May 6, 2026

Fr. John Riccardo

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans…” (John 14:15-18).

“If the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the Church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament Church, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference” (A.W. Tozer).

This most provocative quote comes to mind as we now quickly come up on the great solemnity of Pentecost. What happened that day utterly and totally changed the apostles and other disciples of Jesus, and as a result totally changed the history of the world. Though the disciples had been eating, drinking and speaking with the Risen Jesus for many weeks after His resurrection, it was because of what happened that day, namely, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them, that everything changed.

Sadly, I fear, in most of our churches Pentecost will be just another Sunday. Aside from the priest wearing red vestments, and some songs explicitly mentioning the Holy Spirit, will anything be different? Will we expect anything to be different?

Jesus promised His disciples in the Gospel this coming Sunday that He would not leave us orphans. He would send us another Advocate, the Paraclete, the Spirit. This Spirit is the game changer. Far from being some tame, predictable, and generic “force”, the Spirit of God is fire, utterly unpredictable, deeply personal and impossible to control. He changes hearts and minds; He heals of addiction and disease; He convinces us of the Father’s love and our own identity as His beloved sons and daughters; He enables us to know Jesus went to war on the cross for us by name.

In the wonderful little book From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for An Apostolic Age, the authors note that while it’s helpful for the Church in every age to be mindful of sociological data, trends, and other things that can give us a helpful snapshot of where we are, such things are utterly incapable of showing us what will happen in the future — for they cannot, by the very nature of their discipline, take into account miracles and the power of God. This comes to mind as media continue to report on the rise of conversions to the faith, especially among young men, in our country and in other places. To be sure, we should desire to know what the causes of this are. As encouraging as the rise in numbers of those coming into the Church in many places is, however, it’s still sobering to reflect on the fact that for every person who joins the Church 8.5 leave. This fact leads many outlets and prognosticators to make bold predictions about the decline of the Church in various regions of the country.

Maybe.

But as the authors of From Christendom to Apostolic Mission note, who would ever have predicted in the first century that this small band of Jesus followers would have such impact that within a short span of time, historically speaking, Christianity would go from being a persecuted and illegal superstition to the official religion of the Roman Empire? Who would have predicted that 16th century Mexico would experience mass conversions to the faith thanks to the appearance of Our Lady to Juan Diego and leaving her image imprinted on his tilma, still miraculously visible for all to see almost 500 years later? Who would have predicted that 19th century France, after the Revolution’s violent and ruthless persecution of the Catholic Church, would see such a massive growth in the number of priests and religious within just a few decades of almost being snuffed out? We could go on and on.

God is not bound by trends. They mean nothing to Him. And thus, while we certainly don’t want to be unaware of them, they should mean more or less nothing to us. The Spirit of God is power. We are not orphans. The mission of the Church is not dependent on our own strength, our own wisdom, or our own initiative. It is the Father’s desire that His creation be rescued and renewed. That’s what Jesus began with His death and resurrection. That’s what the Church continues until that glorious day of the King’s return.

The disciples about whom we read in Acts were destined by God to live at that time. Saint Juan Diego was destined for his time. The heroic men and women of France after the Revolution were destined for theirs. And we have been destined for our time.

So, then, as Pentecost draws near, let’s approach it with ever greater and expectant faith. God does not play games. He doesn’t lie. Jesus said we would receive “power when the Holy Spirit comes” (Acts 1:8). Let’s ask the Lord to once again shake our parishes, our homes and our hearts with this power of the Spirit. Let’s trust He can and does transform lives even now in ways we simply cannot predict. Let’s trust He starts movements in ridiculously small ways and in unlikely people. Let us commit to pray to Him, “Here we are! Use us! Send us!”

Come, Holy Spirit, enkindle in our hearts the fire of Your love, and renew the face of the earth.

The Game Changer

The Father Who Takes the First Step