Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday, Cycle C (2)

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Some people call Pentecost Sunday the birthday of the Church, but, while a lovely thought, that’s not entirely accurate. Today, the last day of the Easter season, we celebrate when the Church “goes public”: the frightened men in the upper room are emboldened by the Holy Spirit to go out and proclaim the Good News, and the Holy Spirit helps them to be understood. Some see this moment as reversing what happened at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9): if the pride and hubris of men led them to division and misunderstanding, the Spirit of the Lord brings them back together again into one people through reconciliation with God and with each other.

The places named in today’s First Reading by the astounded Jews are all places where the Church first spread, aided by the Holy Spirit. The inspiration of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit was always meant to inspire all believers. Like the tongues of flame descending on the Apostles, the Holy Spirit wants to enflame hearts. We’re all called to not only let our hearts be enflamed by the Holy Spirit, but to share that flame with others as well. The devout Jews recalled today are from all over Asia Minor, as well as far flung places like Rome and Cyrene. They went out and brought enflamed hearts to their native places, and shared the flame of an ardent faith inspired by the Holy Spirit.

As St. Paul reminds us in today’s Second Reading (1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13), it is thanks to the Spirit that we can pray at all. Pentecost Sunday is a special day for celebrating the many gifts the Holy Spirit lavishes upon the Church. Throughout the Easter season we’ve seen the Spirit emboldening, instructing, dissuading, and strengthening the disciples as they started to spread the Gospel throughout the world. Just as we are the Mystical Body of Christ, a Biblical image of the Church, the Holy Spirit is like the Soul of that Body, giving the Body form and life that makes the Church visible as a living thing. With the Holy Spirit’s help the Church is not just a conglomeration of people who agree on certain teachings, but a communion of life and love that wants to welcome everyone into the fold, reconciling them with God in the process.

In today’s Gospel the Risen Lord gives the Apostles a special infusion of the Holy Spirit that helps them reconcile sinners with God and helps people to see when they haven’t. Pentecost Sunday is not just a day for celebrating the Holy Spirit’s gifts that enable us to be in communion with each other; it is also a day for celebrating the Holy Spirit’s role in bringing us into and maintaining our communion with the Most Holy Trinity, which we’ll celebrate next Sunday. Without this gift of reconciliation through the Holy Spirit there is no communion, and without this communion, little by little, divisions and misunderstandings are sown. Through the Holy Spirit we remain unified and united, among ourselves and with God.

The Church has a beautiful prayer to invoke the Holy Spirit. Take some time this week to pray it in first person:

Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart and kindle in me the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and you will renew me.

Help me to know what is right and to rejoice always in the Spirit’s consolation. Amen.

Readings: Acts 2:1–11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29–31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b–7, 12–13; John 20:19–23.See also Pentecost Sunday, Cycle C, Second Sunday of Easter, 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), Cycle C, and Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday, Cycle B

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Today the Easter season concludes with Pentecost Sunday, remembering that moment in the upper room where timid disciples waiting to see what would come next received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit emboldened them to become tireless apostles who would spread the Gospel throughout the world and throughout history. Today we also celebrate in a special way the Person of the Most Holy Trinity who expounded on the teaching of Our Lord and the words of the Father and paved the way to us to live a truly fulfilling life: life in the Spirit.

In today’s First Reading we see that at Pentecost the divisions and discord caused by sin, as the Old Testament story of the tower of Babel teaches us, start to be reversed by the Holy Spirit who enables believes to understand each other again and to welcome the Gospel into their lives. The work of salvation has been powered by the Holy Spirit from the beginning: it was in the power of the Holy Spirit that the Word became flesh in Mary’s womb, and raised Jesus from the dead.

After Our Lord’s Ascension the Holy Spirit gives that vital impulse to help the Church to grow and reach unheard of places, even today. The Spirit continues to make Our Lord present through the sacraments and pours grace into our hearts. The Spirit helps the Church’s shepherds to remain faithful to the Gospel message handed down from Christ through the Apostles. As the story of Pentecost reminds us, the Holy Spirit makes the Gospel understood by everyone of good will, and that knowledge leads to a new life.

