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.