Walking with Jesus: Pentecost Sunday

For Sunday, June 5, 2022

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; John 14:15-16, 23-26

Today we are celebrating Pentecost, the day of the Holy Spirit’s coming upon the Apostles. Some Sacred Scripture passages state it this way:

• “The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of all I told you.” [John 14:26]
• “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.” [1 Corinthians 12:3]
• “Therefore, I say to you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”[Matthew 12: 31-32]
• “And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong, driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appears to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” [Acts 2:2-4]

The Holy Spirit came and amazing things happened. It wasn’t a gentle coming: Jesus had risen. The Apostles had been in hiding. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the Apostles, Mary, and thousands of others. He told them to stay in Jerusalem. OK, so what’s going to happen? They had been told the Spirit, the Advocate, would come. The Apostles prayed and the promise was fulfilled. It was NOT a quiet entrance. We know the sound of hurricanes. We know to open windows facing the wind and keep the opposite side windows opened slightly to prevent the windows from exploding. We know well the calm before the storm: “The powerful sound that fills the room anticipates the power of the words spoken by the apostles.” Fiery,tongue-shaped flames appeared and were seen by all. Many languages were present from all over the world. I’ve witnessed these languages spoken in my eight pilgrimages to the Holy Land and two pilgrimages to Rome. THIS WAS DIFFERENT. Everyone was speaking their own language, BUT everyone heard what was being said in their native tongue. How did this happen? Like the translators in the UN General Assembly? Not really. Peter stood up and spoke and everyone knew exactly and completely what he was saying: Jesus died and rose for each of us and all people.

It’s really amazing how it happened. This was the biggest day of the Apostles’ lives. They had just received the Holy Spirit. They had just gained a new, amazing confidence in themselves that no one had ever seen before. They understood their challenging mission. They knew it would lead to their deaths, but that wasn’t important. God was all that was important. God created all in love, and told them and continues to tell us our goal: to be with God forever in heaven … to be with love forever. SO START DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!! These ordinary fishermen and some others from Palestine began to convert people to what has become the largest religious body in the world. It’s a tribute to their “get up and go” and the power of the Spirit within them. They didn’t let their critics frustrate them. They spoke of Christ crucified and God’s total love.

In his letters to the Corinthians and the Romans, Paul describes the dilemma we all find in ourselves:  doing God’s will, but being pulled from within to resist God’s will and follow our own selfish inclinations. Paul puts it in an interesting way: We owe nothing to “the flesh” … we are not “slaves” to it … meaning that we “owe” nothing to the flesh. We are free if we refuse the demands of the flesh … we can show ourselves as God’s children of love. What stops us? Why?

In the gospel, Jesus appears to the Apostles ... the faith community … and they are afraid. The Apostles are so happy to see the risen Lord, and immediately Jesus commissions them to take up His message and continue it in His absence. There is an urgency to this. He gives them the Holy Spirit. This is like what God did in Genesis to Adam by breathing on him and making him a living being. [Genesis 2:7] This is the life-changing work of God’s love, care, forgiveness. We have experienced it in our lives when we have touched others with a similar life-changing act. This is God at work in you and me. We have been called to do this by our Baptism and by God Himself. This is why we are here: to be affirmers and sharers of God’s love each day.

So I reflect on:

• I remember tender, moving moments in my life when I’ve experienced the tenderness that led me to God and loving others … in spite of what was going on inside me.
• At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit spoke through the apostles in many different ways. The Holy Spirit continues to speak through my many forms of service. Do I reflect on how He wants me to speak to my own world?
  

Sacred Space 2022 states:

“When I recall the words of Jesus and am reminded of what He said, the Holy Spirit is at work. I pray that I may be more aware of the quiet working of God’s Spirit in my life. I pray that my thoughts, inspirations and desires be open to the prompting of the Advocate.

“I might think of myself as a Temple of the Holy Spirit or I might consider Jesus’ more domestic image as He says that God is ‘at home’ with me. I rest with this thought — that God is comfortable and available in my being.”

I am called to act, not to procrastinate or be silent or pass it on to another.
God calls me, each day … every day!