Pentecost Sunday

The Church celebrates three great solemnities, great moments where God’s glory and power breaks into the world in unexpected ways.At Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation, when God became man and dwelled among us. At Easter we celebrate the Resurrection, when Jesus rose from the dead, destroying death and restoring life.  And today, the Church celebrates Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, which gave birth to the Church that witnesses Jesus is Lord.  You and I are that Church. You and I live in the time of the Holy Spirit.

There are several varied accounts of the coming Spirit.  Today we will reflect on John’s Gospel and Luke’s account in the Acts of the Apostles. In their sorrow and confusion did the disciples in Jerusalem, fearful and locked in the room, remember Jesus's words?

"I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.”

Did they remember Jesus’ promise?

"The Father will give you another Advocate, to be with you always, the Spirit of Truth"

Or the promise we heard last week

“In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

We will never know what was in their minds that day, but we do know that the gift of the Holy Spirit changed their lives. In the receiving the Holy Spirit each disciple was made new, transformed from fearful and timid, to bold and confident.  Those locked doors were forever flung open, never to be closed again. They felt this transformation in themselves and saw this in each other.

Besides this individual experience, in receiving the Spirit, each disciple, as all the baptized do, form the Body of Christ, the Church; sharing one Spirit, making one body, sent on one mission. 

A Church bigger than Our Lady of the Rosary, bigger than the diocese of San Diego, bigger than the Catholic Church of North America.  In receiving, and living in, the Spirit we make up the Universal Church, that was, that is, and that will be.

In the first reading the coming Spirit was remembered by the Luke’s community and capture by
Luke in the Acts of the Apostles as an in an intensely physical and overwhelming event; experienced as a driving wind of flames which consumed and filled all present. So joyfully disruptive was the event that it spills out of the room and a large crowd gathered at the excitement.  To their amazement they understood and were moved by what they heard. It was clear the Holy Spirit was already at work - in those proclaiming and those hearing. Open hearts heard with newly opened ears and suddenly Mede and Eliamite understood the Galilean. In that moment, diverse languages and cultures were made irrelevant, because, the Holy Spirit knows no boundary. Not time and space, not physics or biology and certainly not language and human culture. We should hold this fact fast; the Spirit of Truth cannot be limited or restricted by any human means.

Those gathered together that day; both proclaimers and hearers, disciple and stranger, could joyfully proclaim together in one voice “Jesus is Lord” because regardless of their differences, they were united in the same Spirit of Truth.

The experience of the coming Spirit remembered by John’s community and written down inJohn’s Gospel brings us back to the upper room. It was less dramatic, an almost tender, receiving of the Holy Spirit.

But, it was no less physical and life changing.

They gathered, uncertain and anxious, because Jesus had told to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the Spirit. And so they did. In the very midst of their fear, anxiety and doubt, Jesus made himself present and in a very familiar way greeted them “Peace be with you”. But this was no greeting it was a statement of fact - “Peace is with you” To convince them of his physical reality Jesus show them the very real marks left by the nails.

 And the disciples rejoiced that Jesus was with them again. Indeed, peace was with them.

Jesus tells them 

“as the Father has sent me, so I send you”

And then he breathed on them 

“ Receive the Holy Spirit”.

Jesus’ action forever links receiving the Holy Spirit with sending forth on mission; gift and responsibility, receive and do. 

But, there is more to it than that. The Spirit received, is also the Spirit let loose into the world - to transform it according to God’s plan of Salvation. The Spirit goes where it needs to go and it is relentless and fruitful.

 The Spirit swirled around Jesus’ earthly mission and when the Holy Spirit was given - Jesus’ Spirit became the Church’s guiding Spirit.  It became our Spirit alive and active in our very lives.

We all share his Spirit and we are moved by his Spirit. It is the same Holy Spirit the Father anointed Jesus with and that Jesus breathed into the disciples and which was poured out onto all those present at Pentecost, disciple and outsider, and it is the same Spirit we are baptized in. There is no secondary Spirit, no lesser Spirit, there is only one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.And baptized with that same Holy Spirit we too can become bold, confident, and joyful.We too understand with new hearts and hear with new ears and speak with new tongues. We can go beyond language, race, and culture to reach out beyond ourselves to do God’s work of salvation. The Holy  Spirit is a missionary Spirit.  Pope Francis reminds us in the “Joy of the Gospel”

“In all the baptized, from the first to the last, the sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work compelling us to evangelization”

The Catechism of the Church is very blunt

“The mission of Jesus and the Holy Spirit is continued in the Church”

This is true in the sacramental life where the Spirit changes bread and wine into the body and blood of Our Lord in the Eucharist and it is true in you and I who proclaim by our lives the Good News everywhere and always.

As varied and richly diverse as the tapestry of our lives are, the Holy Spirit matches that diversity with varied gifts; gifts to prepare and strengthen us (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord).  Each gift builds us up and strengthens us as Christians and human beings.  Each gift, if we use it wisely, and for the good of others, bears the good fruit of the Spirit; Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Generosity, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Modesty, Self-Control, Chasity.  

But, we must remember these gifts and fruits are not wishes.  They are not magic, we do wake to find them at the foot of our bed nor do we pluck them from a tree. We not merit them or earn them, but we are given them, by God, to be used and we must use them. In the Spirit we choose to become the gift that we receive.

Want joy?  Be joyful.  Want kindness? Be kind. Want love?  Then love. Want holiness? Be holy.

Choosing in the Holy Spirit, and practicing the life of the Spirit, is how we share in the work of salvation. 

 It is how we are able to see the glory of God everywhere passing before us and we boldly confess, by our lives, that Jesus is Lord.

This is the Spirit of Truth, this is Pentecost, but everyday must be an echo of this great solemnity as each morning we wake up to our hearts crying out “Come, Holy Spirit, Come”