Today is the birthday of the whole universal Church. It is also our birthday every Pentecost Sunday. It is the birth of the Church, and we are the body of Christ, the Church. Happy birthday to everyone. Our human relationships start within the mystery of Christ and continue to reveal amazing experiences even to this day rřrřertttțeerřtț of the unfolding of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is not an event we wait for, where we anticipate particularly cipating in and expecting more revelations of the power of the Spirit to blow us away, but rather every moment is Pentecost! Every day we feel the abiding presence of God in our midst through God’s continued movements or actions of self-revelation.
Looking into the beginning of this Pentecost celebration, we go back to the Jewish major feasts which they remember to celebrate. The first is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, or the Passover, which commemorates the sparing of their first-born male child from the angel of death. Second, the Feast of the Weeks, or the first cuttings of the grain harvest, which they gather as a people to celebrate God’s fidelity in giving their land to them and its fertility. Third, the Feast of Tents to celebrate harvestings of grapes and olives. For the Jewish believers, Pentecost is a harvest memorial feast; whereas, for us Christians, today is a celebration of God’s sending the Hoy Spirit to bring about plentiful harvests of followers for the Lord here on earth. There must be no fear and laziness but more serious commitment to our baptismal promises. We must sustain our relationships with God and together we work as One.
The word “Pentecost” is derived from the Greek word which means “fifty days,” after Jesus’ resurrection. From the first reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples of Jesus gathered together to celebrate the fidelity of God to manifest to them a new creation and a great blessing, which is the coming of the Holy Spirit descending upon those who believe. It was an amazing and memorable event to everyone who came from distant regions, “And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” (v.4) With the coming of the Spirit there was this interior fire, “yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” (v.11)
The gospel today has this message from Jesus saying, “But the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given Me.” It means that just as He has been loved by the Father, He loves us in the same way. This is significant for His disciples and us that we are much loved by Jesus. Though Jesus’ corporeal departure on earth can be unbelievably difficult and emotionally debilitating, Jesus constantly communicates with us to give joyful hope that grows from within. From this small group of followers, it became an amazing community because of Jesus’ assurance of love which supports to build trust and to help for Jesus to be known by all the corners of the world. Jesus’ circle of friends becomes a new community of loving and valued persons in His heart.
I am sure St. Paul is smiling and happy to know that because of Jesus’ love and the love St. Paul had for the Lord, remembering his conversion story is an eye opener for those who are struggling to fully give themselves to God. Without St. Paul’s love and dedication, Christianity would not have spread very far. We too experience persecution within our families and hostile environments; however, we stay to share our good news stories of our individual conversion and experience with the Risen Jesus. We cling to Jesus’ love also, capable of sharing our success stories of faith, sharing our gift of healing, and being transformed into more loving people, following Jesus faithfully, to continue His mission; however, we are not alone, and we must allow the Spirit as the one whom He sent to continue our task to save others. The work remains to be growing and expanding. We work harder and diligently with His abiding presence, the Holy Spirit.
We want to continue loving our faith, the Church, and our community. We cannot live meaningfully apart from our Lord, Jesus Christ, for we are now the Body of Christ and it is through us to make known the glorious splendor of God’s kingdom, both in heaven and on earth.
Let us not be troubled and live in fear. The peace we receive is empowering. With the peace of Christ, we are healed, and it takes away our stress and anxiety and emboldens us to go out and preach the gospel.
We can start small and bring peace to our corner of the world. We can pray for peace. I pray for peace. I pray for God’s grace to help me find God in all things and to be a peacemaker in every way I can.
It is a post resurrection appearance when Jesus greets them with “Peace be with you.” Then He entrusted to them the very mission by breathing on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Let us pause and think about Jesus’ important gesture of offering the same breath, or the Spirit.
First, let us recall stories from the Book of Genesis. The world was in chaos because of the disobedience and pride of our ancestors. In order to manifest God’s fidelity to His people, God breathed the same Spirit that brought about order from the chaos. From the very beginning, the Holy Spirit has been part of our way of living, and new existence.
Second, we hear John’s account of Jesus breathing on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” which means sending the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is a witness to Jesus, representing the continued abiding presence of Jesus on earth after returning to the Father. However, the mission to testify rests not with the Spirit alone, but for us to testify through our love and good works. We are truly blessed, if we allow the Holy Spirit to change us by listening to Jesus saying, “And you also testify.”
Third, we celebrate that as we open to the Spirit’s work of giving Christ’s presence new dimensions, new visibility, and new gestures of revelation within us, we must accept the very mission we must accomplish. We pray with constancy to be more open to the Holy Spirit’s recreating power in order to bring new life and to extend God’s peace within us amidst this troubled world.
Three themes run through these readings: peace, praise and perseverance. Jesus promises peace, but not as the world gives peace. In the story in Acts we see very clearly that “worldly” peace didn’t materialize for the disciples. They faced stoning and persecution and despite of it, they continued praising God. They persevere and rejoice in the evidence of God working in their midst despite the danger and chaos around them. So, in times of stress, tension and turmoil, remember the great inheritance Christ left us through these powerful words, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”
Today, let us implore the Holy Spirit to awaken our drowsing hearts and remove the blindness from our eyes, so that we may see and embrace Jesus, our Lord, with the manifold gifts of the Spirit to proclaim Him boldly to the world. God’s spirit made us one body in order to have life together.
Come Holy Spirit! Veni Sancte Spiritus!
Fr. Arlon, osa
