We see Shaq O’Neal and other players getting pumped up
before an important basketball game when the adrenaline is really flowing and
they feel that they can do anything. Well, I drove into the parking lot of the
festively-decorated St. Peter’s Church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Easter
Sunday to prepare to celebrate the 9:30 a.m. Mass. Suddenly I heard the joyful
Swahili singing, drumming and clapping radiating from the church at the end of
the previous mass. The joy and enthusiasm were “electric.”

    Immediately, spontaneously, I was pumped up, sky high,
ready to go. As I walked from my car some colorfully dressed African school
children came running over to wish me a “Happy Easter.” Then as I walked into
church a Tanzanian woman wished me well and hoped the Holy Spirit would be with
me in my homily. Wow! I was really pumped up. Isn’t this what the Spirit of the
Risen Christ is supposed to do to us?