The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, May 28, 2023, as Pentecost Sunday – Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The Spirit of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and knows every word spoken by man, alleluia.”
Pentecost comes from the Greek word for fiftieth day. It is fifty days since our Lord rose from the dead. Ten days ago, we celebrated His ascension into heaven. Before going up to his Father, Jesus asked his disciples, as we hear in Acts 1: 4, not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for his Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to come down and strengthen their faith and enable them to preach his word to the four corners of the world.
All the three readings of this day give us a rich insight about the Holy Spirit, who came down on Mary and the Apostles as well as on so many others who came to believe in the Apostles’ teaching. This double event of Easter and Pentecost gave birth to the Church.
The first reading from Acts of the Apostles shows us how the Holy Spirit creates unity in the world. He strengthens and encourages Christ’s followers to boldly take his message of salvation to all the nations of the world. In the second reading from first Corinthians, Saint Paul tells his converts that the gifts of the Holy Spirit take different forms but all have one purpose, which is to build the Christian community, for the common good and not for personal gains. Saint John’s Gospel message assures us that the Holy Spirit comes to forgive our sins and to enable us to forgive others so that we can reconcile even with our enemies.
First Reading: Acts 2: 1 – 11
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
Comment
Pentecost originated as a harvest thanksgiving, with an offering of first fruits. Later, it was given the additional dimension of commemorating the promulgation of the Law given by God to Moses in the Sinai. The Pentecost celebration was held fifty days after the celebration of the feast of Passover. The material harvest, which the Jews celebrated so joyously, became, through God’s providence, the symbol of the spiritual harvest which the Apostles began to reap on this day.
The Spirit comes first as a strong wind and then as tongues of fire on the heads of the apostles. Wind and fire were elements which typically accompanied manifestations of God in the Old Testament. For example, Moses heard the voice of God in the burning bush in Exodus 3:2, and God’s word comes to Elijah after a strong and heavy wind (1 Kg 11-14).
The wind and the noise on this Pentecost day must have been so intense that people flocked to the place to see for themselves what was happening. The fire symbolises the action of the Holy Spirit who, by enlightening the minds of the disciples, enables them to understand Christ’s teaching. It inflames their hearts with love and dispels their fears and uncertainties and moves them to preach boldly. Fire also has a purifying effect, which is God’s action cleansing the soul of all trace of sin.
Pentecost was not a one-time event in the life of the Church. As Saint John Paul II said in a homily he gave on 25 May 1980: “We have the right, the duty and the joy to tell you that Pentecost is still happening. We can legitimately speak of the ‘lasting value’ of Pentecost. We know that fifty days after Easter, the Apostles, gathered together in the same Cenacle as had been used for the first Eucharist and from which they had gone out to meet the Risen One for the first time, discover in themselves the power of the Holy Spirit who descended upon them, the strength of Him whom the Lord had promised so often as the outcome of his suffering on the Cross; and strengthened in this way, they began to act, that is, to perform their role. Thus is born the apostolic Church. But even today – and herein continuity lies – the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome and every Temple, every Oratory, every place where the disciples of the Lord gather, is an extension of the original Cenacle.”
So today, we celebrate the birth of the Church through the breath of Christ, the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: “God our Father, we pray to you for the Church of your Son Jesus Christ. Let her be resplendent with the beauty of Jesus; Let her be holy and spotless; let her not be maimed by error. Guide this Church that she, in turn, will love all people, and put herself at their service. We make our supplication through Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia.
Second Reading: 1 Cor 12: 3-7.12-13.
No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Comment
Among the many troubles Paul had with his converts of Corinth was confusion over the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He begins this reading by explaining what these gifts are and what close connection there is between them and the doctrine of the mystical body. Spiritual gifts, also called “charisms”, are the exceptional graces usually bestowed for the benefit of the whole Christian community to build up the Church.
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council say, in one of their documents, Lumen Gentium, that “it is not only through the sacraments and the ministrations of the Church that the Holy Spirit makes holy the people, leads them and enriches them with his virtues. Alloting his gifts according as he wills, he also distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts, he makes them fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church, as it is written, “the manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.”
God is the origin of spiritual gifts. He grants them to us for the benefit and service of the other members of the Church. By endowing us with various kinds of spiritual gifts and ministries, the Holy Spirit enriches the Church of Jesus Christ.
Paul is telling his converts, and us, that the gifts which the Holy Spirit distributes should always be for the service of the Church. Even if all such gifts are not always extraordinary, they are nonetheless gifts of the Spirit. The Spirit is for the body of Christ. He is that soul of unity in the body of Christ which welds together the different nations and classes into the living communion of the people of God.
Let us pray with Karl Rahner for the gift of the Holy Spirit: “Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit. Give us again and again your Pentecostal gift. Make our spiritual eye bright and our spiritual awareness sensitive, so that we are able to distinguish your Spirit from all others. Lord, may your Pentecost be with us forever. Your servants and handmaids ask with the boldness you require of them. May Pentecost be in us also. Now and forever. Amen. Alleluia.
Gospel acclamation: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 20: 19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Comment
Jesus appears to the Apostles on the evening of the day of his resurrection. He presents himself in their midst without any need for the doors to be opened, by using the qualities of his glorified body. However, to dispel any impression that he is only a spirit, he shows them his hands and his side: there is no longer any doubt in the disciples’ minds that they are face-to-face with the Risen Lord himself. He greets them twice using the words of greetings customary among the Jews. “Peace be with you”. These friendly words dispel the fear and shame the apostles must have been feeling at behaving so disloyally during his passion. Through these words, he recreates the normal atmosphere of intimacy, and thus endows them with the power of the Spirit, especially the power to forgive sins.
The power Jesus confers on his Apostles to forgive sin still continues to be exercised by the Church in the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. It is the most sublime expression of God’s love and mercy towards men and women, described so vividly in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32). The Lord always awaits us, with his arms wide open, waiting for us to repent – and then he will forgive us and restore us to the dignity of being his sons and daughters.
The Popes throughout history have consistently recommended Christians to have regular recourse to this sacrament. In his encyclical Mystici Corporis, Pope Pius XII strongly recommends a constant and speedy advancement in the path of virtue, through the pious practice of frequent confession, introduced by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; for by this means, he tells us, “we grow in a true knowledge of ourselves and in Christian humility, bad habits are uprooted, spiritual negligence and apathy are prevented, the conscience is purified and the will strengthened, salutary spiritual direction is obtained, and grace is increased by the efficacy of the sacrament itself.” Pope Pius XII.
Let us pray this prayer which Saint John XXIII left to the Church in honour of the Holy Spirit: “O Holy Spirit, Paraclete, perfect in us the work begun by Jesus; enable us to continue to pray fervently in the name of the whole world. Hasten in everyone of us the growth of a deep interior life; give vigour to our apostolate so that it may reach all peoples, all redeemed by the blood of Christ and all belonging to him. Let no earthly bond prevent us from honouring our vocation, no cowardly consideration disturb the claims of justice, no meanness confine the immensity of charity within the narrow bounds of petty selfishness. Let everything in us be on a grand scale: the search for the truth, and the devotion to it, and readiness for self-sacrifice, even to the cross and death; and may everything finally be according to your will, O Holy Spirit of love, which the Father and the Son desired to be poured out over the Church and its institutions, over each and every human soul and over nations. We ask this through Christ our Lord.” Amen. Alleluia.
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