PENTECOST SUNDAY
This Sunday we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost which heralded the beginning of the apostolic mission to bring the Christian faith to the world. This gift of the Holy Spirit is the culmination of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The gifting of the Holy Spirit is a continuing event in the life of every believing person and, therefore, in every age of human history. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God with us the enduring way in which Jesus remains present in the Church and in the life of each person.
The readings for Pentecost promise that we are not on our own, but have the Spirit to guide us. The focus for this weekend is how the Holy Spirit empowers us to be disciples. In the First Reading we hear that during Pentecost, the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke in diverse languages, astonishing a multinational crowd in Jerusalem as each person heard about God’s wonders in their own language. In the Second Reading we are told if we live by the Spirit, not the flesh, we will be aligned with God. Christ’s Spirit in us promises life despite our mortal bodies. Led by this Spirit, we are God’s children, heirs with Christ, sharing in his glory through our sufferings. With the feast of Pentecost the seven weeks of the Easter season have come to an end with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person. “Peace” was John’s prayer for his readers as it is for us as we listen to this gospel reading and our world needs peace more than ever in these days of conflict in many places. Jesus emphasized the importance of obedience to his commandments as a sign of true love for him he also promised the Father would send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with his followers forever.
This Spirit would teach the apostles and us and remind us all of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus and the Father will dwell with those who adhere to these teachings. When they saw Jesus their fear turned into great joy, and their Anxiety turned into relief. The lack of spiritual direction turned into a sense of deep spiritual grounding. The divine presence stood close to them and with the divine presence came a great sense of peace of spirit mind and soul. We in our time have the divine presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and it brings Joy and spiritual grounding to all those who come to meet him in the sacramental life of the Church. Gathered for Mass and other liturgies we bring all our concerns to god in prayer because our prayers raise our hope in the power of God made real to every generation through the Holy Spirit. Most of the time the problems in our lives just don’t go away by themselves very often we need to stop and think and pray things through. If we pray about the problems as well as thinking them through we will find that they are much easier to deal with. Through the Holy Spirit our relationship with God satisfies the longings of our hearts and brings us the deep peace of God which is beyond all understanding. Because of God’s faithfulness, we give thanks, offer sacrifice, and once again present our needs this Pentecost Sunday as we remember the presence of God who is with us through the happy and sad times that are part of our daily lives as we thank God for his enduring hope filled presence among us.
Fullerton T 