PENTECOST.
Acts 2:1-11;
1 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn. 20:19-23
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 Mary
and the Apostles and they took up the mission of proclaiming the Gospel
throughout the whole world.
The Risen
Jesus gives his apostles a foretaste of Pentecost on the evening of Easter
Sunday. Entering the still locked Upper Room, Jesus greets them, sends
them to carry on the mission given him by his Heavenly Father, and empowers
them to do so by breathing upon them and saying, “Receive the Holy
Spirit.” The gift of the Spirit would enable them to fulfill Jesus’
commission to preach the Gospel to all nations. Today’s Gospel passage also
tells us how Jesus gave to the Apostles the power and authority to forgive
sins. His, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” was immediately followed by, “For those
whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.” These wonderful words, which bind together
inseparably the presence of the Holy Spirit and the gift of
forgiveness, are referred to directly in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
But they have a much wider meaning. Those words remind us of the
Christian vocation we all have, to love and forgive as we have been loved
and forgiven, in the world of today, which is often fiercely judgmental and
vengeful. (In Jn 16:8 Jesus says of the Holy Spirit as: And having come, He will convict the world
concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Others
will point out to us our mistakes, but the Holy Spirit will point out to us our
Sins. If we are conscious of our sins then realize the Holy spirit is doing the
work in us).
We need to
be Spirit-filled Christians. Spirit-filled people acknowledge their
weaknesses, ask for the strengthening, anointing and guidance of the Holy
Spirit every morning, ask for His forgiveness every evening, and pass on that
forgiveness to those who sin against them. Spirit-filled people are praying
people. A mature prayer life makes us smart partners of the Holy Spirit. In
Romans 8:27 Paul says: We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless
groans. Paul encourages us, “Pray on every occasion as the Spirit leads.
For this reason, keep alert and never give up; pray for all God’s people” (Eph
6:18). Spirit-filled people are praying and worshipping God in their
families and parishes. Spirit-filled people are people who allow the Spirit to
change their lives through their daily reading of the Bible and their
frequenting of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist.
Spirit-filled people speak words that heal, restore, make people happy and
build people up instead of tearing them down.
We received
the Holy Spirit at Baptism and at Confirmation. But we have to allow the Holy Spirit
to guide us by praying to him every day. Otherwise we wouldn’t know the
difference whether we have the Holy spirit working in us or not.
An old
beggar lay on his deathbed. His last words were to his youngest son who
had been his constant companion during his begging trips. “Dear son,” he
said, “I have nothing to give you except a cotton bag and a dirty bronze bowl
which I got in my younger days from the junk yard of a rich lady.” After
his father’s death, the boy continued begging, using the bowl his father had
given him. One day a gold merchant dropped a coin in the boy’s bowl,
and he was surprised to hear a familiar clinking sound. “Let me
check your bowl,” the merchant said. To his great surprise, he found
that the beggar’s bowl was made of pure gold. “My dear young man,”
he said, “why do you waste your time begging? You are a rich
man. That bowl of yours is worth at least thirty thousand dollars.”
We
Christians are often like this beggar boy who failed to recognize and
appreciate the value of his bowl. We fail to appreciate the infinite
worth of the Holy Spirit living within each of us, sharing His gifts and fruits
and charisms with us. But often we don’t make use of his assistance and
gifts. On this major feast day, we are invited to experience and appreciate the
transforming, sanctifying and strengthening presence of the Holy Spirit within
us. This is also a day for us to renew the promises made to God
during our Baptism and Confirmation, to renew our profession of Faith, and to
begin anew to practice it faithfully, every day.
Today, when
the Holy Spirit renews his presence in us and in the world during this Mass,
let's renew our commitment to becoming mature men and women of prayer, so that
we can boldly advance the Church's beautiful and urgent mission.
