also accept an invitation and challenge from our present. And regardless of the readings from the Vigil Mass or the readings from Sunday morning, what we are called to do is the same. 

For today in the Church we are called to remember just what the outpouring of the Holy Spirit means for us. The Spirit is life. And we must remember then, that the life of the Church comes from the Holy Spirit.

For it is the Holy Spirit that must guide our directions, decisions and actions. While it is the case that we are real discerners of the Holy Spirit, what comes from this discernment is the recognition not of what we wish to do, but what the Holy Spirit wishes we do.

Second, the Holy Spirit is generous. Every talent, gift, ability and skill we have comes from the generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And through this outpouring, we are who we are. Different gifts are given to each person by the Holy Spirit for the building up of the body of Christ.

But we are not gifted by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit simply to receive. Perhaps most importantly, to celebrate the birthday of the Church to know that we have been sent by the Holy Spirit. We are to go forth. We must share the Good News of what God in his goodness has done for us.

We cannot keep all that God has done a secret. In what ways have you shared the Good News of your faith? How have you concretely shared the Good News with another? Jesus tells us in the gospel of Matthew that we are to teach, baptize and make disciples.

Can you recall the last time you had a conversation about your faith with someone else? Have you made a specific plan to do so? For to really celebrate the birthday of the Church is to make a commitment that you will not leave this work to others. You too will specifically engage in the sharing of your faith.And so on this Pentecost Sunday, the time has come to act on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit you have received. To discern the specific ways in which God wishes you will act in the living out of your vocation.

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