A greater feast

Sermon for Whitsunday

"My Father is greater than I"

Those who hate Christianity 

love to trot out this verse.

"If the Father is greater than Jesus,"

they say,

"how can Jesus be God?"

The most obvious answer

is that Our Lord is speaking

of Himself as a man,

not in His Divinity. 

Because He does not think it

a prize to be equal in Divinity

with the Father

He humbles Himself

by being made Man,

thus giving a place

for His obedience to the Father

to show us how we must be

obedient to God.

But we human beings

are always thinking in terms

of greater and lesser,

better and worse.

That's the way our mind works.

We might say

that the Father is greater than the Son

because the Father begets the Son.

But the Father cannot be a Father

without the Son.

The relationship between 

Father and Son

reveals their identities

as two distinct persons

but a single God.

But today is Whitsun,

not Trinity Sunday.

Where's the Holy Ghost?

Shouldn't we be focussing on Him?

[PAUSE]

We see the Holy Ghost

sent from the Father 

in the Son's Name,

and yet He is often presented

as an instrument. 

Our Lady conceives by the Holy Ghost.

The Apostles speak in

foreign languages

through the Holy Ghost

Who falls upon them.

Our Sacraments bestow grace

through the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is described as

the Spirit of God

or the Spirit of Jesus.

The Holy Ghost 

seems more like a pipeline

to the Father and the Son

rather than a distinct person

in Himself.

This won't do. 

It's not enough.

[PAUSE]

The Holy Ghost is a distinct person

from the Father and the Son.

Our Lord Himself

describes the Holy Ghost

proceeding from the Father.

But God is indivisible,

and not made of anything,

so how can anything 

proceed out of God

that is not God Himself?

This procession

shows the relationship

between the Holy Ghost

and the Father.

We sing "breathe on me,

Breath of God"

because that's the best

we little human beings

can understand what

proceeding means.

In this sense of procession

the Holy Ghost 

proceeds from the Father alone.

It is an analogy 

that shows us how

God the Holy Ghost

comes forth

from the Father

to be God in us,

in the same way 

that the Son

is begotten of the Father

to be God with us.

But if there is a relationship

with the Father

there must be 

a relationship with the Son.

And there is.

The Son is conceived by the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is breathed

upon the disciples 

through the Son.

The Word is carried on the Breath

and the Breath issues forth 

because of the Word.

The Holy Spirit 

is God.

It means that 

we worship Him,

we pray to Him,

we relate with Him.

Indeed,

we relate more with Him

than any other Person

of the Trinity.

Certainly,

we pray, "Our Father,"

and we pray, "Jesu, mercy!"

but our inner prayers

our cries of "Lord, help me!"

those fleeting flicks

of our attention to God

are present directly

to the Holy Ghost.

St Paul tells us

that every time 

we praise God

it is because the Holy Ghost

dwelling within us

gives us the ability

to praise God.

We speak through Him,

we learn through Him.

By His grace, 

He bestows Himself upon us

at our Baptism and Confirmation.

The priest says,

"the Lord be with you."

and we don't say,

the vacuous 

"and also with you,"

but rather

"and with thy spirit"

because we pray

that what our priests 

breathe out on us

is the Breath of God

in the sacraments 

they must distribute.

[PAUSE]

Our awareness of the Holy Ghost

must move away from thinking of Him

as being like spiritual petrol

which reinvigorates our faith,

but rather to recognise

His living in us.

We look upwards

to the Father. 

We look around us

to the Son.

So we must look within us

to the Holy Ghost,

and worship Him

accordingly.