In today’s Second Reading (Galatians 5:16–25) Paul reminds us that if the Spirit of God is within us we should live and be led by the Spirit, not by the desires of the flesh. The “flesh” is everything base and carnal. It is focusing on self-gratification to the exclusion of all else. The path of self-gratification is ultimately the path of striving after things that will never ultimately or completely satisfy us. We always need another, more intense “fix,” with the anxiety that more may not be forthcoming or what we have might no longer be enough.

The Spirit opposes those things because they separate us from him and close us off from the Kingdom of God. The Spirit strives to show us the right path, the path that will grant us peace in our earthly life and eternal happiness. The path traced out by the Spirit is deeper than just volatile feelings. It comes from deeper and nobler convictions that engender love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are all fruits of letting the Holy Spirit lead us to a life in the Spirit.

In today’s Gospel (John 15:26–27, 16:12–15) before his Passion and death the Lord promises to send us a new Advocate to help us after his Resurrection and Ascension, someone new in our corner looking out for our interests. We know from Saint John’s Last Supper Discourse that we abide in the Lord, and the Lord abides in us if we keep his commandments. Our Lord promises that Father and Son will send this Advocate to those who love and obey God. The whole Trinity is involved. The Holy Spirit comes to be in our corner, to Advocate for us, and to help us remain faithful to Our Lord’s teachings and Our Father’s will. Our Lord’s promise to send the Advocate to the Apostles is fulfilled on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in Jesus’ name, taught them and reminded them of everything. Through the Apostles’ successors, the bishops, the Holy Spirit continues to teach and remind the whole Church.

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit helped the Apostles translate the Good News into something all their listeners could understand, overthrowing the pride that lead to the linguistic chaos of Babel. The Good News for those first listeners was translated into a new life, a life led by the Spirit and not by the desires of the flesh. The Church continues to share the Good News, and the Gospel still needs to be translated into life. We start by translating it into our own lives, because others see our lives and, if they’re impressed, change their lives accordingly. The best evangelization we can do is living a Gospel life, led by the Spirit. Let your life, helped by the Spirit, be the best translation of the Gospel it can be.

Readings: Acts 2:1–11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29–31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b–7, 12–13; John 20:19–23. See also Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday, Cycle A

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Today the Easter season concludes with Pentecost Sunday, commemorating that day in the budding Church when the Father and the Son poured out the Holy Spirit in a special way on the Apostles and they took up the mission of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the whole world. The Holy Spirit throughout the Church’s history has showered down gifts upon her to keep her faithful to the teaching she’s received from Our Lord, and to keep the fires burning to inspire hearts to turn to Our Lord and be reconciled with God and with man.

In today’s First Reading with wind and fire the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Twelve in a way that cannot be contained. It’s a sign no one can ignore. A rushing wind and tongues of fire. It draws a crowd. It’s a sign everyone is able to understand. It goes beyond the barriers of language to help humanity reunite once again in the Spirit. It’s the sign everyone has been seeking: the truth about God, the world, and man. Every point of origin the shocked witnesses mention today was a full-fledged Christian communion by the time St. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles. The fire of the Holy Spirit spread like wildfire, uncontainable.

In today’s Second Reading Paul reminds us that the presence and action of the Holy Spirit is often perceived as gifts, gifts for the edification and unity of the Church. The Holy Spirit gifts us the gift of prayer to express in faith that Jesus is Lord. The spiritual gifts are unified in the Church through their source: the Holy Spirit. The ways we serve are unified in serving Our Lord. All the workings of the Spirit in us come from God. Each gift is for our benefit, another’s, or both.

In today’s Gospel we’re reminded of one of the Spirit’s greatest gifts, a gift Our Lord conferred to the Apostles on the eve of his Resurrection: the gift of reconciliation with God. Our Lord first bestows the gift of reconciliation with his dearest friends, the friends who abandoned him in his moment of need: “Peace be with you.” It’s no coincidence that he repeats this desire for reconciliation even as he is breathing the Holy Spirit upon them. It is the Holy Spirit who makes reconciliation possible. The Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and gave him new life so that reconciliation would be possible.

