“RISEN WITH CHRIST”
Easter Reflections
Sunday, 4th June 2017.
Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1-24, 29-34
1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17
Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 14:15-16, 23-26
‘Pentecost’ comes from Greek word Pentekoste (Greek) meaning the ‘fiftieth’. Christians celebrate it as the fiftieth day after Easter (Acts 2), borrowed from the Old testament, which describes the ‘Feast of Harvest’ on the fiftieth day after the ‘Feast of the Passover’ (Ex. 23:16, Num. 28:26-31, Dt. 16:19-21). This day became significant for Christians because, seven weeks after the Resurrection of Jesus, during the Jewish celebration of the Harvest, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Jesus’ first followers, thus empowering them for their mission and gathering them together as a church. As the Jews offered their first fruits, preparing for showers of rain for the future crops; the disciples, the first ripened fruits of Jesus’ ministry, received the rain of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of growth and became the harvest and seed for generations to come. On this day, the gathering of the people of God as a Church, through the Holy Spirit came about.
The Holy Spirit was sent, as Jesus promised, to bring forth a completion of the ultimate expression of God’s love. The Spirit does not limit itself only to the Jews, but expresses God’s love limitlessly to all, bringing about a blessing, fruitfulness to the land through the Holy Spirit, that which was a curse through Adam & Eve. Languages which brought confusion in the Tower of Babel, become a binding force through the Holy Spirit. The lack of a friendship and companionship with God in Eden is replaced by God, the Holy Spirit becoming a constant companion.
Pentecost celebrates the Presence and working of the Holy Spirit in us as individuals and in the Church. God pours out the Spirit upon all (Rom 8:1-11) and we are meant to live in the presence and power of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit helps us to confess Jesus as Lord (1 Cor 12:3), empowers us to serve God (1 Cor 12:4-11), binds us together as the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-13), helps us to pray (Rom 8:26), and even intercedes for us with God the Father (Rom 8:27). The Spirit guides us (Gal 5:25) and helps us to live like Jesus (Gal 5:22-23).
Pope Francis calls the Holy Spirit the ‘love’ which is lacking in our families and in the world. In his latest document “Amoris Laetitia”, he shows the Holy Spirit as the model for the Christian family and the Church. “The love in the divine family, is the Holy Spirit…God’s love we can recognize in the Holy Spirit…Through the Church, marriage and the family receive the grace of the Holy Spirit from Christ, in order to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s love.” The Pope invites all Christian families to “always invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit who consecrated their union, so that his grace may be felt in every new situation that they encounter.” He later tells that without the Holy Spirit, the bond of Christian Family is not possible: “None of this, however, is possible without praying to the Holy Spirit for an outpouring of his grace, his supernatural strength and his spiritual fire, to confirm, direct and transform our love in every new situation.”
Today, we are called to consider the role of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives, our community and the Church. Are we open channels for the Holy Spirit’s working? Are we attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Are the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.) growing in our lives? We all live in the presence and power of the Spirit, but only to a particular degree. We are limited by our fear, our sin, our weakness and our daily distractions which keep us away from experiencing God’s gift of love ‘the Holy Spirit’. Pentecost offers us a chance to be reignited with the fire of the Holy Spirit and set the world on fire with God’s love.
Prayer: Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy. Strengthen me Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy. Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy. Holy Spirit, I trust in You. Amen.