The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, May 19, 2024, as Pentecost Sunday in the liturgical year B. In the entrance antiphon, we pray: “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world and that which contains all things understands what is said. 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, Christ asked his disciples, as we hear in Acts 1: 4, not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there until he sent them his Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to strengthen their faith and send them preaching his word to the four corners of the world.
The Spirit in the Church is the vivid theme of today’s Mass as we commemorate the giving of the Spirit to the Apostles that led to the birth of the Church on the same day. The Old Testament had looked forward to the day when the Spirit would be poured out on the flesh. Now this has happened and the Spirit has come to recreate the world with the word of Christ. That is what Saint Luke tells us in the First Reading from Acts of the Apostles. In the Second Reading, from First Corinthians, Saint Paul has problems explaining to his converts of Corinth the numerous gifts of the Spirit. He tells them that the Spirit of God is with everyone who professes the authentic faith of Christ. In the Gospel, Saint John brings out three themes: firstly, the theme of the resurrection, where Jesus is present in his glorified state to everyone; secondly, the theme of the Holy Spirit that Jesus imparts to his disciples to fortify them for their mission; and thirdly, the theme of Church, which Christ sets up as a community of people of love, joy, and peace. Peace means the commandment of fraternal love is being met as the disciples carry the peace of resurrection to all men and women of goodwill.
As we reflect on the readings of this day, let us pray for the grace to receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts, minds, and souls so we can be true bearers of Christ’s love in our families, workplaces, and society as a whole. Let us evoke the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen, alleluia!”
First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11.
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans, and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
Comment
Today, we witness the birth of the Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles who, in keeping with Christ’s instructions, had remained in Jerusalem. Pentecost was one of the great feasts for which many Jews went on pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem to worship God in the temple. Later it was given the additional dimension of commemorating the promulgation of the Law given by God to Moses on Sinai. The Pentecost celebration was held fifty days after the Passover.
The coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles is characterized by wind and fire, elements that typically accompany manifestations of God in the Old Testament (Ex 3:2, 2 Kings 5:24). The wind and noise were so strong that people flocked to the place to see for themselves what was happening. The fire on the heads of the apostles symbolizes the action of the Holy Spirit who, by enlightening the minds of the disciples, enables them to understand Christ’s teaching as he promised during the Last Supper. It inflames their hearts with love and dispels whatever fear they may still have and moves them to preach boldly. Fire also has a purifying effect. It is God’s action cleansing the soul of all traces of sin.
Pentecost was not an isolated event in the life of the Church, something over and done with. In a homily he preached on May 25, 1980, Saint John Paul II, said, “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. …. Thus was 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 Christ gather, is an extension of that original Cenacle.”
Saint Augustine tells us that the Holy Spirit is the soul, the source of life of the Church, which was born on the Cross on Good Friday and whose birth was announced publicly on the day of Pentecost. On this day, people of different races and tongues understand Peter and the apostles, each in his or her own language. They can do so thanks to a special grace from the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, thanks to the Holy Spirit, reverses the confusion of languages that came into the world when man tried to defy God through the Tower of Babel (Gen 11: 1-9). On Pentecost day, the Church was born and openly displayed to the crowd. As the Fathers of the Church tell us: “On that day was foreshadowed the union of all peoples in the catholicity of the faith by means of the Church of the New Alliance, a Church which speaks every language, understands and embraces all tongues in charity, and thus overcomes the dispersion of Babel”. The Tower of Babel is now over and disunited humanity is now together in the Spirit of God.
What does this reading tell me? It challenges me, as a Christian living in the city of Douala today, to strive to redeem and to sanctify my own time. I am being called to also announce, in my own time, to the world to which I belong that I am a bearer of Christ’s Good News. May the Holy Spirit set me and my fellow Christians loose upon the world so we too can proclaim the word of Christ’s salvation with boldness. This, we cannot do on our own, just as the disciples of Christ only found the courage to take his word to the outside world after the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is this same Spirit who guides all our missionary efforts. Let us turn to him in all that we do. We make our prayer through Christ, the risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7. 12-13.
Brothers and sisters: No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Comment
Among the many troubles Paul had with his converts of Corinth was confusion over the gifts of the Spirit, which were being used in an unsatisfactory way in public worship. He then explains what these gifts are and the close connection between them and the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ. He realizes that the Corinthians are fairly uninformed about the gifts of the Spirit and takes steps to enlighten them because moral deviations often originate from poor knowledge and understanding of Church teaching.
Spiritual gifts, also called “charisms” are exceptional graces usually bestowed for the benefit of the Christian community to build up the Church. They are the visible manifestations of the Holy Spirit that help the Church to operate at its best. The Fathers of Vatican II are clear on this point; “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. Allotting 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. Whether theses charisms be very remarkable or more simple and widely diffused, they are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation since they are fitting and useful for the needs of the Church. Extraordinary gifts are not to be rashly desired, nor is it from them that the fruits of apostolic labors are to be presumptuously expected” (Lumen gentium, 12).
What am I hearing here? I am hearing that it is not anyone who comes claiming to be a prophet that I should blindly follow, as many Christians are doing these days. Some are crossing borders into neighbouring countries at great risks to their lives in the vain search of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit through so-called prophets, who are nothing but thieves in the cloaks of prophets. Must I leave my country, Cameroon, to cross to neighboring Nigeria in quest of the so-called prophets when the marvels of the Holy Spirit are all around me? I wonder.
There is therefore need for a proper discernment of the signs of the Holy Spirit. It follows that the gifts of the Holy Spirit can never go against the teachings of the Church. Let’s hear the Fathers of the Church again: “Those who have charge over the Church should judge the genuineness and proper use of these gifts (…) not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to what is good” (Lumen gentium, 12).
God is the origin of all spiritual gifts that are granted for the benefit and service of all humanity. By distributing various kinds of spiritual gifts and ministries, the Holy Spirit enriches the Church of Jesus Christ. What is important is not dramatic and extraordinary displays of charisms, but rather, as Saint John Paul II tells us, that the Holy Spirit leads the greatest possible number of the faithful as they travel their daily paths, to make a humble, patient, and persevering effort to know the mystery of Christ better and better, and to bear witness to it. Holy Spirit, come to our assistance. Amen, alleluia.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 20: 19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. 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.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Comment
Jesus appears to the Apostles on the evening of the day of his resurrection. He presents himself in their midst without needing 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 felt at behaving so disloyally during his passion: he has recreated the normal atmosphere of intimacy, and now he will endow them with the power of the Spirit, especially the power to forgive sins.
The Church continues to exercise the power Jesus conferred on his Apostles to forgive sin in the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. The Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation 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 continues, 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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