One of the most saddening ways to break off a relationship with someone is to say, “you are dead to me;” In God’s eyes, even in those situations the Spirit can make that person come alive again through the grace of mercy, whether mercy received or mercy given. The separation between God and man, recalled by the story of the Tower of Babel, is reversed by the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: in pride man distanced himself from God and his fellow man, and communication broke down. Through the gift of tongues the Holy Spirit reestablishes the lines of communication. In the Spirit man reconciles not only with God, but with his fellow man.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday were crowning gifts for the good of the Church and the world. This Sunday is not just a moment to ask the Spirit for more gifts, although they are abundant; it is a moment to take stock of the all the spiritual gifts we have received in gratitude. People receive gifts that they don’t think they really need and chuck them in the closet all the time. Have we relegated any of the Holy Spirit’s gifts to the closet? Paul reminds us today that gifts are for the benefit of someone.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you can best use his gifts.

Readings: Acts 2:1–11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29–31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b–7, 12–13; John 20:19–23.

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Pentecost Sunday, Cycle C

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Some people call Pentecost Sunday the birthday of the Church, but, while a lovely thought, that’s not entirely accurate. Today, the last day of the Easter season, we celebrate when the Church “goes public”: the frightened men in the upper room are emboldened by the Holy Spirit to go out and proclaim the Good News, and the Holy Spirit helps them to be understood. Some see this moment as reversing what happened at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9): if the pride and hubris of men led them to division and misunderstanding, the Spirit of the Lord brings them back together again into one people. The places named in today’s First Reading by the astounded Jews are all places where, in turn, the Church spread, aided by the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost Sunday is a special day for celebrating the many gifts the Holy Spirit lavishes upon the Church. Throughout the Easter season we’ve seen the Spirit emboldening, instructing, dissuading, and strengthening the disciples as they started to spread the Gospel throughout the world. As St. Paul reminds us in today’s Second Reading, it is thanks to the Spirit that we are able to pray at all. Just as we are the Mystical Body of Christ, a Biblical image of the Church, the Holy Spirit is like the Soul of that Body, giving the Body form and life that makes the Church visible as a living thing, not just a conglomeration of people who agree on certain teachings, but a communion of life and love that wants to welcome everyone into the fold.

Pentecost Sunday is not just a day for celebrating all the Holy Spirit’s gifts that enable us to be in communion with each other; it is also a day for celebrating the Holy Spirit’s role in bringing us into and maintaining our communion with the Most Holy Trinity, which we’ll celebrate next Sunday. In today’s Gospel the Risen Lord gives the Apostles a special infusion of the Holy Spirit that helps them reconcile sinners with God or help people see when they haven’t. Without this reconciliation there is no communion, and without this communion, little by little, divisions and misunderstandings are sown, just as the tale of the Tower of Babel illustrates.

Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit continues to embolden, instruct, dissuade, and strengthen us in sharing the Gospel and fostering communion between each other and between God.

Readings: Acts 2:1–11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29–31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b–7, 12–13; John 20:19–23. See also Second Sunday of Easter, 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), Cycle C, and Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday

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Today is a day to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the whole Church. In the Gospel today Our Lord gives the Apostles the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them free people from sin and from error, just as today’s bishops and priests do by teaching the Gospel and celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation. In the First Reading we see the divisions and discord caused by sin, as the Old Testament story of the tower of Babel teaches us, start to be reversed by the Holy Spirit who enables believes to understand each other again and to welcome the Gospel into their hearts.

The work of salvation has been powered by the Holy Spirit from the beginning: it was in the power of the Holy Spirit that the Word became flesh in Mary’s womb, and raised Jesus from the dead. After Our Lord’s Ascension the Holy Spirit gives that vital impulse to help the Church to grow and reach unheard of places, even today. The Spirit continues to make Our Lord present through the sacraments, and pours grace into our hearts. The Spirit helps the Church’s shepherds to remain faithful to the Gospel message handed down from the Apostles and also gives spiritual gifts to believers in every walk of life to help build up the Church.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit today to kindle in us the fire of God’s love so that we may help to renew the face of the earth through our holiness and through proclaiming the Gospel in a way that everyone can understand.

Readings: Acts 2:1–11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29–31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b–7, 12–13; John 20:19–23.