Pentecost Sundays (Year A)

Acts 2.1-11;  
I Cor 12.3-7, 12-13;  
John 20.19-23

LORD, SEND FORTH YOUR SPIRIT.

The feast of Pentecost is one of the three major feasts of the Jewish people upon which they make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The three major feasts are the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Pentecost refers to fifty days ( feasts of wheat/ 7 weeks) after the feast of barley/ first fruits/ Passover. It became more synonymous with the Toriah the Ten Commandments given to them by God through Moses. Christ died as the lamb was slain on Passover in the Temple. He breathed on the apostles after His Resurrection. He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”

The Solemnity of Pentecost celebrates an almost overwhelming event – the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the apostles fifty days after the resurrection.  We heard the account in the first reading – they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven… and something appeared to them, which seemed like tongues of fire.  For a brief moment, humanity seemed to speak a common language as against the confusion at the tower of Babel, and the praises of God were universally sung and understood.
 
Life in the Church since that day seems to have been stir by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We mention the Holy Spirit often enough – at the beginning of mass, at the end of the opening prayer, often in the New Testament reading.  But on the surface, there seems to be little of the excitement of Pentecost about our Catholic life week by week.  Pentecost comes and goes, and we forget about it.
 
The first Pentecost put Christianity on the map as a universal religion.  It was no longer a kind of Jewish sect, confined to one part of Palestine.  It was something for the whole world, for people of every race and tribe and people and language.  On Pentecost Day, all the pent-up power of the resurrection exploded into the world.  The Church was launched.  Inevitably, day-to-day life, work, and mission will be less dramatic.
 
But it is a mistake to think that the Holy Spirit has become dormant.  Saint Paul, in our second reading, states that no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  He reminds us that the particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.  Saint Paul is hinting at a vital truth: as the Catechism puts it, Life in the Holy Spirit fulfills the vocation of man.  

And in the gospel reading we heard one way in which the Holy Spirit is active in continuing the work of Jesus.  Our Lord breathed on the disciples and gave them the power to forgive sins.  Vital though the Sacrament of Reconciliation is, it is the tip of the iceberg of the Holy Spirit’s role within the life of the Church and of every Christian.  For the Holy Spirit permeates everywhere, touches everyone, and penetrates to the finest detail of our lives, forming us as Christians, enabling us to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” and energising the sacramental life of the Church.
 
The Catechism sets out various aspects of human life as lived before God: these include man striving to find his essential freedom; the education of conscience to allow us to grasp the demands of the moral law; the need to discipline the passions.  Looking from the perspective of human growth and endeavor, the Christian life is an attempt to live well and to do good.  

In doctrinal language it is to live out the theological virtues or faith, hope and charity – theological virtues because they draw us closer to Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God.  In our daily living it is to persevere in the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.  These virtues are the standards of life which we can attain.  The saints achieved them.  But no one can progress in the spiritual life without the Holy Spirit’s help.  No one can grow in virtue without the Spirit.  
 
So, in our Christian life, the Holy Spirit enables us to grow in holiness and to work towards living out our full human potential.  To quote the Catechism again, the moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.  They belong in their fullness to Christ… they complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.  They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.  (paras. 1830-1)
In God’s providence, the Holy Spirit even works to remove the barriers that we erect against his operation in our lives! The Catechism referred to the Holy Spirit also making us docile in obeying divine inspiration.  The beautiful liturgical Sequence for Pentecost, Veni Sancte Spiritus, carries the same message when it sings, reflected quod est rigidum/five quod est frigidum/ rege quod est device:  Bend the stubborn heart and will/ Melt the frozen, warm the chill/ Guide the steps that go astray.  

Therefore, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to change us in the right direction, to conform us to Christ.  And for this to happen, as we know, we must allow God’s will to overcome our stubborn, rigid, straying human will.  So, on this Solemnity of Pentecost, celebrating the eruption into the world of the Holy Spirit’s power, may we be open to the Spirit’s gentle promptings, cooperating with our wills to help us follow Christ and do God’s will.

Come Holy Spirit I need Thee!

Fr Joseph Osho