Reflection about the Cardinal’s Homily in the Mass of the Holy Spirit

By: Ernesto A. Lumanlan

There is one thing that I want to stress out and put value into this reflection and that is
SPEECH. SPEECH is the expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by articulate
sounds. In His Eminence’s homily, he talked about two different type of speech; the speech that
comes from the Holy Spirit; and the speech that comes from within us through the help of the
devil. The first one that I want to talk about is the speech that comes not from the Holy Spirit but
from our own with the help of the devil. Depression is one of the most common problems that
we, teenagers, experience. The main cause for this latter is the words that one encounters that
judges, destroys, ruins, and bring others to their downfall and sadly, led them to commit suicide.
It’s a serious matter that the society or rather the world must look up to, because if not cured
early more people would become a victim of depression. God gave us the ability to express our
thoughts not to judge others nor bring them down but He gave us this to give hope, enlighten,
and spread the Good News to His people. And this is the thing that the Cardinal urges us to do;
To spread, share, and bring back people to Him just like how the Holy Spirit came down from
heaven and granted the apostles the power to talk many languages for the purpose to spread
the Good News. Like them, we, the people of God, must bring hope to the world, enlighten them
through our words which is the the speech that comes from the Holy Spirit. It is very easy to
identify what comes from the Holy Spirit and what does NOT come from the Holy Spirit.
“The speech that gives hope and enlightens the people of God comes from the Holy
Spirit”, Cardinal quoted.
And yes, the speech that brings down and judges people, ruins their dignity, does not
come from the Holy Spirit, but from us who let ourselves be tempted by the temptations of the
devil. It is merely a simple thing that even a kid could understand. It’s just that we forget to look
upon and examine ourselves if we are still on the right path or are we already led astray. No one
would want to hear something that hurts them, their dignity, of who they are, even you would
feel miserable if I call you useless and such. There are times that I, personally, experienced being
judged and brought down by others. They would judge for my looks, intelligence, and even my
actions. They would start calling me names like stupid, idiot, and even useless that would crush
my feelings and especially my dignity. These are things that the devil wants to happen because it
drives us away from the Lord which is wrong! No one would want to hear that from someone,
right? That is why we must be conscious our actions, our speeches. We must be prudent in
everything that we do. If you see someone depressed, and sad because of unexpected bad things
happening, we must help that person through the power that God gave us, the power of speech
to bring hope and help people get closer to God and bring them towards His heavenly kingdom.