A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 28)
Pentecost Sunday, Year B – June 4, 2006
“Holy Spirit, the Power of Evangelization”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 2:1-11 // Gal 5:16-25 // Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15
N.B. This new series of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY presents a biblico-liturgical study of the First Reading of each Sunday Mass to serve as background for a better understanding of the Gospel proclaimed in the liturgy. For a biblico-liturgical study of the Gospel for each Sunday, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
The Pope Paul VI Institute of Liturgy, set in a pristine, picturesque setting in the highlands of Malaybalay, Bukidnon in the Philippines, has participants from all over the Philippines and other Asian countries. After a seminar on the Eucharist, one participant suggested that we pray the Lord’s Prayer in different languages. We thus formed a tightly knit circle holding each other’s hands and prayed the “Our Father” all together, each in our own tongue. As we prayed, we felt the power and the energy of the Holy Spirit being poured forth anew upon us. The sound of different languages and dialects in prayer was incredibly harmonious and the synergy of communion was vitalizing and overwhelming. After the intensely eloquent silence that followed, replete with the presence of the Holy Spirit, one priest exclaimed in amazement: “This is a Pentecostal experience!”
The liturgical feast of Pentecost enables the Church of today to experience and to have a deeper awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It helps the celebrating Christian disciples enhance their understanding and appreciation of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives. Harold Buetow gives us a background of this feast: “Today, the feast of Pentecost means many things, all of them having to do with the commemoration of God coming to meet the human race. Among the ancient Jews, this was originally a harvest festival, a feast in which God’s generous abundance was celebrated with joy and thanksgiving. It became the feast of Shavuot, which in turn was fifty days after the super-eminent feast of Passover that celebrated the Angel of death passing over the Jewish homes in Egypt during one of the plagues. Because it was a day more than a ‘week of weeks’ after Passover, it was also called the ‘Feast of Weeks’. It marked the establishment of the Covenant of God with the Israelites, recalling the moment when the Israelites came to constitute themselves as a people of God. By the first century A.D., for the Jews, it was the Festival of the Law given on Mt. Sinai.”
This Sunday’s first reading (Acts 2:1-13) describes the Pentecost event of the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which inaugurates the era of the Church mission, the new epoch of salvation history. This dramatic event in the life of the Church needs to be seen against the backdrop of Moses ascending “to God” and returning with the gift of the Law, an expression of Yahweh’s covenantal love for his people. Jesus’ ascension into heaven resulted in the outpouring of the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit, the animating “love” and life-giving “law” of the new covenant, made possible by the sacrificial blood of Christ. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and Christian disciples is the realization of the great event of the messianic age prophesied by Joel: “In the days to come – it is the Lord who speaks – I will pour out my spirit on all mankind” (cf. Jl 3:1-15 and Acts 2:17). Above all, it is the fulfillment of the Risen Lord’s promise: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).
The immediate effect of the Pentecostal event is a tremendous irruption and outburst of apostolic energy. Jesus’ witnesses began to speak courageously according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit, in a universal scale. As the relentless energy that powers the worldwide expansion of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit instructs the early missioners and guides the Easter witnesses of all ages. He impels them to proclaim the Gospel message with forceful intensity even under persecution and duress. He enables them to evangelize all peoples and cultures with amazing resourcefulness and creativity.
Pope Paul VI underlines the vital role of the Holy Spirit, the life-giving power of Christian evangelization: “Only after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost did the apostles set out for the ends of the earth to begin the great task of evangelization entrusted to the Church … The Church grows by being filled with the consoling presence of the Holy Spirit who is the principle of its life. He it is who enables believers to understand the mystery of Christ and his teaching. As the Spirit was active in the initial stages of the Church’s existence, so now he is at work in each and every preacher of the Gospel who is open to his guidance. He suggests to the minds of evangelists such words as he alone can inspire, at the same time disposing the hearts of their hearers to accept the Gospel message and the proclamation of the kingdom … Yet if the influence of the Holy Spirit is so great in the life of the Church at large, it is of paramount importance in the work of evangelization. It was no mere chance that the first steps in the preaching of the Gospel were taken on the day of Pentecost at the inspiration of the Spirit of God.”
The Pentecost event underlines that the Church was born to be “universal”. The Holy Spirit, the dynamic energy animating the disciples to speak in “different tongues” is the same creative force that enabled the multilingual audience to understand and overcome the language barrier. Each one heard them speaking in their own language. The biblical scholar, Justin Taylor comments: “Here the gift of the Spirit is a remedy for the confusion of languages at Babel and the resulting dispersion of the human race (Gen 11:1-9). In the new age inaugurated by the coming of the Spirit, the good news proclaimed by the apostles can be understood and received by people of every nation on earth, who are consequently drawn into unity. The list of nations (vv. 9-11a) probably draws on a conventional list and is meant to represent every nation under heaven (v. 5) viewed from the perspective of Jerusalem, and so the universality of scope of the gospel message that is to go out from the holy city.”
