BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 28)
Pentecost Sunday, Year B – June 8, 2003
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 2:1-11 // I Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Gal 5:16-25 //
Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15
It was the second day of my annual retreat last May in our convent in Staten Island. There were twelve persons celebrating the Eucharist in the small but beautiful chapel that is very conducive to prayer. Suddenly a heartwarming thought dawned upon me. I had a pentecostal experience that the Church gathered there was truly representative of the universal Church. The celebrant was a native New Yorker and the assembly came from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds: Italy, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, India and the Philippines. I felt that the Eucharistic community gathered at that moment was a very powerful symbol of the universal salvation effected by the Holy Spirit, the Easter gift of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. It was the fulfillment of Christ’s prophetic words before his passion: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32).
There is an intimate connection between the paschal event of Good Friday and that of Easter Sunday. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, breathed forth the Spirit, the principle of life and creation, both in his passion and his glorification. The Spirit that Jesus breathed forth in his death on the cross (Jn 19:30) as a perfect oblation to the Father is the same Spirit that he breathed forth as a gift to his disciples in his capacity as the Risen Lord. Indeed, Jesus Christ breathed forth his Spirit so that, raised from the dead, he might immediately give the Holy Spirit to his disciples. The Spirit of the paschal sacrifice is the same renewing Spirit that the glorified Christ transmitted to his disciples for the healing of the wounds caused by sin. The Holy Spirit is the Risen Lord’s gift to the Church for the forgiveness of sins (cf. Jn 20:22-23). It is the life-giving energy that enables the community of believers to bear abundant fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and self-control (cf. Gal 5:23). The Easter gift of love is a source of healing. It is in this light that the Church prays the following during Eastertide: “Father, by this Easter mystery you touch our lives with the healing power of your love … May we who now celebrate your gift find joy in it forever in heaven” (cf. Collect, Tuesday within the Octave of Easter).
The Holy Spirit, moreover, is the Risen Lord’s gift to the Church to propel its missionary expansion. The renewing Spirit breathed forth on Easter Sunday is the very same Spirit bestowed on the early Church in its energetic expansion to spread the Gospel throughout the earth. According to an early Church writer, Aelred of Rievoulx (1109-1167): “To be sure, the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples before on the Lord’s ascension when he said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins they are forgiven, if you declare them unforgiven, unforgiven they remain; but before the day of Pentecost the Spirit’s voice was still in a sense unheard. His power had not yet leaped forth, nor had the disciples truly come to know him, for they were not yet confirmed by his might; they were still in the grip of fear, cowering behind closed doors. From this day onward, the voice of the Lord has resounded … From now on the voice of the Lord speaks with strength.” The biblical scholars Richard Dillon and Joseph Fitzmyer demonstrate the relationship between Pentecost and Easter Sunday in the following exegetical explanation: “The Pentecost of Acts and the Risen One’s first giving of the Spirit are evidently not the same reality. John and Matthew do not record any missionary activity immediately following the Easter experience. John, in fact, suggests an intervening period of inactivity (Jn 20:26; 21:1-3). The historical basis is probably the first public preaching about the Christ.” Indeed, on the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the principle of the New Covenant and the Church’s missionary expansion.
In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles (2:2-11), the festival celebration of our New Covenant with God occurred on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (the feast of Shavuot) that commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, an event accompanied by wind and fire. The feast of Shavuot celebrated the establishment of the Covenant of God with the Israelites, recalling the moment when they came to be constituted as the people of God. In the Christian Pentecost, as narrated by Luke, the Holy Spirit, the principle of the new law of love, was poured out upon the believers drawn out from all peoples of the earth in order to constitute the all-inclusive new people of God, the Church. This pentecostal event was accompanied by stupendous signs: the noise of a strong driving wind, the tongues of fire that rested on the disciples, and the speaking in different tongues. This was the new Pentecost – the fulfillment of the promise prophesied in the Pentecost celebration of the Jewish people. The prophetic wind and fire of the first covenant on Mount Sinai has given way to the all-inclusive messianic covenant ushered in and powered by the Holy Spirit, the Risen Lord’s gift to the Church, ever called to missionary expansion. Indeed, the Christian Pentecost was a Babel event (cf. Gen 11) in reverse. According to Luke, the Spirit-empowered apostles spoke a universal language. The unity lost at Babel, when the one language was confused, is then restored. This Pentecostal event of unity symbolizes and anticipates the apostles’ worldwide mission of salvation. In their enduring mission of evangelization, the community of believers will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, whose coming and presence in their hearts will never cease. Truly, the Holy Spirit, the principal agent and the protagonist of the Church’s mission, is the principle of the New Covenant ratified by the blood of Christ, poured out by his death on the cross.
The Spirit is alive and at work today. The activity of the Easter gift cannot be limited to any particular moment in history. The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of the Risen Lord, is a constant and dynamic reality. As the Spirit of truth and the principle of all the charisms and ministries in the Church, the third person of the Blessed Trinity is an Easter gift continually bestowed on the Church. He is the divine energy that propels the mission of the Church today and forever, that is, to make all people share in the communion of the Father and the Son, in the love of the Holy Spirit.
A. Do we respond with praise and thanksgiving to the most beautiful and precious gift we have received from the Risen Lord, the Holy Spirit?
B. Do we allow ourselves to be empowered by the tremendous life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, the Easter gift?
C. By the power of the Holy Spirit, do we bear abundant fruit for the good of all and carry out zealously our ministry in the Church and in the world?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(From a prayer composed by Blessed James Alberione, Founder of the Pauline Family)
Leader: Divine Holy Spirit, eternal Love of the Father and of the Son, I adore you, I thank you, I love you, and I ask you pardon for all the times I have grieved you in myself and in my neighbor.
Assembly: Descend with many graces during the holy ordination of bishops and priests, during the consecration of men and women religious, during the reception of Confirmation by all the faithful. Be light, sanctity and zeal.
Leader: To you, Spirit of Truth, I consecrate my mind, imagination and memory; enlighten me.
Assembly: May I know Jesus Christ our Master and understand his Gospel and the teaching of holy Church. Increase in me the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, understanding and counsel.
Leader: To you, sanctifying Spirit, I consecrate my will. Guide me in your will, sustain me in the observance of the commandments, in the fulfillment of my duties.
Assembly: Grant me the gifts of fortitude and holy fear of God.
Leader: To you, life-giving Spirit, I consecrate my heart.
Assembly: Guard and increase the divine life in me. Grant me the gift of piety. 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.
“He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.” (Jn 20:22)
A. ACTION PLAN: On Pentecost Sunday, spend 15 minutes in complete calm and quiet with open palms resting on your lap, opening yourself up to the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. You may journal your experience after this prayer of quiet and receptivity.
B. ACTION PLAN: Study prayerfully the Solemn Blessing of the Mass of Pentecost Sunday. Inspired by this liturgical text, compose your own prayer addressed to the Father, through Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.