1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13
John 20:19-23
"The
disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace
be with you…’”
If we recall,
two Sundays ago, we centered our thoughts on the Spirit as the Paraclete our
Lord Jesus Christ promised to send. On Pentecost, this promise was fulfilled.
Today, the whole Catholic Church commemorates that big event. And as long as we
live, we shall continue to celebrate Pentecost Sunday with great joy and thanksgiving.
Surely, we remember it as the greatest turning point in our history. On this day, we begin as a Church.
1. "The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” --- Pentecost is a day of great joy. Such joy is
founded on the founded on the fact of resurrection. The Johanine tradition puts
the Pentecost event inseparable from the resurrection. Our gospel today
narrates how the risen Christ breathed unto his disciples the breath of the
Spirit on that triumphant Easter night. John wants to tell us that the joy of
the coming of the Spirit flows from the joy of the resurrection. This was the experience
of the apostles. Their fears, anxieties, uncertainties and worries suddenly
turned into joy upon seeing the risen Lord.
And not only
that. The Spirit that the risen Lord breathes unto them gives them a new life
of faith, a renewed fervor and courage to face the world. Now, they realize
that they have to stop closing their doors in fear, now, they have to get out
of the room of sadness, and share their joy to all the world. This is the joy
of Christ himself. This is the joy the Spirit, too, which the risen Christ now
shares with them. Surely, this is the fulfillment of what Christ himself once
assured them: that he would give them his joy so that their joy would be
complete. This goes to say, therefore, that Pentecost is again a day that the
Lord has made, and so we have to be glad and rejoice!
2. “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The joy of
the disciples becomes now complete because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. This
is what we mean by the joy of the Pentecost, it is that kind of joy that
surpasses others. It is not only joy for joy’s sake. Rather, it is that kind of
joy that transforms. The Pentecost joy brings new and renewed attitudes and
qualities of faith and life. It is quite interesting that John importantly
notes at least three of these attitudes that accompany the outpouring of the
Spirit: peace, reconciliation, and mission.
a. “Peace be with you.” The Spirit gives
peace, and what a genuine peace it is! It is the peace won at and by the cross.
This is the peace which the world does not give and cannot give. This is the
peace only the risen Lord can give. Now he gives the peace as he pours out his
Spirit.
Pentecost
peace is greatly fundamental. It
is interior peace that settles down in any and in every circumstance. It is
that peace which gives serenity to mind and heart even before and amidst a troubled
world. It is that peace which brings calmness, kindness and love even in the
face of death. This is what we see in the apostles and the countless martyrs
who shed their blood for the faith. They never became restless and hysterical.
On the contrary, they embraced martyrdom chanting and singing hymns of
thanksgiving and gladness, praising God for their blessed day. Their
persecutors could not understand. They thought they were mad. But no. The
martyrs were fully sane and fully alive. They were simply at peace with God, with themselves, with others,
with the world and even with their persecutors. And there was one reason for
that: the Spirit of the Lord was upon them.
Pentecost
peace is what we need. For we need peace not
only war or only in times of crisis and troubles. We also need peace even in
our solitude and silence. Remember, when we are sad, we can be sure that we are
not in peace. The indication of peace is joy since joy is the fruit of peace. The world may give neither peace nor joy,
but the Spirit does.
b. “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” This peace which
brings real joy is both a cause and an effect of reconciliation. And this is
because the Spirit of peace is the same Spirit of reconciliation.
As a cause, peace moves us unreservedly and humbly to those who hurt us and those
whom we hurt. Only the man of peace is able to sow peace. But one becomes a man
of peace when he is filled the Spirit of peace. The Spirit of peace enables us
to look beyond our shortcomings and failures, and open our hearts to forgive and
forget. Thus, reconciliation becomes genuine. It really heals wounds no matter how
old and how deep. This reconciliation is in fact what we experience and gain in
the sacrament which Christ instituted for that purpose.
As an effect,
peace is the fruit of reconciliation. He who sows peace reaps peace. And this is in fact the immediate gain of
reconciliation. All troubles, anxieties and insecurities are gone when old and deep
wounds are healed. What immediately replaces is one's peace of mind and heart. Such
would then be a good and nice feeling. With it, we realize that we are actually
human who need to forgive and be forgiven. And that human as we are, we only
experience and learn the true meaning of reconciliation when the Spirit teaches
us so.
c. "As
the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The transforming Spirit of peace and
reconciliation moves us further to set our foot out into the world to proclaim
this good news of salvation. The transforming Spirit is really contagious. It
begins with the self but does not end in it. It extends to the world with the
noble intention of transforming the world, too. Hopefully, the world which rejects
the Spirit may one day accept and adore him and the world which denies peace
may sooner or later learn to give peace whose real source and fountain is the Lord.
Pentecost is,
therefore, a day of mission. It is the great day when the Spirit begins its
transforming work in the world. It is this day, too, that each and every
believer imbued with the Spirit works as a body in the task of transformation.
Thus, he who claims to have the Spirit cannot at the same time ignore the work
of the Spirit; He cannot put himself in total isolation white the Spirit he
claims to be in him urges every believer and indeed his very self to be a
partaker of his mission in the world. He forms a part of that mission. He
becomes a missionary, at least in the general sense. This is why as we
celebrate Pentecost as a day of mission, we are actually celebrating, too, Pentecost
as marking the birth of the church.