Homily Pentecost 2026 - Pentecost, Red, Memorial Day, and Encyclicals
Today, as you can probably tell from our red vestments, is a special day. It is the feast of Pentecost. A day whose name, meaning “fifty,” goes all the way back to our Jewish roots, marking fifty days after Passover. It is a significant day in our Church because, as we heard in the readings today, it is the day that the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles. It is, in many ways, the birthday of the Church — the moment when frightened disciples became courageous witnesses, when a small group behind locked doors became a people sent to the ends of the earth.
It marks the day that the Church was given the gifts of the
Holy Spirit — wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and
fear of God. The same gifts we receive at our Confirmation, which our high
school students and adults will receive next month when Bishop Michael comes to
confirm them. These gifts are not abstract ideas; they are the spiritual tools
God places in our hands so that we can live our vocations with courage and
clarity.
They are gifts we put to use living out our faith. Gifts
Father uses when exercising his ministry as a priest. Gifts I use as a deacon.
Gifts our new deacon, Juan Pablo, will certainly need as he begins his ministry
next weekend when he is ordained. And they are the same gifts each of you use
living out your vocation — as co‑workers, parents, siblings, spouses, and
children. You and I are the Church. We all need the Holy Spirit to guide us
throughout our lives, to give us the courage to say the right thing, to do the
right thing, and to live for the praise and glory of God.
But Pentecost also invites us to reflect on something
deeper: why the Church wears red today.
Red is the color of fire — the fire of the Holy Spirit descending upon the
Apostles. But today isn’t the only day we wear red vestments. You will also see
us wear red on many weekdays when our focus turns from celebrating the
sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection on Sundays to remembering others who
have made a sacrifice in the name of God — the martyrs of our faith.
While today the red represents the fire of the Holy Spirit,
we also wear red to remind us of the blood spilled in the name of the faith
when Catholics are persecuted for their belief in God and in Jesus, and are
martyred for that belief, giving up their life in defense of the faith. Their
red is the red of love — the love that lays down one’s life for Christ. Their
courage is not human courage alone; it is courage strengthened by the gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
And this weekend, our nation also turns its attention to a
different kind of red — the red of sacrifice, the red of blood shed on
battlefields, the red of flags placed beside graves. This weekend is a weekend
of remembrance in our secular world as our country remembers those who
sacrificed, those who gave their life for our country. It is not Veterans Day,
when we remember those who served. It is Memorial Day, when we remember those
who died in action.
We remember the nearly 4,500 people who died 250 years ago
to gain our independence from England during the Revolutionary War. We remember
the 2,200 who gave their lives in the War of 1812. We remember the Mexican‑American
War, as the United States fought over territory disputes during its expansion
across North America, costing another 1,700 lives. We remember those who fought
in the Civil War, as our country saw another 140,000 die in the fight over
slavery and states’ rights. We remember the Spanish‑American War, as we fought
Spain over Cuba and lost another 400 soldiers.
And we remember World War I, as we fought to protect allies
in Europe and saw the death of 55,000 more. We remember the nearly 400,000 men
and women who died in World War II protecting Western freedoms. The 33,000 who
died in the Korean War. The 50,000 who died in the Vietnam War. The nearly
2,000 who died in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. And we also remember all
those who gave their lives in smaller wars, skirmishes, training accidents,
covert deployments, victims of terrorist activities, and the many who have
taken their own lives as they battle the mental scars of war.
These numbers are not statistics. They are sons and
daughters. They are husbands and wives. They are neighbors and classmates. They
are people who once sat at dinner tables, who once dreamed dreams, who once
hoped for a future. And they laid down their lives so that others might live in
freedom.
I don’t intend to give a lesson in our nation’s history, nor
do I intend to glorify war. War is never something to celebrate. It is a tragic
cost of maintaining our freedom. But we must remember that those many hundreds
of thousands of Americans were God’s creation, and we should try all other
means before we enter into war.
We also need to remember that not only were our servicemen
and women creations of God, but so were those we were fighting against. Every
soldier on every side of every conflict is someone’s child, someone made in the
image and likeness of God. They deserve a diplomatic, life‑respecting end to
conflict so that they may live their lives with God‑given freedoms.
And so, as Christians, we find ourselves in a tension —
honoring sacrifice while praying for peace, remembering the fallen while
longing for a world where no more lives need to be lost.
We are in the middle of a conflict with Iran; our servicemen
and women are again in harm’s way. On one side, it can be argued that the
unpredictable nature of the regime in Iran makes it unsuitable to have a
nuclear arms program. Preventing this could save millions of lives in the
future. On the other hand, Pope Leo has strongly encouraged both sides to put
down arms and come to a peaceful agreement without the cost of more lives of
God’s children.
We must remember that as Pope, Pope Leo is not speaking from
a political point of reference, but reminding us of the teachings of Christ and
the Church — something that takes the gifts of the Holy Spirit to stand up and
proclaim to the entire world, representing the entire Church.
In addition to the comments Pope Leo has been making, you
may have heard that there is a new encyclical to be released by Pope Leo on
Monday, May 25. The word “encyclical” is a big word, but it is basically a
letter from the Pope to the Church — not just to the Cardinals, Bishops,
Priests, Deacons, and Nuns, but to all of us, you included.
Throughout the years, popes have addressed topics of concern
during their papacy that they saw the potential of being abused. You may have
heard of Rerum Novarum, where in the 1880s Pope Leo XIII addressed the
exploitation of the worker in the industrial age and the threats of
unrestrained capitalism over the dignity of the worker and their families. Or Humanae
Vitae, written by Pope Paul VI in 1968, addressing the dignity of human
life as we moved into the free‑love revolution of that era, and his warnings on
the impact of artificially blocking the gift of life through the marital act —
outside of marriage and within it.
More recently, Pope Benedict XVI wrote Caritas in
Veritate, addressing economic imbalance throughout the world, and Pope
Francis wrote Laudato Si’, addressing care of the environment. In this
new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, or “Magnificent Human,” the pope is
addressing artificial intelligence and a new industrial revolution.
And here is where Pentecost speaks directly to our moment in
history.
Our world is in as much need of guidance from the Holy Spirit — empowered by
her gifts — as at any moment in history. As we continue to face the threat of
war after war, and as technology advances, we must discern how God wants us to
implement that technology. Whether they are technologies that make us better at
fighting, costing more lives in battle, or technologies that threaten our
ability to live out a dignified way of life.
The Holy Spirit is not a distant idea. The Spirit is the
breath of God guiding the Church through every age — through persecution,
through war, through moral confusion, through technological revolutions,
through every challenge humanity faces.
And so I encourage you:
Deepen your prayer life.
Listen for the nudgings of the Holy Spirit.
Ask for the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge,
piety, and fear of the Lord.
Use them. Live them. Share them.
Read some of these encyclicals. Reflect on the teachings of
the Church. And allow the Holy Spirit to propel you forward in your faith life.
Because the red we wear today — the fire of the Spirit, the
blood of the martyrs, the sacrifice of our fallen — all point to one truth:
Love is stronger than fear.
Love is stronger than death.
And the Holy Spirit is still at work, guiding us, strengthening us, and sending
us out into the world.
