Pentecost Sunday (Year A)

Pentecost Sunday May 28, 2023

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Romans 8:8-17; John 20:19-23

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One bright Sunday morning like today, Benson's mother hurries into her son's bedroom and wakes him up. "Benson, it's Sunday. Time to get up! Time to get up and go to church! Get up!" Benson mumbles from under the covers, "I don't want to go." "What do you mean you don't want to go?" says the mother. "That's silly. Now get up and get dressed and go to church!" Benson goes, "No, I don't want to go and I'll give you two reasons why I don't want to go." He sits up on the bed and continues, "First, I don't like them and second, they don't like me." His mother replies, "Now, that's just plain nonsense. You've got to go to church and I'll give you two reasons why you must. First, you're now forty years old and, second, you're the pastor!"

It is pertinent to understand the importance of the day. Pentecost means fiftieth day. It was the second of three great Jewish Feasts. For the Jews it was a day of gratitude. It was a day of thanksgiving for the completion of the harvest.  However, on this day fiftieth day after the resurrection a great transformation took place in the small group of disciples. They were persons perplexed, scared, dumbfounded and disappointed, that kept them closeted in a little upper room.  Rightly, we are not told where that room was situated.  We only know that room was in a house in Jerusalem and people had come to Jerusalem from every nation to express their harvest gratitude. They spoke different languages; they came with different intentions; they had different motives.

Today's First Reading from The Acts of the Apostles tells us that the promise of Jesus been fulfilled. While staying with them, He had ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.  In obedience to Jesus, the disciples gathered together in Jerusalem and experienced the divine sign. The disciples did receive the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day.  Luke initiates the new creation and the introduction of the age of the Holy Spirit as the dominant reality of humankind. The arrival of the Holy Spirit came with a sound like the rush of a violent wind. So powerful was the sound that it was also heard by devout Jews from every nation under heaven who were living in Jerusalem.  It is interesting to note here that not everybody heard the sound, only the "devout" Jews. The non- believers and those who are indifferent to their living faith are not receptive to the grace of God and the manifested power of the Holy Spirit.

Today we also celebrate the birth of the Church. The feast of Pentecost marks the beginning of the Church.  The activity of the spirit was the core understanding of the early church.  The Spirit instructed the early missionaries and guided the proclamation of the mission of salvation. It was responsible for the conversions into new faith, gave them strength in times of persecutions, was the inspiration of the early journeys of Paul and others and was responsible for the inclusion of non-Jews into the church.  This feast rounds off the tremendous mysteries that we have been commemorating since Holy Week - the Passion, the Death, the Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus culminates in the sending of the Spirit of the Father and the Son on his disciples. This feast has been the extraordinary intervention of God into our lives by what we can only call the "mystery" of Christ. Today's feast indicates that it is an on-going reality, which still touches our lives every single day.

The gospel tells us that we must allow “peace” to enter our heart and our mind. This is not just a word but a person, Jesus Christ. It is the constant promise of Jesus to his followers. It is a gift that nobody can take away from us. Give time each day to pray and thank God for this gift of peaceful life. How can we be a community that advocates for peace? At times we are drowned in our own thoughts and world. We need the Spirit to wake us up from our slumbers.

Happy Feast