Pentecost Year A
Acts 2:1–11
Psalm 104:1, 24, 29–30, 31, 34
1 Corinthians 12:3b–7, 12–13
John 20:19–23
Many parishes have recently celebrated with Bishop Earl Fernandes the personal experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit through the sacrament of confirmation. When we celebrate Pentecost as the Church, we are calling to mind in sacred Scripture all the events that show us of the Church’s knowing of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit to bring us to unity in the Church and with all human beings who are open to receiving the action of grace.
The readings of Pentecost make known to us the first experience of unity among devout believers from among the nations who are present for the Jewish feast 50 days after Passover. They discover to their surprise a common hearing of the message proclaimed by the disciples of Jesus from Galilee, who have been gathered in the Upper Room with Mary.
“We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
The mighty acts of God make known God’s power to work among ordinary people whose hearts are open. That day brings unity to the Church, “divided” by many tongues, and it is still offered today.
We live in a world that is more complex, both in numbers of languages and especially in misunderstandings of the diverse generations and cultures. All willing to listen and to speak “in the Spirit” will receive the power to share the truth and to have that truth received.
Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians speaks to the diversity of active gifts in the hearts and lives of believers, and to the utter unity of every gift given to accomplish together with all other gifts what the Spirit intends for the Church.
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.”
The Gospel of John has a unique but complementary approach to the gift of the Spirit to the Apostles and disciples of Jesus. The risen Lord breathes on them on Easter Sunday evening.
“Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had 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.’”
Standing in their midst, He gives them His peace. He reveals again His wounds, reminding them that the crucified Savior and the risen Lord are the same. He commissions them, after the reaffirmation of the fullness of peace. And He begins to pour out His Spirit on them for the forgiveness of sins, the essence of much of the sacramental life.
The Liturgy of Pentecost brings many beautiful prayers. The Sequence offers two verses that seem fitting for what is happening among us in the world, and particularly in parish life.
Let us pray these verses for our parishes, consortia and parish “clusters,” or families. May our hearts find healing of wounds, renewal, new freedom and a change of heart, mind and will as the Spirit prompts us:
“Heal our wounds, our strength renew.
On our dryness pour thy dew.
Wash the stains of guilt away.
“Bend the stubborn heart and will.
Melt the frozen, warm the chill.
Guide the steps that go astray.”
We conclude our Pentecost Novena with a full-throated cry for the Spirit: Come, Holy Spirit!