by Rev. Edward Correia

The first reading from the Book of Numbers tells the story of the Lord coming down in a cloud and giving the Holy Spirit to the seventy leaders of the tribes of Israel. They began to prophesy. Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, were not present in the camp when the Spirit came upon the elders in the camp. They were on the list to receive the Spirit, but they were not in the camp.

They, nevertheless, received the Spirit because they were prophesying. Joshua complained to Moses. "Lord, stop them. They were not in the camp when the Spirit came."

Moses answered that the Lord God works where and when He wills.

The Holy Spirit often works in ways that are beyond our plans and expectations. The Holy Spirit is always making us respond, "Wow, I never thought this could happen".

The Holy Spirit is always bringing about change.

We do not like change. Change disrupts our lives. Change is not comfortable. Change means we have to think and do things in new ways.

We have experienced change in our lives when we did not want change. A sickness, someone dying, our place of work closing are just some of the many ways that we have experienced change. The same applies to our Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church, as we have known it, is ending. Change is going to come in the Catholic Church.

Some of the changes will be on a practical level. In the next five years twenty-five of our priests will be eligible for retirement. Of course that is not counting the priests that will be sick or die unexpectedly. That will leave us with very few priests. Parishes, especially in the cities, will have to merge or close. We have already seen that this change has brought about a range of reactions from people in our own Diocese.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t bring about change for practical purposes. The Church cannot just live on the practical level. St. James condemns an over emphasis on money. I am quite sure that he would have condemned the Church just functioning as a big corporation.

The Holy Spirit brings about change to make the Church to be more the Body of Christ on earth.

As we face the changes in the Church, are we willing to go beyond the practical?

As the Gospel tells us to cut off whatever leads us away from God, are we willing to make the adjustments and sacrifices in our lives to meet the call of the Holy Spirit?

This coming time of change is going to bring about much pain and loss. Are we open to go