Yeah, I’m talking to YOU!

The ordinary person made to do extraordinary things who is sitting in front of your computer right now…or lounging in bed on your iPad/phone…reading this, thinking, “Sorry, you must be talking to the wrong person, sister.”

Nope, I got it right. Think about it. Superheroes usually have very humble beginnings. Looking at these people, you would never guess they had the ability fly…leap from tall buildings in a single bound…much less save the world from evil. But they are particularly chosen and given special powers to help society, set aside for an incredible mission that must be completed for the good of all humanity.

YOU have been chosen. YOU have been endowed with amazing gifts called “charisms” that are meant to be used for the salvation of souls. In this time. In this very place. For this era that you have been born into, God wants to use you in a powerful way – to the same extent and with the same passion and intensity that He used every saint who has lived before you.

Saint? Yes, I say. You were made to be a saint! A spiritual superhero – filled with wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord – who is involved in the world, not as a spectator but as salt and light. You are meant to join the ranks of St. Paul…Sts. Perpetua and Felicity…St. Patrick…St. Martin de Porres…St. Teresa of Avila…St. Damien of Moloka’i…St. Josephine Bakhita…St. Maria Goretti…St. Maximilian Kolbe…St. Toribio Romo, and the countless faithful who left the mark of Jesus Christ in both the crosses they bore and the victories they claimed for His Kingdom.

But, see, you are not supposed to be another St. Pio of Pietrelcina, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, or St. Lorenzo Ruiz. You are supposed to be YOU.

On this feast of Pentecost, it is crucial for each of us to remember who we are in the eyes of God. WE ARE HIS CHILDREN. So that we are not left to our own devices, the Father and the Son sent us the very Love between them – the gift of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity – to dwell within our hearts and set us on fire with a flame that would purify our lives and empower us with an ardent desire to spread the Gospel message in word and in deed.

St. Paul says in Ephesians 4:1-7, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

Upon accepting this gift, we should act heroically. We should love heroically. We should help save the world from utter spiritual destruction. We should be courageous enough to risk ridicule and criticism to give to others what we ourselves have received.

The greatest encouragement we hear from Jesus Himself is that we are not alone. As He was dying, He gave to us His own Mother. He sent the disciples out to the villages two by two. He established the Church before He ascended to the Father. We have the entire communion of saints – Church Triumphant in Heaven, Church Militant here on earth, and Church Suffering in Purgatory – to intercede for each one of us in the work we are called to do.

This holy assembly is much more powerful than any Justice League, ensemble of X-Men, Superfriends, or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Amen? AMEN!

Above all, we have Jesus our Lord and Savior Himself…God Incarnate…promise to us His very presence in the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20).

So now is the time… Rise up, you superheroes of the Kingdom, and become who you were made to be!

+AMDG+