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
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
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