The Holy Spirit, the dynamic power of evangelization, is the same renewing and vivifying force that brings harmony to all peoples and cultures. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 3, assert: “The event of Pentecost is a mystery of universal importance … The Spirit has been given to the Church so that it may assume every human language and all of the cultures expressed therein. In each one the good seed of the Word must be sown with both hands, because, in each, the fruits of the Spirit may be borne a hundredfold. In its calling, the Church is confronted with the challenge of constantly translating the Gospel into the native speech of every nation under heaven. It has been given inscrutable riches of Christ so as to announce it to the pagan peoples (Eph 3:8) and bring the riches of the nations to Christ, so that he may offer them to his Father.”
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Elise Doroteo
Incoming 4th year High School student
Assumption College, Antipolo City, Philippines
Ten days after Christ’s ascension, the apostles, then fearful of the persecution they might experience if they came out in public, gathered in the upper room, praying for their safety. Their prayers were answered when the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth that Jesus promised to his apostles before He ascended into heaven, descended upon them in the form of tongues of fire. The descent of the Spirit emboldened the apostles. It gave them the courage to go out of the upper room, daring to venture forth into the outside world, proclaiming the Gospel and the message of salvation.
The fire that descended upon the apostles was more than physical fire. It was a spiritual fire, one that engulfed them, overruled their fears, and submerged them in the mission of the Church.
Fire has always been considered a symbol of light, hope and transformation. It consumes, engulfs, and brings about change. A perfect representation of this would be a mythical creature, the phoenix. From a young bird, it ages beautifully, until it eventually starts to wither away. Ultimately, it bursts into flames; from the ashes rises a young bird that will mature magnificently once more, going through the cycle all over again.
Fire, in the case of the phoenix, comes at a time when the phoenix is at its weakest, when it needs hope and change the most. The fire comes along when the phoenix could really do away with its old life and start anew. The fire brings about new life, a new identity, while still allowing the phoenix to retain its nature.
In a way, the fire that descended upon the apostles during Pentecost is like the fire that renews the phoenix’s life. The fire rid the apostles of their life prior to the Pentecost, a time when they were merely followers of Christ. The fire came when they were hopeless, fearful of the future that lay ahead of them. It gave them courage, hope, the will to go on. The fire, consuming them entirely, heralded in a new chapter in their life as key players in the life of the Church. They were no longer mere followers. The fate of the Church rested in their hands. They were entrusted with the responsibility of proclaiming the Good News to the world and continuing Christ’s mission. They took on this duty with steadfast hearts, rooted in the courage that was given them when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.
Pentecost Sunday reminds us of the responsibility that the apostles accepted when the Holy Spirit descended upon them and, in turn, gave them the task of continuing to spread the Good News. We, as descendants of the apostles, are called to continue carrying out their task of living out the Gospel, which is quite difficult to do on this day and age.
As the phoenix rises again from its own ashes, we are also set on fire, a fire that will consume us entirely and give us the grace to continue to live out the message of the Gospel.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. How do we relate the Pentecost to the Easter event of Christ’s death, resurrection and glorification? Do we realize that the resurrection needs Pentecost in order to reveal the power of the Son? Do we perceive that the event of Pentecost needs to draw its energy from Jesus’ death and resurrection?
B. Do we open ourselves fully to the grace of Pentecost? Do we allow ourselves to be filled with the consoling presence of the Holy Spirit who is the principle of life? Are we so deeply permeated with the joy of Easter and thus allow the Holy Spirit, the power of evangelization, to move us to proclaim Christ to all the nations?
C. Do we endeavor to “inculturate” the Gospel by the light, power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Are our hearts filled with thanksgiving for the gift of “universality” of Mother Church? Do we dedicate ourselves to the task of sowing the seed of the living Word in the hearts of all peoples in “every nation under heaven”? Do we try to share the “inscrutable riches” of Christ to all and seek to bring the riches of the nations to Christ?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: This day the Father of light has enlightened the minds of the disciples by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May he bless us and give us the gifts of the Spirit forever.
Assembly: Amen.
Leader: May the fire which hovered over the disciples as tongues of flame burn out all evil from our hearts and make them glow with pure light.
Assembly: Amen.
Leader: God inspired speech in different tongues to proclaim our faith. May he strengthen our faith and fulfill our hope of seeing him face to face.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues.” (Acts 2:4b)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. Pray for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church today and for its task of renewed evangelization and its work of evangelization to the nations. Be grateful for the gift of “universality” of the Church. Endeavor to give your own contribution to the task and challenge of “inculturation” of the Gospel.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us experience more deeply the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Church, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 2, n. 28): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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Website: WWW.PDDM.US