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Pentecost: A Mission of Peace and Forgiveness

(El Greco)

"Receive the Holy Spirit"

The Word: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/051913-pentecost-mass-during-day.cfm

Acts 2: 1-11
1 Cor 12: 3b – 7, 1
Jn 20: 19-23

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Everything that is big begins very small. Everything from mountains, to plants, to animals, to a distant sound that grows in intensity as it approaches, to we humans. Trees begins as seeds, animals and humans begin as a very tiny cluster of living cells that grow exponentially over time into a small baby that will continue its growth towards maturity. Even ideas often begin very simple and once implemented they become far more complex.

So the same principal is true with the Church. Before Pentecost, the most loyal followers of Jesus could fit inside one room. Today, Christians count in the billions and the Catholic Church alone is about 1.5 billion members across the globe. Anywhere you go in the world today, you will find a Catholic Church and other sects of Christians established worldwide. But the explosion of worldwide Christianity over the last twenty centuries has been born of what the world would not consider the formula for success.

Unlike what we hear from our culture as the sign of a successful life: a life filled with no pain, with material comfort, with physical beauty, with no sadness or challenges, the message of the Gospel through the words of Jesus call us to: take up our cross, to accept some level of persecution for what we believe, to control our desires and impulses, to serve our neighbor with a generous heart, to forgive our enemies, to gather regularly with our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith, and to follow Christ up a steep and narrow path. Did you ever hear this coming from a New York advertising agency?

If we relied merely on human intellect and ability alone, trusting in our own talent and genius, the Christian message would have disappeared centuries ago. We would be reading about the Christian faith in history books as a well-intentioned but failed effort to bring goodness to humanity. So, we might safely say that something more could be attributed to the endurance of the Christian faith. That could only be because of the Feast we celebrate today – that constant abiding and living presence of the Holy Spirit which gives the Church its life and preserves it in truth and charity. This faith is of divine origin and the gift of the Holy Spirit is that of God himself, which sustains this life and preserves it from age to age.

The Holy Spirit reveals the constant intent of Jesus for the world and in particular for those who claim to follow him. The Church has become the way in which the message of salvation is always made present for each generation. This faith has become not just another philosophy to follow or a moral code to be formed by. This faith has become a way to live based upon the message of a person who is recognized as the Word of God among us. So, today we mark the birthday of the Church born from the Spirit in our time and space.

We see in this “birth” the very mission of the Church. The Apostles were changed by that Spirit, which also has the power to reform every one of us who are called to be loyal followers of Jesus in this time we find ourselves.

Before that first Pentecost, the Apostles were fearful, confused, disorganized, and in hiding. After the Spirit came with wind, fire and language (Acts 2: 1-11), they became bold, courageous, and on fire for the Lord and his message. Like an electric cable joined to a battery waiting to be recharged, the Spirit gave this power boost to the beginning age of Christianity. The Apostles needed that surge of courage and conviction to go out and share the good news as Jesus had commissioned them.

Peace and forgiveness is the gift Jesus gave in the Gospel today: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he 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.” (Jn 20: 21-23). The mission of reconciliation with God and others given to a broken world is the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus has breathed upon us.

Where can we find this gift? In sacraments of healing and reconciliation but where else have you seen it? What can we do to bring that healing to others and how courageous can we be in the face of contrary messages today?

O most blessed light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill! . . .
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew . . .
Guide the steps that go astray . . .

(From the Sequence for Pentecost)

Fr. Tim

A Pentecost Meditation

Alleluia!
Today the Spirit of the Lord has invaded the cosmos and filled it!
Life spills out of the Cenacle
and, like a torrent of wine,
courses through the streets of Jerusalem.
God arises and His enemies are scattered;
those that hate Him flee before his face,
and those that love Him sing: Alleluia!

Today He who came down to see Babel’s tower
and confused the speech of the proud
visits the Upper Room.
He unties the tongues of the humble
and unites into one holy people those long divided by sin.
Amazed at what she sees and hears,
the Church intones her birthday song: Alleluia!

Today He who on Sinai descended in fire,
causing rocks to quake and peaks to pale,
descends upon Jerusalem;
tongues of fire dance over the heads of those
who, cloistered in the Cenacle, waited to meet their God
and at His coming, they cry out: Alleluia.

Today the valley of dry bones
begins to stir, to rattle, and to reverberate.
Behold, I will cause the Spirit to enter you,
and you shall live:
and they lived and stood upon their feet,
an exceeding great host
singing: Alleluia!

Today the Cenacle sealed like tomb
opens, a joyful Mother’s fruitful womb.
None was ever born of the Spirit
who did not take his birth from her,
and each, claiming from her the springs of his life,
calls her forever glorious, repeating: Alleluia!

Today the Spirit is poured out in superabundance;
today sons and daughters prophesy;
today old men dream dreams and young men see visions;
today menservants and maidservants
join the choir to chant with one many-tongued voice: Alleluia!

Today the Virgin whom the Spirit covered with His shadow
is wrapped in Love and crowned in flame.
Today the Woman who interceded at Cana
tastes New Wine, for the Hour has come.
Today the Mother who stood watching by the Tree
remembers the stream of water and of blood
and filled with sweetness, cries: Alleluia!

Today the Spirit helps us in our weakness
and we who do not know to pray as we ought,
pray in a way that is wonderful and new;
for now the Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with sighs too deep for words.
In the valley of the shadow of death
there rises the canticle of life: Alleluia!

Today, for the poor there is a Father,
for the destitute a Treasury,
for hearts grown dark an inblazing of brightness.
Today, for those who weep there comes the Best of Comforters,
for the lonely, there arrives a gentle Guest,
for the worn and weary there is a refreshment so sweet
that even they begin to sing: Alleluia!

Today, for workers there is repose,
for those scorched in the heat of discord, refreshment,
for those brought low by too great a weight of sorrow, solace,
and for those with tears to shed,
a chalice ready to receive them.
Today there is no one who cannot say: Alleluia!

Today, even where there is nothing good
Goodness elects to dwell;
and where there is nothing holy
Holiness makes a tabernacle,
so that the broken, the sad, and the powerless
find their voices to sing: Alleluia!

Today, there is a balm for every wound,
a dew sprinkled over every dryness;
a cleansing water for every stain.
Today, the stubborn heart learns to bend
and the stiff spine learns to bow.
In the twinkling of an eye the frozen are thawed
and icy hearts warmed through and through,
making them declare as never before: Alleluia!

Today there are Seven Gifts
lavishly given for each according to his need:
Wisdom for the foolish,
Understanding for the dull,
Counsel for the hesitant,
Fortitude for the weak,
Piety for the feckless,
and Fear of the Lord for those who have forgotten to adore,
saying humbly: Alleluia

Today for sinners there is forgiveness,
for the stranger a home,
for the hungry a Holy Table,
for the thirsty a river of living water,
and for every mouth the long-awaited Kiss.
Today heaven is poured over the face of the earth,
while the children of men in amazement sing: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Whitsunday