A schoolmaster in France was discouraged with one of his students. He wrote in his roll book concerning this student:

“He is the smallest, the meekest, the most unpromising boy in my class.”

Half a century later, an election was held in France to select the greatest Frenchman. By popular vote, that meekest, smallest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name? Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine.

When he was seventy-three, a national holiday was declared in his honor. He was too weak to attend the ceremony in Paris, so he sent a message to be read by his son. The message read:

“The future belongs not to the conquerors but to the saviors of the world”

[Edward Chinn, Wonder of Words (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), p. 18.

Louis Pasteur was driven by a great purpose. Your name and my name may never be a household word like Pasteur’s, but we, too, can be driven by a great purpose. Christ can give us that purpose.

A healthy sense of identity and a driving purpose are not enough in themselves. There is one thing more Christ gives us. He gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit as promised in today’s Gospel. The in-dwelling Spirit of the living God.

Father Joseph Dovari